Taylor Legacy Collection 514ce and 714ce

A new pair of guitars bring X-bracing back to Taylor’s grand auditorium design.

January 8, 2025

Taylor’s Legacy Collection celebrates five of the company’s most iconic models. We already checked out the collection’s 810e dreadnought and the 815e and 855e six- and 12-string jumbos, which all hark back to the company’s earliest days. The Legacy Collection also includes a pair of grand auditoriums, a design that was originally introduced for Taylor’s 20th anniversary in 1994. Drawn by Bob Taylor and long-time Taylor designer Larry Breedlove, the grand auditorium body closed the gap between the grand concert and dreadnought models, and thanks to its great versatility, it quickly became the most popular body style in Taylor’s catalog, led by the rosewood-and-spruce 814ce.

For the Legacy Collection, Taylor chose two grand auditoriums with features unique to a particular era in Taylor history: the 514ce and 714ce. The mahogany-and-cedar 514ce was part of the line from 1996 to 2022, even making the switch to V-Class bracing, before the 500 series was revamped with urban red ironbark back and sides and Sitka spruce tops (check out our demos of the 2018 and 2022 versions of the 514ce).

The 714 also became part of the standard line in 1996, but over the years, its rosewood back and sides have been matched with cedar or different kinds of spruce tops. The model was built with or without cutaways, and its appointments evolved, so the rosewood-and-cedar Legacy Series 714ce is a snapshot of a relatively rare instrument in its original edition (check out our demos of the 2017 and 2019 versions of the 714ce). In 2022, Taylor began using koa for the 700 series.

The original 514ce has long been a personal favorite of mine, so I was happy to have a chance to check out both the Legacy 514ce and Legacy 714ce in the Peghead Nation studio. I also brought along a 1997 514c and a 1994 712c to show the similarities between the Legacy models and their mid-90s counterparts.

The Legacy 514ce and Legacy 714ce are very similar guitars, differing only in the choice of appointments and back-and-sides woods (mahogany on the 514ce and Indian rosewood on the 714ce). The 514ce has small diamond fretboard markers and tortoise-shell binding, while the 714ce sports dot fretboard markers and black binding. Both guitars have white purfling, three-ring abalone rosettes, and gold tuning machines. Besides the wood choices, the biggest difference between the Legacy Collection guitars and most other current Taylors is that they have X-bracing rather than the V-Class bracing Taylor introduced in 2018. The guitars also include L.R. Baggs Element VTC electronics instead of Taylor’s ES2 system.

Both guitars are fabulous sounding instruments. The 514ce’s lightning-fast response, excellent clarity, and ability to produce rich tone when played with a soft touch is a reminder of why the original 514ce was such a favorite among fingerstyle players. The guitar also sounds great with a pick, though aggressive strumming yields a somewhat bright tonality. The rosewood 714ce has a slightly richer-sounding fundamental tonality, with a touch more low end and a dynamic range that is better suited to a heavier attack. Both guitars share the more traditional overtone spectrum found in X-braced guitars, giving them a noticeably different character than newer V-Class–braced grand auditoriums.

As with the other Legacy Collection guitars, the 514ce and 714ce not only bring back two historically significant favorites, they also expand the tonal options offered in Taylor’s current lineup. They also demonstrate why these models were such a part of the original grand auditorium line´s success. Whether you’ve been missing the older Taylor tone or are curious about an alternative to the company’s newer designs, both instruments are worth checking out!

Legacy Collection 514ce and 714ce Specs