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%AEI 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=TolKx4XWZ8Mhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnRnSux-niYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HAzZ7hchAUThe 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.
