Taylor GS Mini-E Mahogany

106
Guitarist summer 2016
review
TRAVEL GUITAR ROUND-UP
really don’t feel short-changed. Its more
conventional sound perhaps leads us to
traditional ‘American’ fingerstyle, and its
pushy voice would certainly be heard above
bigger guitars, both in an ensemble or a
recording. Serious fun.
To be picky, the Faith’s larger head
and bigger tuners do make it feel a little
unbalanced played seated – though in
actual use, it’s easily balanced by your right
forearm. The sound is a little ‘stringier’ than
either our Taylor or Martin, and despite the
size similarity, not to mention materials,
has less low-end warmth than the former.
But thanks to those wide, bigger frets, its
more electric-like playability will make
many feel more at home, even though its
12-fret neck might feel a little cramped. Hit
hard it doesn’t respond too well; the thin
brightness seems enhanced. But for more
modern fingerstyle, that brightness works
in its favour. This one might well benefit
from a bigger string gauge and a drop
tuning, plus some serious playing in.
The little Vintage sounds most like a
‘honey, I shrunk my parlour’. It has quite
a honky midrange push – combine that
with the pronounced V-shaped neck and it
creates a hugely characterful ‘travel guitar’,
if perhaps not the most versatile model of
the bunch here. Maybe it’s that neck and its
overall appearance, but it suggests an older-
world style, one that’s dirtier and a little
buzzy if hit hard and, like the Faith, could
easily handle a bigger string gauge and
rootsy open A and E tunings. It’s certainly
the smallest in size, but far from the smallest
in character. This would grace any bluesy,
swampy recording as is, and would be a
perfect take-anywhere bottleneck bruiser.
Head for the stage…
Plugged in, our GS Mini kicks us off with
quite a dark, mellow-toned sound that
needs a little bit of bass trimming and
some high-end enhancement to create a
The Vintage looks
like something
you might see
on ‘Antiques
Roadshow’ – we’re
not sure whether
to play or put it
on display
2
contemporary steel-string voice. Even so,
it sounds a little magnetic-like, a little older
than you might expect. It’s quite a musical
sound, though, and surprisingly nice for
jazzier styles, too.
Our Martin has only pre-set EQ, and
without that engaged things are a little
middly and boxy: it definitely sounds more
conventional with the contour switch,
which cleans up the mids a little and adds
some crispness. Like its acoustic voice, the
Martin sounds very ‘conventional’ plugged
in and that’s no bad thing. It does sound
a little more ‘piezo-y’ than the Taylor,
especially on higher position lead lines,
but it’s really easy to dial in: we scooped a
little lower midrange and that was about it.
Open-mic ready, we’d say!
If the Faith lacks a little unplugged, it
makes up for it as an electro. With just a
slight mid dip on the slider EQ, there’s a very
GIT410.rev_travel.indd 106 7/6/16 7:28 PM