GS Mini - Page 4

flaggerphil · #46 01-06-2020, 05:51 PM

The GS Mini is a great guitar for almost anything. I gave mine to my granddaughter and she loves it!

Cool555 · #47 01-07-2020, 10:23 AM

Yes, the GS Mini is a great guitar. Today I played my Mini Koa and compared it (side by side) to my new Martin 00-15M (1 month old). I was surprised by how good my 2-year old Mini sounded. It was as good as the 00-15M...well...maybe I just needed a change of tone as I’ve been mainly playing my new guitar everyday.

Ask your guitar-teacher if you have lessons, he/she may be better able to assess if a wider nut width on the Martin Dreadnought Junior would be better for you since you’re doing finger-picking too.

mrjop1975 · #48 01-07-2020, 10:59 AM

I tried a mini a few years ago and compared it against a Martin Dreadnought jr. My thing with the mini is this: If it is going to be your main guitar, then go for it. Otherwise, no, and maybe look into the Taylor academy series. Just my own take on it.

Cool555 · #49 01-07-2020, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrjop1975

I tried a mini a few years ago and compared it against a Martin Dreadnought jr. My thing with the mini is this: If it is going to be your main guitar, then go for it. Otherwise, no, and maybe look into the Taylor academy series. Just my own take on it.

Yes. The Taylor Academy Series is great too! With the added bevel for right arm comfort, longer scale and quite similar pricing to the GS Mini or Dread Junior.

Digelectric · #50 01-08-2020, 01:02 AM

I bought my wife a Koa GS Mini because she wanted to take up the guitar and it’s a great guitar. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer my Martin D28, but for the money I’d get the Mini for myself as well. It’s a good buy and sounds great.

Rpt50 · #51 01-08-2020, 05:59 AM

I have the walnut and spruce mini. I play guitar far more often now just because it's so easy to play, and the size allows you to play it anywhere in almost any position.

By sound alone, I prefer the mahogany model (bought one for my son), but I wanted a pickup and built in tuner, as I often play in a noisy environment that makes tuning by ear difficult.

mikealpine · #52 01-08-2020, 08:38 AM

If it comfortable for you to sit and hold, and you find it encourages you to pick it up and play, it is the right guitar for you. My daughter wandered the acoustic room at Guitar Center, I told her to pick up any guitar, not to look at the price, sit and play. She walked up with a Mahogany GS and said "I like this one the best." She loves that guitar. I enjoy playing it, as well.

Hurricane Bob · #53 01-08-2020, 12:43 PM

My 2013 GS mini spruce is really an amazing little gal. I can drop her into open C and she still sounds great, fantastic tone and resonance. With a glass slide she just plain wails blues all night.

gitarpraz · #54 01-08-2020, 03:45 PM

I think they're great guitars. You asked about Sweetwater. I think they're great too. Also, it's nice that you can look at a few guitars in their stock on the site and pick the one that looks best to you.

DavidM 1968 · #55 01-14-2020, 05:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DesertTwang

I'm going to chime in with an opinion that runs contrary to what's been said already. I've had the GS Mini ever since it first came out, and it's been my travel and camping guitar ever since. Except I've noticed I play it less and less as time goes by, and that's because it becomes more and more difficult to play the more I get used to playing my daily go-to guitars, which have a long scale, higher string tension and a wider nut. Because I flatpick on a full-size Martin dreadnaught most of the time, the Mini's shorter fret span and lower string tension totally messes me up.

If you plan on playing your Mini exclusively, yes, it's a great guitar and can hold its own, but if you plan on using it alongside "regular-sized" guitars, you may experience the same phenomenon. You'll get so used to one or the other that you may find it very difficult to switch back and forth.

In fact, I would have long sold my Mini had I not started a habit of collecting signatures on it when I first bought it. If i were to buy another compact guitar for travel, the Martin Dreadnaught Jr. would be my first choice because it, too, has the wide nut that my big guitars have.

I would echo this. The GS Mini Hog was my first acoustic and I love it. However, in the summer I bought a Collings OM so the GS Mini is now at work and gets played a little at lunch or at the end of the day when I'm waiting for the traffic to recede. Going from the short scale before leaving work to the standard scale length after dinner takes a little adjustment time. Hence I am thinking of moving my Mini on. Great guitar though if it is the only one you own.

(Maybe I should have bought that Santa Cruz H13 I saw!)

nolegsfngrpickn · #56 01-19-2020, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrjop1975

I tried a mini a few years ago and compared it against a Martin Dreadnought jr. My thing with the mini is this: If it is going to be your main guitar, then go for it. Otherwise, no, and maybe look into the Taylor academy series. Just my own take on it.

The Academy series sounds like trash side by side with a GS Mini. It's not even close (in my opinion).

To the OP, the GS Mini is the best guitar I ever used, so much so that I had a luthier build around its body size and tweak a few things for my specific situation. You can see the build thread in my signature.

It's the hidden gem in the Taylor lineup, they really should place it in their catalog for higher series.

dbramsey · #57 03-07-2020, 10:53 AM

I ordered a GS Mini in Hog. It will be here early next week. Can't wait. I did a lot of research and decided on the GS Mini.
Thanks for everyone's input. Great group of people on this forum.
David

Cool555 · #58 03-07-2020, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbramsey

I ordered a GS Mini in Hog. It will be here early next week. Can't wait. I did a lot of research and decided on the GS Mini.

Thanks for everyone's input. Great group of people on this forum.

David

Congrats David! It’s a great guitar! You’ll enjoy playing it....in good health!

Rpt50 · #59 03-08-2020, 06:45 AM

I already replied to this thread to extol the virtues of the mini, but again last night, the thought recurred that if I could only have 1 guitar for the rest of my life, it would certainly be a GS mini. This thought recurred as I was noodling away on it while watching corona virus coverage and thinking of quarantine, isolation, apocalypse...