Taylor GS Mini-e Modifications

I have been given a GS Mini-e Koa as a birthday present....absolutely loving it.....but like most folk...we all like to mod our guitars “now and again”....has anyone moded their GS Mini...and what mods do you recommend.
0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom

Comments

  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7731
    edited September 2020
    I cut a new bone saddle just to get better intonation but it made the tone perhaps too pristine. Not much else you can do with them. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I love my little Koa
    After many months of agonising as I loved the tone, I did lower the bridge saddle to get a better action despite risking tone but I can't cope with the Taylor recommended action. That and a little fretwork and it plays super and still sounds great.

    As for modding, they are such a great little guitar as is, I might put some better tuners on only as the supplied ones seem to be a much lower ration than most other guitars I have. They hold tune ,frankly the whole thing holds tune really well considering that now I have a temp humidity meter here the humidity through the day swings from 70/80% to 40% later afternoon back to 70% and the temp swings this summer have been from 22 at 7 am to 38 by 2 pm they drop at 5 pm then as the land cools the warm air comes off the sea about 8 o'clock it is a weird micro-climate for sure. One of the benefits of laminate construction I can pick it up any time of day and it will only ever be a few cents out but always evenly out across the strings if that makes sense the Little Sister Crossroads my other guitar here copes less well. 

    One of the things I love about it is how great it sounds recorded I use the built-in and a mike a few compressor and plugins touch of verb it sounds like a million dollars in the mix. 

    I tried it with a friends spruce one and the Koa has a different tonality that works well. 

    As you can tell I am a bit obsessed with the thing LOL

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Mine came with a somewhat high action, despite playing well. I had a spare Tusq saddle from a few years ago so I used that to lower the action by a mm or so. Interestingly, the cheaper Nubone had a much nicer shape to it (both are from GraphTech, but I’ve had the Tusq saddle in my spares box for several years). I also got a set of Taylor ebony pins to replace the plastic pins. I can’t say it’s made much of a difference sonically.

    The first thing I thought I’d do was change the strings - I switched from Elixirs to D’Addario EXPs on my Taylor 310 and thought they were such a great improvement I’ve never gone back. However, I quite like the sound of Elixirs on my GS Mini. When they get scruffy I’ll experiment with EXPs or Martin Lifespan.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.