Review : Taylor 512ce and Taylor 514ce

Taylor recently reintroduced their 510 series guitars now using what they call Urban Ironbark for the solid sides and backs instead of the formerly used Mahogany. Since I am very much a tonewood geek, I started my study by looking into Urban Ironbark

Urban Ironbark

Urban Ironbark is a marketing name. Taylor gets its wood as trees planted in Southern California are removed through the same partner where they source their Urban Ash. The actual name of this wood is Red Ironbark, and you can find images of it from the city sites for Santa Barbara, Stanford and other locations in California. The tree originates in New South Wales Australia, although stands are found in Victoria as well. It is a leafy evergreen and produces lovely flowers to encourage the disposition of its seeds. It is seen as a weed tree in parts of Africa, similar to Manitoba Maples are viewed in Canada.

Red Ironbark is a subspecies of Eucalyptus, whose oils are used in medicinal remedies. The latin name for the species is eucalyptus sideroxylon. It is a fast growing tree, going from planting to harvest ready in about 30 years. It requires a warmer climate and is hardy down to lows of 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The grain tends to straight and the wood has historically been used for heavy structures such as piers, docks, wagons and heavy framing. The wood is hard to work and according to documentation very hard on tools such as saws, planes and chisels. It has not been known for musical instruments. It takes a long time to dry and is not optimal for fine detail work. It is not at risk and is still a solid regrowth species.

The bark is nearly black and very rough. The sapwood tends to be yellow where the heartwood is a deeper red brown. In terms of hardness and mechanical properties it is very close in its metrics to Ebony, much tougher than East Indian Rosewood which we see as very common in better guitars.

512ce

The 512ce is the body size that Taylor calls the Grand Concert. It is their smallest full size guitar body only marginally larger than my Gibson L-00 1932 Custom Shop. I typically love this size of instrument and when the opportunity arose for a very short term evaluation of the new models, I chose the Grand Concert size first.

Taylor leverages their Crelicam Ebony access for adornments. The headstock overlay, the body binding and the bridge pins are all Crelicam Ebony, as is the fingerboard and bridge. No paper products glued to simulate wood here. Kudos to Taylor for that. The rosette is abalone, and the inlays are faux pearl Italian acrylic in the Aerial design. The top is torrified Sitka Spruce and the back and sides are Urban Ironbark. Taylor’s site says that the back is 2 or 4 piece Simons Wedge. The instrument that I have looks like it is two pieces with two wedges. The sides and back are stained with a Blackwood tint and the top is stained in a Tobacco Edgeburst. Check the photographs of the actual guitar that I received to see how good it looks. The pickup system is Taylor’s Expression System 2. The construction architecture is Taylor’s respected V-Bracing. The nut is Tusq and the saddle is Micarta

Body length is 19 1/2 inches with a 4 3/8 inch depth and a 15 inch lower bout. Scale length is 24 7/8 inches

After tuning the guitar up and doing a basic preflight check, I was ready to start. Fit and finish are superb, and the glossy finish on Taylor guitars of this type is incredibly beautiful. Out of the case the action was set ideally for me and the stock strings were properly stretched. Taylor used to say what strings were on their guitars when shipped, I think that these are still Elixirs, and feel like 12s. The Taylor site calls them Phosphor Bronze Light. The tuners are butter smooth.

Played acoustically with my typical medium thickness picks for acoustics, I continuously heard a nasally twang out of the higher strings. Going to a heavier pick addressed that annoyance. When played with just fingers that twang is non-existent. Despite the smaller body size, the 512ce is very loud when played with a pick, and more quiet when played with the fingers as you would expect.

512ce Audio Examples

I plugged the guitar directly into the Hi-Z input on the Apollo Twin X and recorded the instrument in Logic Pro. No plugins or equalizers or anything else was used. The bass and treble controls on the ES-2 were in the noon position as was the volume control. I couldn’t get a decently consistent volume playing only with fingers (my fault, not the guitar’s) so I played that sequence with a pick after turning the gain on the input up.

The example consists of two chord sequences and one sequence of single notes.

The Taylor 512ce is available now from Taylor Dealers. MAP is $3299 USD or $4099 CAD.

514ce

The 514ce falls into Taylor’s line under the Grand Auditorium grouping. When I look at my own Taylor purchases, I have tended to favour this body size, which is not unlike Martin’s OM or 000 offerings. It’s a slightly larger body than the 512ce as one would expect, but the overall construction is the same as you can see from the photos of the evaluation instrument.

Fit and finish are excellent, with the same elegance and quality found in the 512ce. I really respect that Taylor is using the Crelicam Ebony accoutrements with the Ebony as it comes and not only using perfectly black Ebony or staining it to be perfectly black.

The headstock overlay, and the bridge pins are all Crelicam Ebony, as is the fingerboard and bridge. The body binding is a Tortoise style as is the pick guard. No paper products glued to simulate wood here. Kudos to Taylor for that. The rosette is abalone, and the inlays are faux pearl Italian acrylic in the Aerial design. The top is torrified Sitka Spruce and the back and sides are Urban Ironbark. The back is a two piece unit. The sides and back are stained a Blackwood tint and the top is stained in a Tobacco Edgeburst. Check the photographs of the actual guitar that I received to see how good it looks. The pickup system is Taylor’s Expression System 2. The construction architecture is Taylor’s respected V-Bracing. The nut is Graphite and the saddle is Micarta

Body length is 20 inches with a 4 5/8 inch depth and a 16 inch lower bout. Scale length is 25 1/2 inches

The fittings are consistent across the 510 series and there were no surprises on the 514ce. The tuners were butter smooth, no catching in the nut and the strings properly stretched before shipping. The brand of strings is not specified only that they are Phosphor Bronze Lights.

It plays similarly to the 512ce, and while it takes a bit more space on your knee, it is my opinion that the very dense Ironbark is more effective in this larger body size. I did not find any nasal twang in this body style as I did in the 512ce. There is a bit more bottom end, due to the larger sound box, just as one would expect and perhaps that tempers the higher end frequencies a bit. I used the same pick for the sample recordings as for the 512ce for your purposes, but I could play this with a thinner pick as I would normally use on an acoustic. It is also a loud guitar acoustically, and this time I was a bit more successful in the finger style sample. I did not find any tangible weight difference as I always play with a strap to avoid accidents. Again, I used the direct out of the Expression System 2 pickup direct to the Hi-Z input of the Apollo Twin X and recorded into Logic Pro.

514ce Audio Examples

I plugged the guitar directly into the Hi-Z input on the Apollo Twin X and recorded the instrument in Logic Pro. No plugins or equalizers or anything else was used. The bass and treble controls on the ES-2 were in the noon position as was the volume control.

The example consists of two chord sequences and one sequence of single notes.

The Taylor 514ce is available now from Taylor Dealers. MAP is $3299 USD or $4099 CAD.

Summary

In these new guitars, Taylor has preserved its reputation for building excellent instruments. Pricing is not dissimilar to Martins that would fit this space and the build quality is, in my opinion, superior to anything coming out of Gibson’s factory today. I respect Taylor’s commitment to maximizing the use of wood, including the adoption of woods not known for instrument making. The Urban Ironbark is the second of this initiative following the Urban Ash models. I do like the sound of the Urban Ironbark instruments more than I liked the Urban Ash instruments. Taylor says that Urban Ironbark brings the best of rosewood and mahogany together, but I cannot say that find that myself. To my ears, it sounds more like a cross between rosewood and ebony. This is good to my ears, as I like the sound of ebony for sides and backs. The hardness and stiffness provide solidity and don’t sap away tone. It also improves the resonance of the acoustic body. As with ebony, I prefer the larger Grand Auditorium body, over the Grand Concert version. I don’t think that Ironbark is best suited to a small body and so if I were going to purchase one of these new releases, I would definitely go with the Grand Auditorium 514ce. From my player’s perspective, I preferred it all around over the 512ce.