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Taylor Builder's Edition 816ce
Acoustic guitar in Grand Symphony shape, all solid, Lutz spruce, rosewood body, ES-2 pickup system, including case!
Taylor Builder's Edition 816ce at a glance:
Electro-acoustic acoustic guitar
Grand symphony build
Solid body
Lutz spruce top and rosewood body
Cutaway with additional sound hole
Ebony fingerboard
Maple binding
Mother-of-Pearl Windsea inlays
Gotoh 510 tuners
Taylor ES-2 Expression System
Taylor deluxe case included
With the Taylor Builder's Edition 816ce acoustic guitar, the Californian manufacturer Taylor presents a new innovation in an unusual Grand Symphony design. The fully solid body consists of a Lutz spruce top mounted on rosewood back and sides and produces a very fine and warm sound, which is particularly pronounced in the high frequencies. Thanks to a flat mahogany neck with a fine ebony fingerboard, the instrument is extremely comfortable to pick up to the highest of the 20 frets and, in combination with a nut width of 44.5 mm and a scale length of 631 mm, allows even difficult fingerings to be mastered with ease. The absolute highlight, however, is the newly-designed soundport cutaway which contains an additional sound hole and thus unfolds the sound in a very special way. The whole works is rounded off with precise gold-coloured Gotoh 510 tuners with 1:21 ratio, an Expression System 2 and a custom-fit brown Taylor case.
The Taylor Builder's Edition 816ce in Grand Symphony design and Soundport Cutaway.
A top from solid Lutz spruce
Due to a cross between Sitka and white spruce, an exceptional tonal wood is created, which plays a fundamental castor in the response and development of powerful treble frequencies. In the case of the rather large Taylor Builder's Edition 816ce, the spruce species completes the sound picture in its brilliance and also offers the player the possibility to play fingerstyle, or flatpicking with its fine dynamics. The matte "Silent Satin" finish contributes its part and allows the material to vibrate very freely. Framed by a light maple binding, the light top wood contrasts aesthetically with the dark ebony pickguard and the elaborate abalone soundhole rosette.
Rosewood back and sides
The manufacturer also uses a reliable and popular material for the back and sides, which harmonizes perfectly with the sound of the top wood. Indian rosewood produces an exceptionally warm, bass-rich tone that brings out the individual frequencies powerfully and precisely. Especially with the rather full-bodied Grand Symphony construction, the dark and coarse-grained wood produces a very direct response, which with its dynamic characteristic also produces individual notes with little effort. The back and sides are also bordered by a subtle maple binding, putting the dark and coarse-grained rosewood in the spotlight.
A "Soundport Cutaway" with additional sound hole
The real innovation is clearly in the newly developed Florentine cutaway which not only guarantees comfortable access to all 20 frets but also gently amplifies the sound with its additional soundhole. Precious ebony is inserted into the eye-catching Cutaway, allowing the unusual construction to clearly come to the fore. Since the sound can radiate in a further direction thanks to the additional sound hole, a very individual sound image is created that gently amplifies the basses and creates a completely new perspective for the listener. Here, function and aesthetics come together in a decidedly tasteful way, entirely in keeping with the manufacturer's intentions.
Hardware and features
Gold Gotoh 510 tuners perch atop the Windansea inlay-decorated headstock, allowing for exceptionally smooth and precise tuning thanks to a 1:21 ratio. The black saddle made of TUSQ with a width of 44.5 mm offers the player sufficient space on the entire ebony fingerboard interspersed with Windansea inlays and, in combination with a bridge inlay made of Micarta and the new V-Class bracing, ensures perfect intonation at all frets. To enhance the natural sound, the manufacturer has installed its Expression System 2, which uses three piezo elements whose pressure can be increased or decreased to individually adjust the intensity of each of the three pairs of strings. In addition, the guitar comes with a Taylor deluxe case.
Taylor - The epitome of fine quality
As one of the largest guitar manufacturers, Taylor is truly an authority in the production of first-class instruments. Thus, professional manufacturing by skilled craftsmen results in the very finest products for life, whose value is always maintained - or even increased! This is due in equal part to exquisite tonewoods, which do not warp due to long storage and selected quality and as a result can hardly be surpassed in terms of high quality. Only spruce, mahogany, cedar or Koa of proven quality are used for the tops. By the way, careful production in combination with the best materials does not only apply to guitars. Guitar bags and all accessories are also of first-class quality. Finally, a conscientious final inspection does not let even the smallest defects pass and ensures absolutely flawless guitars even before shipment.
And that's not all: Taylor also attaches great importance to environmentally conscious actions.
Ebony & Koa: Sustainability at Taylor Guitars
Uncontrolled clearing of forests and overexploitation lead to massively endangered wood species, which can no longer regenerate due to the high pace of mining. These include ebony and koa in particular, whose dwindling stocks and the resulting ecological problems have prompted a rethink at Taylor Guitars.
Sustainable ebony cultivation in Cameroon
Because ebony's hard, supple texture makes it particularly finger-friendly, it has long been the preferred choice for making fingerboards. Its attractive appearance is also extremely popular for bridges, headstock rests, bridge Pins and Bindings. However, high demand and a thriving black market outstripped stocks, landing Ebony on the Red List of Endangered Species in 1994. Moreover, only the jet-black heartwood, which makes up only a fraction of the tree, was used, resulting in a disproportionately large amount of waste in production. To protect the forests, Taylor has thus been working since 2011 with the Crelicam Wood Mill in Yaoundé in Cameroon to promote controlled consumption by processing waste products.
"We need to use the ebony that the forest gives us" - Bob Taylor
In video: Taylor Guitars - "The state of ebony"
Siglo Tonewoods Project
Koa acacia populations have also suffered severe losses over the last 20 years. Unsustainable forestry as well as overexploitation led to a decline that can only be stopped by proactive action and reforestation. Therefore, Taylor Guitars together with Pacific Rim Tonewoods founded the Siglo Tonewoods project, which aims to rebuild the Hawaiian virgin forest. This is a large cultivation area for koa acacia and other species, which allows the use of koa wood on a controlled scale.
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