Updated this year with new features that enhance its sound and musical utility, the Builder’s Edition 814ce Blacktop offers a richly appointed take on Taylor’s flagship Grand Auditorium with a tone that’s bolder than ever. Back and sides of solid Indian rosewood paired with an Adirondack spruce top generate a complex voice with blooming overtones that resonate around clear trebles, warm lows, and exceptional power. Inside, a new scalloped variant of Taylor’s V-Class architecture provides an additional boost to volume, sustain, and tonal depth, while also improving pitch accuracy and harmonic alignment all the way up the neck.

Player-centered touches include a beveled armrest, matching cutaway, and chamfered body edges for a truly seamless feel. The onboard Claria System pickup features intuitive soundhole-mounted preamp controls that make it easy to plug in and play on the fly. Appointments that complement the striking blacktop color treatment include a full-body gloss finish with a Kona edgeburst on the back and sides, Element fretboard inlays, Gotoh 510 tuners in antique gold, an abalone rosette, maple binding with black and rosewood edge trim, and a rosewood pickguard.