So I got a Taylor GS Mini a couple of weeks back: I’ve recently offloaded a couple of (largely) unused electric guitars, and I’m about to offload my erstwhile “main strummer” day-to-day and travel acoustic (an old beat-up Takamine G series, it’s been beheaded and subsequently repaired), which the GS Mini is replacing. I also bought the ES-Go-or-whatever-it’s-called pickup “system” with it. The guitar came with a very nice Taylor-branded (obviously) padded/semi-solid-ish gig bag, that looks and feels like it can put up with some abuse before the contents get damaged.
The GS Mini is a ¾ size version of Taylor’s Grand Symphony (GS) acoustic. I’m a fan of the Grand Auditorium (GA) shape myself but they don’t do a GA Mini, and there seems to be a reason for that since the full-sized GS is quite something in the volume stakes. The GS Mini has a solid sitka spruce top, with laminated sapele back and sides. The fretboard is ebony and the neck looks like mahogany, can’t be sure. The braceless arched back is pretty cool. Overall it’s a really tidily assembled instrument, basic but functional. It’s small and dinky, and perhaps as a result when you’ve strapped it on it does feel a touch neck-heavy. The headstock is a downsized version of Taylor’s standard with 6 small-button chromed machineheads, which feel solid and have a nice firm action.
What’s really surprising for an instrument of this nature and price bracket: it’s really damned playable! The shape and size allows for easy grabbability, no matter what you’re doing and where you are, but its playability is really quite something: maybe it’s the short scale length, the dinky almost-electric body dimensions, but the neck is pretty much up to Taylor’s usual standards, and I love Taylor’s usual (and almost uniformly consistent) neck profiles and fretwork. The action is great as far as it goes, given that the neck joins the body at the 14th fret and there’s no cutaway, and despite the scale length, string spacing is pretty standard, and works for finger-picking nicely.
And it sounds really good. For a scaled down guitar, it’s got some decent volume to it, and could even compete with some non-dreadnought bodied full-sized acoustics in the same price bracket, and, on the whole, to my ear it matches the output of my Takamine G series. It absolutely hands-down trounces the G series when it comes to tone: the GS Mini is lively and responsive where the G series is dull and lifeless in comparison… although there is one area I’ve noticed where the GS Mini falls slightly short: it doesn’t project low frequencies very well, no doubt as a result of the ¾ body size. Otherwise it’s all Taylor, with nice snappy highs, maybe not quite so nice and mellow in the mids as some full-sized solid wood acoustics, but of course that’s only to be expected. If you’re a pick strummer the overall tone can compress a bit as you get more forceful, I’ll assume that’s because there’s so much going on inside such a small sound chamber, it loses a bit of its articulation, it almost starts crunching up overdrive-style, which is rather fun to be honest.
I’ve only spent a handful of moments playing plugged in with the pickup, just about long enough to be able to say: “it works”. I’d like to reintroduce some acoustic numbers to the band’s song list: the Takamine’s piezo system was too flakey to use live, and my other (much more expensive) Taylor is far too exquisite an instrument to risk damage/theft at the type of venues we play, and with that guitar in its case it’s quite a lump to heft around with all the other gear just to use for just four or five songs… if the pickup in the GS Mini proves workable through my LR Baggs DI with perhaps a splash of reverb, then I’ll use it. If not I can always SM57 it, but that’s just more hassle! Acoustically it’s certainly good enough to mic-up, which is more than can be said for my Takamine.
Overall it’s a really fun and rewarding instrument to just pick up and play. I’d also say it’s a great kid’s guitar: maybe not an outright beginner’s instrument though, it’s a bit pricey for that. In its gig bag it’s very conveniently sized, and well protected, for transportation, and with its playability and decent volume and tone, it’s a real pleasure to play. So as well as being a guitar for travel, it’s a great day-to-day player. It remains to be seen whether or not it’s a viable acoustic for gigs, but I don’t see why it won’t, especially since acoustic numbers are pretty thin on the ground in our repertoire at the moment.
If you’re looking for a decent travel guitar and R5000-ish is in your price bracket, definitely check this one out.
Family pic:
Inside the gig bag:
Casing out the joint:
