Baby Taylor,But Elixirs must go

MrSteens · August 1st, 2003, 12:22 AM

Ok here it is.... I just purchased a new Baby Taylor from the Seattle GC. Sight unseen. I had been playing one at the local music store. The one I was playing was a used one but it played and sounded great for a travel guitar. Comparing it to my older,(30years) Guild D50, well you understand. I needed a travel, camping, get the kids to play guitar. So after playing the used Baby Taylor I decide this was the one to get. Well upon going back to the local shop...gone. My fault anyway.
After reading a couple of these postings it seems that the Elixirs maybe the problem, which I thought. My oldest son bought me a set of Elixirs for my Tele as a birthday gift. Well I didn't have the heart to tell him.... but those string are like muddy water. (IMOP). I went back to the D'Addario's. I also use the D'Addario's on my Guild. My question is to anyone out there with a Baby Taylor. What strings do you favor for your Baby? Brand and guage. Have you had any problems. What do you think about the machine heads. Any opinion will be greatly appricated.

Bluedawg · August 1st, 2003, 10:58 PM

I absolutely despise Elixir strings,and any other Bright sounding strings.
Some people like'em,I don't.

I like Martin 80/20 12 gauge strings.

RTod · August 7th, 2003, 11:45 PM

Got my wife a Big Baby....We liked Martin SP Custom Lights in PB...however if brightness is a problem try out Bronze. Also, we were just having a discussion above about Firewire strings..they might have something.

mudshark · August 22nd, 2003, 12:53 AM

I like Elixers OK, I guess, but I use metal fingerpicks and they chew the coating off them, so I stick to D'Addarios.

newbie · August 22nd, 2003, 07:32 AM

great for what they are. a string that is supposed to sound decent for a long, long time. and imo they do that. i like other strings better also, as long as i'm playing my acoustic regularly. but when i'm not, i usually put a set of elixirs on there. that way when i pick it up once every other week, i don't have to put strings on it before i play it!

they also help out these guitar shop owners who don't believe in tuning guitars, and replacing rusted strings on their for sale guitars! that's why taylor ships with the strings on them. because they can hang on a rack for 5 or 6 months, and still sound decent.

Wally · August 22nd, 2003, 11:10 AM

When Taylor first started shipping with Elixirs, he was quoted in "Wood 'n Steel", Taylor's in-house mag, that he was shipping with Elixirs for two reasons...they did not discolor while customers tried the guitars out in the store and they did not change sound. He was not particularly impressed with the initial sound of the Elixirs, but they don't change. Hey when the string starts out dead, where can it go? Of course they don't change. The wound, covered strings are just that ...dead from the start. People think that the Elixir is a 'bright' string...that is because the high E and B strings are dominant due to the deadness of the covered strings. The later 'covered' offerings from Elixir, GHS, D'add, Martin, and DR are not quite so drastically compromised sonically. That is because the treatment is made before the string is wound. The original Elixir is covered/coated after the winding process is complete. The coating still inhibits some of the harmonic production and volume. One thing a coating will not prevent is metal fatigue. That begins when the string is brought to tension, and it is only a matter of time before that string loses its integrity, whether it is played or not. There comes a time when the intonation will go away due to this fatigue. One of my young customers came to this realization 3 weeks after I set up his Strat. He noticed that all of his strings were intonating flat. He brought the guitar in and my ear also told me that he was correct. I asked him if he had changed the strings. When he replied that he had not, I said that we would change strings and see what the situation was. After the string change, his intonation was back to dead on. Metal Fatigue is unavoidable.

Silverface · August 22nd, 2003, 11:45 AM

Quote:

I absolutely despise Elixir strings,and any other Bright sounding strings.

Hmmm - to me, Elixers are exactly the opposite of "bright", and I agree - I hate bright-sounding strings. I use them on my Martins because they specifically have a broken-in, mellower tone than 80/20's. I don't like the sound of fresh bronze strings and the Elixers take the edge off nicely....and last a l-o-n-g time to boot.

hippietim · August 26th, 2003, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silverface

Hmmm - to me, Elixers are exactly the opposite of "bright", and I agree - I hate bright-sounding strings. I use them on my Martins because they specifically have a broken-in, mellower tone than 80/20's. I don't like the sound of fresh bronze strings and the Elixers take the edge off nicely....and last a l-o-n-g time to boot.

I'm with you Silverface - I love the fact that they don't sound all screechy bright and they hold their tone for a LONG time.

Wally · August 27th, 2003, 10:26 AM

Has anyone noticed the imbalance between the plain strings and the wound/coated strings on the original Elixirs. The new generation of coated strings exhibit less of this imbalance, but I personally don't care for any coated string due to this factor. Plus, I can't see the rationale for paying twice as much for strings that are dead when I put them on. If I want a dead-sounding string, I'll just leave some uncoated strings on forever. They still exhibit more harmonic content than a coated string when the coated strings are new. when I put a pick to a string, I expect to feel and hear some interaction between the pick and the string. Coated strings feel and sound something like a loose rubber band, imo.
As for lasting a long time, it is true that the coated strings do not change their sound. On other undeniable fact is that intonation goes flat within a relatively short period of time due to metal fatigue, which no coating can prevent.
I continue to try all of the options on the market, but the imbalance issue, the feel of the attack, and the lack of harmonic content of coated strings keeps me using non-coated strings. Just my preference. When I decide to sell the high-priced coated alternatives, I suppose that I will sing a different song in the mname of profit. I sometimes tire of demonstrating to customers the difference between traditional strings and these new, high-dollar thuddy sound strings.

buglecorps · September 18th, 2003, 08:36 PM

That will change (can't afford 'em any more) but I found they worked well for me...on that guitar..never used 'em on any other. They held up well to setting out uncased, beach and camp playing ect.

telemann51 · September 18th, 2003, 09:07 PM

Session work just seems to go better when I use them because they don't change their tone from the beginning to the end. It's worth it to me. I also use them when I'm going to be at a festival. At all other times I use a variety of other strings, primarily D'Addario and Martin SP.

Kurt · October 13th, 2003, 07:20 PM

I agree that coated strings on the Baby Taylor are a bad match. I've been using Pyramid strings on my Tele for a long time so I thought I'd try their acoustic strings and I think they sound great on the BT. Best of luck.

RTod · October 27th, 2003, 08:26 AM

I have been recomending them to my female students. The women have a hard time with the big body of the Dreadnaughts and I found that the Big Baby was perfect in its dimensions for most women to play. So far about 6 of the students have purchased them. The Elixers....gotta go, I bought Martin SP Custom Lights for my wife's guitar. You might try the same in Bronze if you want to get rid of brightness. I havent tried Firewires on these as they are a string that is a bit stiff, but has great tone. I try to get away from the tight strings for the women students. But the Custom Light Gauge seemed to work out just fine on these.

August 1st, 2003, 12:22 AM	#1 (permalink)
MrSteens TDPRI Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bend,OR Posts: 15	Baby Taylor,But Elixirs must go Ok here it is.... I just purchased a new Baby Taylor from the Seattle GC. Sight unseen. I had been playing one at the local music store. The one I was playing was a used one but it played and sounded great for a travel guitar. Comparing it to my older,(30years) Guild D50, well you understand. I needed a travel, camping, get the kids to play guitar. So after playing the used Baby Taylor I decide this was the one to get. Well upon going back to the local shop...gone. My fault anyway. After reading a couple of these postings it seems that the Elixirs maybe the problem, which I thought. My oldest son bought me a set of Elixirs for my Tele as a birthday gift. Well I didn't have the heart to tell him.... but those string are like muddy water. (IMOP). I went back to the D'Addario's. I also use the D'Addario's on my Guild. My question is to anyone out there with a Baby Taylor. What strings do you favor for your Baby? Brand and guage. Have you had any problems. What do you think about the machine heads. Any opinion will be greatly appricated.

August 1st, 2003, 10:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
Bluedawg Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Mid-Atlantic,US Posts: 196	I absolutely despise Elixir strings,and any other Bright sounding strings. Some people like'em,I don't. I like Martin 80/20 12 gauge strings. __________________ Boom,Boom,Boom,Boom -J.L. Hooker

August 7th, 2003, 11:45 PM	#3 (permalink)
RTod Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 177	Big Baby Taylor Got my wife a Big Baby....We liked Martin SP Custom Lights in PB...however if brightness is a problem try out Bronze. Also, we were just having a discussion above about Firewire strings..they might have something.

August 22nd, 2003, 12:53 AM	#4 (permalink)
mudshark Tele-Holic Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Groover's Paradise Age: 57 Posts: 873	I like Elixers OK, I guess, but I use metal fingerpicks and they chew the coating off them, so I stick to D'Addarios. __________________ mudshark Klaatu barada nikto

August 22nd, 2003, 07:32 AM	#5 (permalink)
newbie Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 226	elixirs are great for what they are. a string that is supposed to sound decent for a long, long time. and imo they do that. i like other strings better also, as long as i'm playing my acoustic regularly. but when i'm not, i usually put a set of elixirs on there. that way when i pick it up once every other week, i don't have to put strings on it before i play it! they also help out these guitar shop owners who don't believe in tuning guitars, and replacing rusted strings on their for sale guitars! that's why taylor ships with the strings on them. because they can hang on a rack for 5 or 6 months, and still sound decent.

August 22nd, 2003, 11:10 AM	#6 (permalink)
Wally Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Lubbock, TX Posts: 3,769	When Taylor first started shipping with Elixirs, he was quoted in "Wood 'n Steel", Taylor's in-house mag, that he was shipping with Elixirs for two reasons...they did not discolor while customers tried the guitars out in the store and they did not change sound. He was not particularly impressed with the initial sound of the Elixirs, but they don't change. Hey when the string starts out dead, where can it go? Of course they don't change. The wound, covered strings are just that ...dead from the start. People think that the Elixir is a 'bright' string...that is because the high E and B strings are dominant due to the deadness of the covered strings. The later 'covered' offerings from Elixir, GHS, D'add, Martin, and DR are not quite so drastically compromised sonically. That is because the treatment is made before the string is wound. The original Elixir is covered/coated after the winding process is complete. The coating still inhibits some of the harmonic production and volume. One thing a coating will not prevent is metal fatigue. That begins when the string is brought to tension, and it is only a matter of time before that string loses its integrity, whether it is played or not. There comes a time when the intonation will go away due to this fatigue. One of my young customers came to this realization 3 weeks after I set up his Strat. He noticed that all of his strings were intonating flat. He brought the guitar in and my ear also told me that he was correct. I asked him if he had changed the strings. When he replied that he had not, I said that we would change strings and see what the situation was. After the string change, his intonation was back to dead on. Metal Fatigue is unavoidable.

August 27th, 2003, 10:26 AM	#9 (permalink)
Wally Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Lubbock, TX Posts: 3,769	Has anyone noticed the imbalance between the plain strings and the wound/coated strings on the original Elixirs. The new generation of coated strings exhibit less of this imbalance, but I personally don't care for any coated string due to this factor. Plus, I can't see the rationale for paying twice as much for strings that are dead when I put them on. If I want a dead-sounding string, I'll just leave some uncoated strings on forever. They still exhibit more harmonic content than a coated string when the coated strings are new. when I put a pick to a string, I expect to feel and hear some interaction between the pick and the string. Coated strings feel and sound something like a loose rubber band, imo. As for lasting a long time, it is true that the coated strings do not change their sound. On other undeniable fact is that intonation goes flat within a relatively short period of time due to metal fatigue, which no coating can prevent. I continue to try all of the options on the market, but the imbalance issue, the feel of the attack, and the lack of harmonic content of coated strings keeps me using non-coated strings. Just my preference. When I decide to sell the high-priced coated alternatives, I suppose that I will sing a different song in the mname of profit. I sometimes tire of demonstrating to customers the difference between traditional strings and these new, high-dollar thuddy sound strings.

September 18th, 2003, 08:36 PM	#10 (permalink)
buglecorps Tele-Holic Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Suburban Twang Town Posts: 753	I have always used them on my Baby.. That will change (can't afford 'em any more) but I found they worked well for me...on that guitar..never used 'em on any other. They held up well to setting out uncased, beach and camp playing ect. __________________ Loud is Good...

September 18th, 2003, 09:07 PM	#11 (permalink)
telemann51 Tele-Holic Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 525	I use Elixir Nanowebs whenever I'm in the studio Session work just seems to go better when I use them because they don't change their tone from the beginning to the end. It's worth it to me. I also use them when I'm going to be at a festival. At all other times I use a variety of other strings, primarily D'Addario and Martin SP.

October 13th, 2003, 07:20 PM	#12 (permalink)
Kurt Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: MA Posts: 363	I switched to Pyramid acoustic strings I agree that coated strings on the Baby Taylor are a bad match. I've been using Pyramid strings on my Tele for a long time so I thought I'd try their acoustic strings and I think they sound great on the BT. Best of luck.

October 27th, 2003, 08:26 AM	#13 (permalink)
RTod Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 177	Got a lot of Expierience with Big Baby's I have been recomending them to my female students. The women have a hard time with the big body of the Dreadnaughts and I found that the Big Baby was perfect in its dimensions for most women to play. So far about 6 of the students have purchased them. The Elixers....gotta go, I bought Martin SP Custom Lights for my wife's guitar. You might try the same in Bronze if you want to get rid of brightness. I havent tried Firewires on these as they are a string that is a bit stiff, but has great tone. I try to get away from the tight strings for the women students. But the Custom Light Gauge seemed to work out just fine on these.