Author Topic: SOLD - Beautiful 2013 K26ce, All Koa, Mint, $3,200  (Read 3418 times)

Epic Audio

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SOLD - Beautiful 2013 K26ce, All Koa, Mint, $3,200
« on: May 06, 2017, 07:04:50 AM »
The Guitar: 2013 Taylor K26ce – A truly elegant and beautiful acoustic guitar both visually and sonically. This guitar is in mint condition and is an amazing example of Taylor’s craftsmanship and the outstanding natural tonal qualities of the exotic Hawaiian koa wood (Bob Taylor's favorite tone wood) used for the top, back and sides. This guitar was purchased new within 24 hours of arrival at the Taylor dealer. The guitar never left the house and was used predominately for finger picking, almost never played with a pick. The guitar has been meticulously maintained and kept in pristine condition. When not being played the guitar was always kept in its hardshell case with a D’Addario two-way humidification system (maintains 50% humidity) and a temperature and humidity monitor. The serial number, 1110183159, denotes this guitar was built in Taylor’s California factory and assigned its serial number on Oct. 18, 2013.  Although the appointments on the guitar are extremely impressive and include an elegant swirling ‘Island Vine’ all wood inlay that extends the length of the ebony fingerboard, its most stunning feature, in appearance and tone, is the Hawaiian koa wood which is much more intensely figured than most koa wood guitars (see pictures). The koa top has a prominent wide grain with deep vibrant flames and strong natural colors. The sides have an equally impressive grain with more subtle color and flame. In addition to the wide grain, deep flames and colors, the book-matched back has a graceful curl to its grain. Guitar-grade koa wood is only found on the Big Island of Hawaii at elevations above 5,000 feet, making it as expensive as it is desirable. Here’s a link to a Youtube video of Bob Taylor discussing koa wood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQXnvK8GkjY.

Being a contemporary Taylor model you can find information and specs for this guitar on Taylor’s website. Here they are for your convenience:
 
•   Body type: Taylor Grand Symphony
•   Cutaway: Single Venetian Cutaway
•   Orientation: Right-Handed
•   Top wood: Solid Hawaiian Koa
•   Back & sides: Solid Hawaiian Koa
•   Bracing pattern: Taylor Standard CV Bracing with Relief Rout
•   Back Config: 2-piece No Wedge
•   Body Length: 20”
•   Body Width: 16 1/4"
•   Body Depth: 4 5/8"
•   Body finish: Gloss 6.0 with a hand sprayed Shaded Edge Burst (Entire Guitar)
•   Binding: Rosewood
•   Edge Trim: Maple
•   Rosette Style: Single, 3-Band Ring
•   Rosette Material: Rosewood/Maple/Rosewood
•   Neck shape: Taylor Standard Profile
•   Fingerboard: Genuine African Ebony
•   Fingerboard Binding: Indian Rosewood
•   Neck wood: Tropical Mahogany
•   Scale length: 25.5 in.
•   15" Fingerboard Radius
•   Fingerboard Inlay: Island Vine
•   Number of frets: 20
•   Neck finish: Satin
•   Nut width: 1.75 in. (44.5 mm)
•   Type of Neck Joint: Scarf
•   Headstock overlay: Genuine African Ebony
•   Tuning machines: Taylor Gold Tuners with Gold Buttons
•   Bridge: Genuine African Ebony
•   Bridge Pins: Ebony
•   Saddle & nut: Bone
•   Heel Length: 3 1/2"
•   Neck/Heel: Tropical Mahogany
•   Peghead Finish: Gloss
•   Peghead Binding: Indian Rosewood
•   Peghead Inlay: Island Vine
•   Peghead Logo: Taylor, Maple
•   Truss Rod Cover: Ebony
•   Pickup/preamp: Integrated Taylor Expression System
•   Configuration: Dynamic Body Sensor and Dynamic String Sensor
•   Preamp EQ: discrete, 2-Band
•   Feedback filter: Phase
•   Case: Taylor Deluxe Hardshell

The Sound: This is truly the only guitar I have ever played that made me feel like I was playing an orchestral string instrument. Unfortunately, if you have played a Taylor K26ce (or any koa guitar) when it was new you have not heard the true sound of the guitar once it has open up.

From Taylorguitars.com:

“A dense tropical hardwood, koa blends midrange focus with extra top-end brightness and chime. The more a koa guitar is played and opens up – especially an all- koa guitar – the more its midrange overtones add warmth and sweetness to its voice. A tropical hardwood, koa’s tone blends the midrange of mahogany with the top end of maple. Due to its density, a new koa guitar tends to start our sounding a little bright and tight, somewhat like maple. But the more a koa guitar is played, the more the sound opens up, expanding the midrange and rewarding the player with a richer, sweeter, more resonant tone.”

This guitar is over 3 years old and has been played enough to allow it to ‘open up’ and bloom. Before a guitar reaches this point, such as when it is new, it tends to sound bright and feel tight. This is why manufacturers of fine wooden instruments (including guitars, violins and pianos) often let their wood age for decades before using it. It is also why good vintage guitars often have a tone and resonance that cannot be built into a new guitar. The theory, particularly with koa, as it is very fibrous (as seen in the Bob Taylor video mentioned above), is the wood fibers are tight and compressed when the guitar is new. The wood fibers in this condition are good for the strength of the tree but not good for tone. Over time, as the guitar is played, the vibration loosens and decompresses the wood fibers allowing them to move and resonate more, resulting in what is known as the guitar opening up.

This Taylor K26ce all-koa guitar has opened up nicely, releasing extremely rich, complex musical tones. Overall, the sound is smooth, warm and even, with excellent presence and clarity. The sustain is substantial and retains the wonderful tone of the guitar. This guitar has a very even harmonic blend that is reminiscent of a harp. The larger Grand Symphony body size, known for its big, balanced tone with articulation, combined with the focused low-midrange, gives the low-end a beautiful, smooth, deep cello-like quality. The low-midrange also gains warmth from the larger body size; additionally it benefits from the presence and chime of the highs to produce an open-top grand piano like attack and tone. The upper-midrange has a wonderful sweetness with the tonal quality of bells ringing in the distance. The highs are musical and full with a rounded woodenness and no metallic edginess.

An interesting note: I recently played this guitar for some non-musicians friends that have heard me play many times on many different guitars. They went out of their way to comment on how much they liked the sound of this guitar and used words such as “dramatic, passionate, musical and warm” to describe what they were hearing. 

The factory-installed electronics are the Taylor proprietary Expression System (ES). From the Taylor website:

“The ES is an all-magnetic acoustic guitar pickup system that works like a microphone to produce a pure signal and warm natural acoustic sound. When you plug in, you’ll hear the sound of your guitar, not the sound of the pickup. No complicated controls. No tone simulators. Just a clean amplified acoustic guitar sound supported by three simple controls – volume, bass and treble.” For more info see: https://www.taylorguitars.com/guitars/acoustic/features/electronics/expression-system%C2%AE

I have played this guitar with several different amplifiers and find it easy, with small adjustments to the on-board bass and treble controls, to get the amplified sound to closely match the acoustic sound. Additionally, the Expression System does a superb job of eliminating feedback.

There is a lot of information available on-line about Taylor koa wood guitars as well as koa as a tonewood in general. I encourage you to do your research. There are also plenty of demos of the Taylor K26ce guitar on-line. All of these are greatly influenced by the style and ability of the player, the recording technique, and the quality of the playback system. That said, here are the links to a few demos I feel provide a true representation of the guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TolKx4XWZ8M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnRnSux-niY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HAzZ7hchAU

The Playability and Feel (and a little more): The Grand Symphony body is notoriously a very comfortable size and shape for both playing in a sitting or standing position. The Taylor satin finish on the neck provides a very smooth feel without any stickiness or slipperiness you get from other finishes. The standard profile Taylor neck shape combines with 15” fingerboard radius and 1.75” nut make for great playability with enough room between strings to be a little forgiving (a feature I really appreciate). The ebony fingerboard provides a great balance of firmness for articulation and responsiveness for feel. The graceful Venetian cutaway gives easy access upper frets.

This guitar strongly resonates through the body as well as the neck, making it a pleasure to play as you both feel and hear the tone. All koa guitars have a natural compression resulting in a slight reduction of the edges and peaks heard in the attack as a note is played; the more aggressively the note is played the more it is compressed. This is heard as an even, controlled attack and sustain. This guitar, due to its koa wood, also produces strong fundamental notes with a shimmering chime to the harmonics and highs. These qualities make this guitar excellent for live performances as well as the recording studio as it naturally provides the desired compression and sound that is usually striven for when using electronic enhancement.

As promised, a little more – One of the surprising and unique aspects of this guitar is the aroma that emanates from the sound hole. I can only describe at reminiscent of a small wooden hut on a tropical island. I wish I could bottle it.
« Last Edit: July 23, 2017, 09:25:02 PM by Epic Audio »

Strumming Fool

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It's a beautiful guitar.  Being the owner of a lovely 2014 K24e with master grade koa, I can appreciate your write-up. I would never part with mine - its tone is special and unique among my 7 GAs. So with such a rave review, why may I ask are you trying to sell it?
My Taylor Grand Auditoriums:

1997 Cujo14 - old growth cedar/black walnut
2014 K24e - master grade koa
2018 Custom GA - bear claw sitka spruce/mahogany
2019 614 - torrified sitka spruce/flamed maple
2020 714 - lutz spruce/rosewood

Epic Audio

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Hi Strumming Fool - I would ask the same questions. The reason I am selling this, and some of my other delicate (including a rare pre-war Martin), guitars is that I am moving across the county for work mid-summer and either have to put my guitars in a moving van for 12 to 15 days (worried about damage from high temps and mishandling...) or ship them separately (which is pretty expensive, always a risk and difficult logistically). This guitar is so pristine that I did not want to risk sending it in the moving van. I thought about shipping separately but I am driving across the country and planing on taking about 10 days to do it (to coordinate arriving at our new home on the same day our belongings do. Given this I don't see how I could work the logistics out to have the guitar arrive when I am there; being new to the area I do not have someone I can ship it to and being a new job I don't want to have a large box shipped to the office.
I also know through a friend of mine that you will have a very hard time getting any money for a used guitar damaged in shipping no matter what you insure it for as the shippers always make the case they can't vouch for the condition of the guitar prior to being in their position. This friend is actually a vintage guitar dealer and has stopped insuring guitars when he ships them and takes it as a business risk.

Strumming Fool

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Wow - interesting story! FYI, I have been in your position several times myself. A good, reputable dealer will ship and insure your guitars once you've settled in your new home. The shipping company paid the full insured value in the two instances of damage I experienced, one for the full replacement value. In almost all instances, the 5-6 guitars shipped during several moves arrived safe and sound. The cost of shipping and insurance is well worth the peace of mind.

You may want to get a second opinion....and try to keep your beautiful K26.
« Last Edit: May 06, 2017, 10:22:58 PM by Strumming Fool »
My Taylor Grand Auditoriums:

1997 Cujo14 - old growth cedar/black walnut
2014 K24e - master grade koa
2018 Custom GA - bear claw sitka spruce/mahogany
2019 614 - torrified sitka spruce/flamed maple
2020 714 - lutz spruce/rosewood

Epic Audio

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Thanks for the info/good idea. I will check with some local dealers to see if they will work with me. I have a fairly large guitar collection; I am not sure how many guitars a dealer would be willing to hold and ship for me. The cost will add up pretty fast. I will have to pick and choose what guitars to put on the moving van, ship separately or sell. I have had several guitars in my collection for a while, part of me is looking forward to 'thinning the heard' and going through the restocking process. I love the thrill of the chase. From what I gather if I list the guitars on the high-value list the insurance through the moving company will pay if there is any damage from shipping and handling but not from temperature extremes. My understanding is that FedEx and UPS are difficult to work with when making a claim about a guitar damaged in shipping. A friend of mine once shipped a guitar that arrived with a small crack, about 1.5” where the headstock joins the neck. When he tried to make a claim the response he received was they would not pay do to them not being able to verify the guitar was packed correctly and they could not validate the crack was not there prior to shipping. If the above is correct the safest route is to use the moving company so they guitars will be insured. My concern is the temps that will be seen in the trailer. Unfortunately we will be loading the truck on June, 30th, so I expect extreme heat during transport the first and second week of July. I know some big touring artist have replicas made of their vintage guitars so they do not have to worry about damaging them during transport when touring. They don’t seem as concerned about contemporary guitars as they have the money to buy more. Some not so big artist I know borrow or rent guitars locally to avoid subjecting their prized guitars to shipping. On the flip side of course is Willie Nelson. From the looks of it he travels freely with his vintage guitar, Trigger. I am not sure he even uses a case :)

timfitz63

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It seems a shame to have to part with these guitars that you apparently enjoy so much; if that's what must be, I guess your loss would be someone else's gain.

Back in 2013, I myself had to move about a dozen guitars from Pennsylvania and Kentucky to Texas; fortunately, I was moving little else, as I was simply closing out a temporary residence (apartment) I'd been using while at a remote job site.  So I rented a truck and moved everything myself, ensuring I had control of the guitars at every stage of the journey.  Over that distance, there was only one overnight stop; and we were past the hottest days of summer as well, so it went very well.  Note sure of where points A & B are in your case, but is there any chance you could do something similar:  store the guitars with a friend in the location from which you're moving, then return in the fall to move them yourself?
DN: 360e, 510ce, 510e-FLTD, 810ce-LTD (Braz RW), PS10ce
GA: 414ce, 614ce-LTD, 714ce-FLTD, BR-V, BTO (Makore, 'Wild Grain' RW, Blkwood), GAce-FLTD, K24ce, PS14ce (Coco, Braz RW, "Milagro"), W14ce-LTD
GC: 812ce-LTD TF, BTO TF ('Sinker'/Walnut, Engelmann/"Milagro"), LTG #400
GO: 718e-FLTD, BTO (Taz Myrtle)
GS: Custom 516e, BTO 12's (Taz Tiger Myrtle, 'Crazy' RW), 556ce, 656ce, K66ce, PS56ce ("Milagro")
GS Mini 2012 Spring LTD (Blackwood)
T3/B: Custom (Cu & Au Sparkle)
T5: C1, C5-12, S (Aztec Gold)

Epic Audio

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Thanks for the advice timfitz63. Unfortunately I am moving from New York to California. I plan on driving one car but it will have 3 people in if and little room for guitars. Additionally, we plan to make the drive a bit of a vacation as the moving truck will take 10+ days to get to CA so we have time to see this great country.

Strumming Fool

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I moved from New York to California years ago. I drove cross country, and had a ball. The guitars were shipped from a trusted music store and insured via UPS  to my new residence after we arrived. One guitar case sustained damage and UPS replaced the full cost of the case. It can be done, at least for me with 5-7 guitars.
My Taylor Grand Auditoriums:

1997 Cujo14 - old growth cedar/black walnut
2014 K24e - master grade koa
2018 Custom GA - bear claw sitka spruce/mahogany
2019 614 - torrified sitka spruce/flamed maple
2020 714 - lutz spruce/rosewood

Epic Audio

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Interesting. I wonder if UPS and FedEx have changed their rules since you moved as I hear some pretty bad stories. I do know if the claim is not too high, in the hundreds, they will probably pay a claim if it is reasonable. But when you get into the thousands it's another story.

Strumming Fool

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My other damage incident was a UPS shipment of a brand new Santa Cruz guitar. The guitar was left out in the heat in transit, and suffered warping and finish damage. UPS replaced the guitar for its full value.
My Taylor Grand Auditoriums:

1997 Cujo14 - old growth cedar/black walnut
2014 K24e - master grade koa
2018 Custom GA - bear claw sitka spruce/mahogany
2019 614 - torrified sitka spruce/flamed maple
2020 714 - lutz spruce/rosewood

Epic Audio

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That's in line with what I have heard. The shippers will pay a claim on a new guitar as they can establish market value and assume it was in 'new' condition. That said, your "left out in the heat in transit, and suffered warping and finish damage" comment scares me. Maybe there's a business to be started here. They have Ship Sticks for golf clubs, maybe a Safe Ship Guitar company is needed. Hmmm... I feel my entrepreneurial spirit kickin' in.

Strumming Fool

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Considering the many times I have had guitars shipped, I consider both events to be decidedly anomalous.  It's important to have a trusted guitar store who has extensive shipping experience.
My Taylor Grand Auditoriums:

1997 Cujo14 - old growth cedar/black walnut
2014 K24e - master grade koa
2018 Custom GA - bear claw sitka spruce/mahogany
2019 614 - torrified sitka spruce/flamed maple
2020 714 - lutz spruce/rosewood

Epic Audio

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Thanks all for all the feedback! It has been very helpful. I have spoke with the two guitar shops in my area (I am in a remote part of upstate New York) that I have a relationship with and they said they will hold a few guitars for me and ship them once I am in CA (one for a $10 each fee). I have a total of 42 guitars to deal with, acoustic, electric, 6-strings, 12-strings and basses both contemporary and vintage. Some of the more robust, less expensive guitars are going on the moving van. Some others I will ship via the guitar shops and some I will try to sell prior to my move. At this time I still plan to sell this guitar after weighing its value and condition against the rest of my collection.

Epic Audio

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Re: Price drop - Beautiful 2013 K26ce, All Koa, Mint, $3,200
« Reply #13 on: May 20, 2017, 10:56:17 AM »
Price reduction and weekend bump.

mgap

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Re: Price drop - Beautiful 2013 K26ce, All Koa, Mint, $3,200
« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2017, 09:52:25 PM »
That is a sweet looking guitar.  I just love the Island Vine fretboard. 
He who loses money, loses much; he who loses a friend, loses more; he who loses faith, loses all.