Nylon | Torrefied Spruce Top | Indian Rosewood Back and Sides | Neo-Tropical Mahogany Neck | West African Crelicam Ebony Fretboard | Venetian Cutaway | AeroCase
The 212ce-N BLK Plus LTD blends Taylor’s exceptional craftsmanship and signature playability with the warm, snappy tone and classic feel of nylon strings. It features a torrefied spruce top paired with layered Big Leaf maple back and sides in a black gloss-finished cutaway Grand Concert body. A slender Hard Rock maple neck with a 12-fret configuration ensures a slinky handfeel and an ultra-comfortable playing experience Master Guitar Designer Andy Powers specially adapted the interior voicing architecture to produce a clear, authentic nylon-string voice with enhanced touch sensitivity. White body binding, a single-ring Italian acrylic rosette, faux pearl tuner buttons and a white heel cap starkly contrast with the guitar’s black visual aesthetic. This limited-edition model comes outfitted with a slotted peghead, classical nickel tuners and ES-N electronics. It’s ideal for players who crave the distinctive tonal flavors of a Spanish/Classical guitar, but with contemporary styling and signature Taylor playability. It ships in a lightweight, durable AeroCase.
- Nylon-string guitar offers modern classical tone
- Grand Concert body feels easy to hold and play
- Solid torrefied spruce top generates warmth, projection and clarity
- Equipped with specialized nylon bracing and onboard ES-N pickup
- Ships in a lightweight, protective AeroCase
FEATURES
Classical Nylon-String Tone and Smooth Playability
Combining a warm, rewarding sound and player-friendly design for a rich, inspiring nylon-string experience.
Grand Concert Body: The small-body Grand Concert debuted in 1984 to meet the needs of a new wave of adventurous acoustic fingerstyle players. In contrast to the traditionally darker, boomier voices of bigger body styles like dreadnoughts and jumbos, the GC’s compact size and tapered waist kept the overtones in check. It was also more comfortable to play while sitting down, and the guitar’s slightly wider neck gave players more room for complex fingerings. The GC’s smaller sonic footprint also fit cleanly in a mix with other instruments when tracking in the studio and with a band on stage, making it a useful tool for professional session and side players. Taylor’s current generation of GC models continues to accommodate fingerstylists with finger-friendly traits like a shorter 24 7/8-inch scale length, which makes fretting easier and adds a slightly slinkier feel on the strings due to the lighter string tension. If you feel more comfortable with a small body or favor controlled overtones, a Grand Concert is a great option.
The smallest of Taylor’s full-size body shapes. Its compact dimensions make for a physically comfortable guitar with an intimate feel and sound. The smaller footprint keeps the overtones in check, contributing to a focused, articulate sound that’s well-suited for recording and stage work.
Grand Concert Specifications: 19 1/2″ / Body Width: 15″ / Body Depth: 4 3/8″
Indian Rosewood Body Wood: Indian rosewood’s sweeping frequency range at both ends of the tonal spectrum has made it one of the most popular and musically rich tonewoods. Its deep lows can assert a throaty growl, while bright, sparkling treble notes ring out with bell-like, high-fidelity clarity.
Origin: India
Sound: One of the most popular and traditional guitar woods of all time, rosewood takes the basic sonic thumbprint of mahogany (which has a strong midrange) and expands it in both directions. Rosewood sounds deeper in the low end and brighter on the top end (one might describe the treble notes as zesty, sparkly or sizzly, with more articulation). If you look at its frequency range visually, rosewood would appear to be more scooped in the middle, yielding less midrange bloom than mahogany. Like mahogany, rosewood’s vintage heritage has helped firmly establish its acoustic legacy. It’s a great sound in part because Taylor knows that sound. In some music circles in which preserving the traditional sound helps bring a sense of authenticity to the music — certain strains of Americana, for example — rosewood has an iconic status. Also like mahogany, rosewood is a versatile tonewood, which has contributed to its popularity. One can fingerpick it, strum it and flatpick it. It’s very consistent, so players can usually rely on it to deliver.
Goes Well With: Most applications. If you like a guitar with fuller low end and brighter treble (bluegrassers, for instance), rosewood will do the trick. Its high-end sizzle and clear articulation will benefit players with “dark hands”. If you’re looking for a traditional acoustic sound, a rosewood Dreadnought or Grand Auditorium is right up your alley.
Torrefied Spruce Top Wood: By far the most popular and common wood used for acoustic guitar tops, spruce has a long heritage in the music world. In typical Taylor style, Taylor developed their signature recipe for a process called “torrefaction” to make spruce sound even richer and more sophisticated, adding a new dimension to this much-loved wood.
Torrefaction is a process in which spruce tops (before being added to guitar bodies) are roasted in ovens typically used for drying out wood so that it can be worked. The roasting process lends the wood a slightly darker visual hue while also altering its structure slightly to give it new sonic traits. In particular, torrefied spruce tops tend to sound warmer and sweeter, giving them a played-in quality you would expect from a much older piece of wood. While torrefaction cannot replicate the effects of decades of age and play, it does provide a touch of extra sonic depth without losing spruce’s trademark clarity, articulation or volume.
Origin: Canada and Alaska
Goes Well With: Virtually all musical genres and playing styles.
Venetian Cutaway: The Venetian cutaway is known for its soft, round lines. The sloping peak of the cutaway will vary depending on the shape of the body. The Grand Concert and Grand Auditorium have a steeper slope, while the Dreadnought is a bit flatter. Taylor’s Grand Concert nylon-string models also feature a subtle, flatter slope, while Taylor’s 200 Series cutaway models incorporate their flattest slope.
SPECIFICATIONS
General
- Number of Strings: 6 String
- Orientation: Right Handed
- Body Shape: Grand Concert
- Cutaway: Venetian Cutaway
- Color: Black
- Case/Bag: AeroCase
Body
- Top Wood: Torrefied Spruce
- Back/Side Wood: Indian Rosewood
- Rosette: Faux Pearl Single Ring
- Back Configuration: Layered, 2-Piece
- Body Binding: Black
- Armrest: None
- Top Finish: Gloss
- Back/Side Finish: Gloss
Neck
- Neck Wood: Neo-Tropical Mahogany
- Fretboard Wood: West African Crelicam Ebony
- Neck Profile: Standard Carve
- Fretboard Inlay: Faux Pearl 4mm Dots
- Fretboard Binding: None
- Neck Finish: Matte
Peghead
- Nut Width: 1-7/8″
- Peghead Veneer Wood: West African Crelicam Ebony
- Scale Length: 25-1/2″
- Peghead Inlay: None
- Peghead Type: Slotted
- Peghead Binding: None
- Peghead Finish: Matte
Other
- Bridge: West African Crelicam Ebony
- Nut & Saddle: White NuBone Nut, White Micarta Saddle
- Bridge Pins: None
- Strings: D’Addario Pro Arte Carbon (.024 – .046)
- Pickguard: None
- Tuners: Classical Nickel with Faux Pearl Buttons
- Strap Pin: Chrome
- End Pin: Black
