Unexpected cross grains on the top of Taylor 814ce

[lyli8128]

I bought a Taylor 814ce ltd version and after I went back to home I found two obvious cross grains on the top of this guitar, very ugly. I didn't expect Taylor will use this type of wood for its 800 series product. And I checked many pictures and videos of other products didn't found this situation. Very bad purchase, next time I will go to other brands.

[zeebow]

I bought a Taylor 814ce ltd version and after I went back to home I found two obvious cross grains on the top of this guitar, very ugly. I didn't expect Taylor will use this type of wood for its 800 series product. And I checked many pictures and videos of other products didn't found this situation. Very bad purchase, next time I will go to other brands.

well...a lot to say here. that looks like bear claw sitka spruce, which is actually more desirable to some, and some say it adds stiffness which can potentially lead to a stronger and louder voice

http://www.lmii.com/about-bearclaw

but was has me the most intrigued, is that this guitar has cindy inlays on the fretboard and the cindy inlay on the bridge, this is historically only on 900 series or custom orders. i’ve never seen them on a 800 series

where did you get it?

[lyli8128]

I bought it in China, the vendor said it's 814ce ltd version and only has 50 worldwide. It has old 900 series inlays and gold tuners, so I thought maybe its wood will be better than normal 814ce, so I bought it. But I think I prefer clean top and this two so called bear claws is asymmetric, only has one side. So I doubt if the guitar maker of Taylor has basic aesthetic sense.

For more about this guitar you can check this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RZ-1L9BNfw

Maybe it only be sold in China, I don't know the details.

[TaylorGirl]

I agree with zeebow. It appears to be bear claw, which you see on many high end guitars. Some people dislike it, others  love it. It is strictly visual, and won't affect the sound or structural integrity of the guitar. We all look for the sound, feel, and visual aspects that appeal to us in a guitar.....and it's personal. So, if you dislike the visual appeal of this guitar, I would suggest you take it back. Someone else would love to have that ltd Taylor. But please, don't blame anything on Taylor, they did nothing wrong in the production of this one, it is character (which is what wood has) and I think it is beautiful.

[Sprintbob]

Hate to say this but you MIGHT have a counterfeit Taylor and the clue could be the Cindy inlay. I would recommend you call Taylor customer service and they will be happy to verify the serial number and the build specification.

[lyli8128]

I cost more than xx$ for this Cindy inlay and golden tuners of this special edition. I have sent email to Taylor to tell them this issue, and I attach some pictures to show you that in China there are really this type of Taylor are selling and I just wanted to spend more money for better product or I just bought a normal 814ce. But you can see from the pictures, the one on the picture has a clean top, so I learned that guitar manufacturers haven't an aesthetic, for example, asymmetric or clean standard for their high-end  products, so next time I will be more careful to buy a guitar.




$, per forum rules

[mgap]

Hate to say this but you MIGHT have a counterfeit Taylor and the clue could be the Cindy inlay. I would recommend you call Taylor customer service and they will be happy to verify the serial number and the build specification.

I agree with Sprintbob.  It could have been ordered as a Custom build, but I can not imagine a BTO of an 800 series that makes it essentially an old style 900 series, but then I do not know the Asian market strategy Taylor is involved in.
I would take Sprintbob's advice and call Taylor customer service.

Did you buy this from a dealer?  Did you get to play it before you bought it?  Does the dealer have a return policy you could exercise? 

[xriddler]

If you look at the bridge it does have the es2 system 3 adjustment circles. I don't think China has copied the electronics yet right? But there are bearclaw 800s in the wild I've seen them before. No wood is perfect if you just recently bought it I'm sure you can still return it within a certain amount of days. If you hate the look so much I say just get your money back.

[lyli8128]

I agree with zeebow. It appears to be bear claw, which you see on many high end guitars. Some people dislike it, others  love it. It is strictly visual, and won't affect the sound or structural integrity of the guitar. We all look for the sound, feel, and visual aspects that appeal to us in a guitar.....and it's personal. So, if you dislike the visual appeal of this guitar, I would suggest you take it back. Someone else would love to have that ltd Taylor. But please, don't blame anything on Taylor, they did nothing wrong in the production of this one, it is character (which is what wood has) and I think it is beautiful.

Here is another thing about Taylor's quality, from Taylor's homepage you can see a guy hold a guitar top with very polished braces. But you can see from my attachments, my guitar's brace is not polished and has some splinters on it. I don't know if my guitar is still too cheap to have a polished brace just like on the homepage, but I think 800 series maybe not be that cheap.

But anyway I just want to keep my guitar, because it's God' will to let me have it.

[xriddler]

You should really just call Taylor a find out if you guitar is real or not.  There is no use speculating.

[458e]

I agree with zeebow. It appears to be bear claw, which you see on many high end guitars. Some people dislike it, others  love it. It is strictly visual, and won't affect the sound or structural integrity of the guitar. We all look for the sound, feel, and visual aspects that appeal to us in a guitar.....and it's personal. So, if you dislike the visual appeal of this guitar, I would suggest you take it back. Someone else would love to have that ltd Taylor. But please, don't blame anything on Taylor, they did nothing wrong in the production of this one, it is character (which is what wood has) and I think it is beautiful.

Here is another thing about Taylor's quality, from Taylor's homepage you can see a guy hold a guitar top with very polished braces. But you can see from my attachments, my guitar's brace is not polished and has some splinters on it. I don't know if my guitar is still too cheap to have a polished brace just like on the homepage, but I think 800 series maybe not be that cheap.

But anyway I just want to keep my guitar, because it's God' will to let me have it.

Your Sitka top has actually nice grain, but if the two bear claw marks make you hate the guitar sent it back. I would go by the sound and feel of the guitar. I have two new Taylor 12 string guitars a 458 and a 856c. The 458 has a top with quite some bear claws showing. I am not too crazy about bear claw spruce myself, but it was the best sounding out of the 458's the shop had. My wife actually thinks it's a really nice piece of spruce, she thinks my other acoustics are too boring with the plain and even grain. Some guitar makers charge extra for a bear claw top.

The Taylor guy in your attachment is actually Andy Powers showing the new V-bracing. Of course the show piece will be extra clean.
The pictures you attached from your guitar are not high resolution, so I can't tell.
Anyway, as others suggest, make sure you got a genuine Taylor. I think you fine from the pictures you posted, but make sure with Taylor.

[jpmist]

I bought a Taylor 814ce ltd version and after I went back to home I found two obvious cross grains on the top of this guitar, very ugly. I didn't expect Taylor will use this type of wood for its 800 series product. And I checked many pictures and videos of other products didn't found this situation. Very bad purchase, next time I will go to other brands.


Yikes, that reads like pretty severe buyers remorse. When the manufacturer cuts the top pieces in matched pairs it's entirely possible that they won't be perfectly symmetric. There may have been 7 pieces sawn where the bear claw was in the grain and you got piece 7 & 8, where the claw ran out before #8. The grain on the entire top looks very even and uniform to me, so it's a quality top.

Of course your opinion is the only one that matters but a lot of folks would agree with me that the occasion bear claw, flame or silking marks make a guitar look interesting and gives it character. Perfectly symmetrical uniform grain to me is boring and synthetic looking. I've long regretting sending back a custom order hog top that was replaced with a perfectly uniformly striped hog grain that looked blah compared to the original.

The ultimate solution is to just forget about it and play the hell out of it. You shouldn't worry about resale value as there are lots of folks who won't mind the marks. One buys a guitar for the sound as much as the looks and I'm sure you've got an excellent one. Best of luck with it!

[Guitarsan]

Please post a closeup of the logo on the headstock and the label inside.

[Gordo in OZ]

I really like the "cross grains".

[Montesdad]

the larger marks are 'bear claw' - some like this, some don't.
personally, i find them desirable as they make the guitar top visually unique.

the smaller extensive horizontal markings are called 'silking' and are found only
in very high quality tops, usually a spruce, and indicate a perfect cut of quarter sawn wood - also highly desirable.

if you are not happy with the way a guitar looks, check with your distributor to see
if the guitar can be swapped out for another unless this one was a custom ordered LTD
edition in which case, there may be nothing you can do but do check with the selling company.
taylor is big on the naturalness of wood and values that in it's products so they probably saw nothing wrong when they sent it out.

unfortunately, some 'audio only is important' people can chime in telling you to ignore guitar aesthetics,
close your eyes or put a blindfold on when ever you take the guitar out of the case and just play.

don't listen to them, if they had their way, everybody would be playing a paddle headed Martin style D-18 and there would be
no sense in having different headstock shapes, inlays, trim or bridge pins with dots (as none of that should really matter)

unfortunately, when one spends a lot of money for a guitar, it does - - -