Baby Taylor acoustic guitar

[cwileyriser]

A friend of mine has one of these and it sounds fantastic. It sounds especially fantastic high-strung. He used to high-string (i.e., string them an octave higher than normal) the low E and A strings. Last night we played and he had high-strung the E-A-D-G strings. It sounded KILLER, especially in tandem with another guitar.

Anyway, he's got me hooked and I'm planning on buying one. His is the "standard issue" sapele Baby. Anyone have any experience with the maple or bubinga Babys? I'll almost certainly high string it to use as a rhythm guitar, mostly in a rock setting (Summer Hymns - psychedelic pop countryish rock, for lack of a better description), but also on my solo recordings, which are generally mostly acoustic.

Guitar Center sells the standard sapele Baby for $259, including the nice Taylor gig bag. That seems insanely cheap for the quality of the guitar and bag. But I figured I'd check to see if anyone knew of somewhere to beat that price, or somewhere to get good pricing on the exotic wood Babys.

Thanks,

CW

[inverseroom]

Please...before you shell out for that Baby...look into the Larivee Parlor. A little more money, a TON more tone. Just...look. Seriously.

But if you do go for a baby, find a dealer and play a bunch of them, they all sound different.

Best
JRL

[stevemoss]

A Baby Taylor's been on my want-list for quite a while (in part because you can get a lefty at no additional charge).

To my recollection, listening to a sales clerk demo righties for me, all of the sitka spruce-topped Babies sounded very similar. While the exotic wood sides and back are visually pleasing, they're laminates and only slightly altered the guitars' tone. The most sonically different of the Baby Taylors is the one with the mahogany top, which to me was just a little more pleasingly rich.

Don't misunderstand, though - they're all excellent, and I've yet to decide exactly which one I'd most like.

[@?,*???&?]

Had one. It was cool. First thing I did was lower the action. The hi-strung thing is definitely something to pursue. I now use a 1928 Kalamazoo for that stuff. I traded the Taylor in for a Mid-Missouri Mandolin.

[janusmusic]

I'm still trying to figure out the high stringing..I've never heard of that. I'm using a Big Baby and it is very nice and smooth. No binding no finish but a great affordable guitar..
brian

[@?,*???&?]

I'm still trying to figure out the high stringing...

Just string an acoustic guitar with the high strings from a 12-string guitar set and tune them normally. The lighter, zingier strings add a great tonality when combined with a normal acoustic.