2006 Taylor K14ce Koa Jumbo Cutaway Guitar

Overview: How about that koa, folks? This is an all-solid, super-fancy Taylor with outrageous flamed koa throughout the build. There's pearl trim at the top edge and rosette, fancy pearl in the board, and slick, tortoise binding at every edge as well. It's eye candy, for sure.

It also doesn't hurt that the neck is quick and easy and it sounds great to boot. As with a mahogany-topped instrument that's built to a high spec, the sound is woody, warm, and even with a sweetened top end, but the advantage of koa is that you get a particularly nice set of clean overtones and sparkle in the upper mids that gives a "sing-song" effect that every koa uke player knows immediately. Koa also has the advantage of being a wood that's hard to overdrive by picking aggressively. I'm a fan!

One big note is that I was unable to get the original pickup system working. I pulled it all apart, soldered any spots that looked bad (there was corrosion at the battery leads and one had broken), reinstalled, swapped batteries, the whole nine yards -- no luck! I keep passive, K&K pickups in-house and would be happy to install one for free and/or remove the Taylor Expression System and fill the knob-holes on the upper-bout as desired by the next owner. As it's an older version of the ES, my suggestion at this point would be to upgrade to a newer version or swap for a different pickup entirely.

Repairs included: Jacobi gave this a level and dress of the frets and a setup. It's playing spot-on and ready to serve.

• Weight: 4 lbs 14 oz
• Scale length: 25 1/2"
• Nut width: 1 3/4"
• Neck shape: slim-medium oval/C
• Board radius: 14"
• Depth at first fret: 0.84"
• Depth at seventh fret: 0.87"
• Body width: 15 7/8"
• Body depth: 4 3/8"
• Top wood: solid koa
• Back & sides wood: solid koa
• Bracing type: x
• Bridge: ebony
• Fretboard: ebony
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 54w-12 lights
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: medium/medium

Condition notes: It's very clean and only shows the lightest of use. There's a little wear at the battery hatch near the endpin and there may be tiny scratches/scuffs that I'm not finding here and there. Suffice to say, it's nice and clean. As noted, though, the pickup system does not work.

It comes with: It's got its original hard case.

Consignor tag: LCLK