Taylor 414ce Guitar

I acquired this beautiful acoustic/electric Taylor guitar from my local (now out of business) guitar shop. I had wandered in one day just to browse and was not shopping for anything in particular. I quickly saw they were having some type of issue with their point-of-sale terminal and were unable to make any sales because of this. I asked a few questions and they seemed receptive to obtaining some help, so I was able to troubleshoot what eventually turned out to be a network connectivity issue and ran to a local electronics store to buy an ethernet card and some network cabling for the balky terminal. Long story short I was able to fix the problem for them in a about 3 hours. They were very grateful and asked what I was going to charge them for resolving things. I told them just to reimburse me for the ethernet card and we could call it even. They insisted on compensating me for my time and expertise, so we mutually agreed on bartering my time against some store merchandise. The owner asked what brand of guitar I preferred; I told him I admired Taylor guitars. He informed me that they had just received a shipment that had not yet been opened or inspected. We looked at 4 guitars and I chose this one. They inspected the guitar and had their luthier make sure it was intonated properly. They then returned it to its case and handed it to me. Honestly, this guitar is much nicer than a player of my ability requires, but I have loved having it and it’s sound has seasoned beautifully as the years have gone by. It features a Sitka Spruce Top, Ovangkol Back and Sides, Tropical Mahogany Neck, West African Crelicam Ebony Fretboard, Expression System 2 Electronics, Venetian Cutaway and included a Taylor Deluxe Hardshell Black Case.

STROBIST: I photographed this guitar in a completely dark room using 5 wireless flash units slaved to my sony camera. The one hidden behind my guitar had a blue gel to give a splash of complementary color. I took quite a few tries to balance the power of each flash and to get the exposure I wanted.