Taylor Big Baby - Mini-reivew

[Lance]

My son, Max (12 yrs old), has signed up for a guitar elective at school. He's a touch too small for any of my guitars and I hated to buy any of those crappy "mini" guitars. I had a Tacoma Papoose but had intonation issues and I sold it - thus - any small guitar was nixed from the list.

Thus...the Taylor Big Baby.

Got it off Ebay in new condition for $265 with soft case. The guitar was strung with medium gauge Elixers. The neck relief was too much and an obvious truss rod adjustment was necessary. Also, as Max is a newbie, I went for some Diadarrio extra-light acoustic strings to help his learning.

After a minor truss rod adjustment, the neck was spot on. In comparison to other minis, there's no intonation issues on the Big Baby. Even capoed up at the 8th fret, it played perfectly. While not as loud as a full size guitar, the Big Baby had plenty of punch. Construction was excellent.

Fret ends are nicely trimmed with no roughness and frets are well crowned. The nut was cut correctly as well. Machines (grover-ish no-names) worked nicely with no slippage. The soundhole is ringed with a laser cut design - it's subtle, yet attractive. The pickguard seemed a little blah, but looked good enough. Overall, construction was impeccable (computer-controlled does have its advantages). There were no misfitted seams anywhere. Peghead is painted in a flat black with a painted "Taylor" logo - nothing fancy but it works. With my dentist mirror I checked around inside. The bracing below the bridge wasn't sanded as well as it could be but other than that, there were no other issues (or any sloppy glue work).

Side and back wood was an mohagony-looking wood...the web site calls it a "sapele laminate" but I couldn't detect any layers. It appears to be an unfinished mahogony....nice. Sitkia spruce top had a perfectly even and tight grain. The mahogany neck also had the unfinished wood treatment and felt great. Fretboard and bridge was ebony....color was even with slight brown areas. Bridge pins were plastic (no surprise).

Anyway, really NICE guitar. While it was bought for my kid to learn on, I'd have no problem bringing this guitar to my weekly jam. I'd really recommend this guitar for anyone, especially those with smaller hands.

[Tom A.]

Good review Lance, I have played one and they are perfect for a kid, or grownup for that matter. Good quality, sound, and price. Might pick one up this summer for my 12 year old. :D

[tele1]

I have one and I Love it..........

[telemann51]

They are both very happy with them. The Big Baby isn't really a baby guitar. It is a grand concert sized, dreadnought shaped guitar. It doesn't have a lot of bass so it can sound a little tinny and the the heel block is only about 1/2" thick which sort of spooked me when I installed a pickup in one, but Taylor tech support told me that there was no problem. I think it's one of the best deals going for a decent learning guitar that can carry you to the performing level. The neck is very nice and you can set the guitar up to play like buttah. I don't care for the bolt heads in the fingerboard but you have to cut corners somewhere to build a guitar that good for a price that low. I think that the 100 series Taylors are a good logical next step, or you can go to the 300 series.