The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #62479   Message #1600556
Posted By: jonm
09-Nov-05 - 07:07 AM
Thread Name: Travel guitars
Subject: RE: Travel guitars
I have a Baby Taylor. I only experience intonation problems with elderly strings. It fulfils my criteria for a decent enough tone in a compact, portable and disposable package. The gig bag is very protective. I would not cry if it sustained damage, just get another one.

I tried all the travellers available left handed before buying this one, plus considering coverting righties. The best sound seemed to be the Go I heard, but it was not for sale and the UK distribution does not appear to exist any more. Martin Backpacker and the Vintage were ridiculously weak and boxy, didn't like the tone of the baby Martin as much as the Taylor, the Tanglewood and Takamini were OK but the cost of converting to lefty swung it for the Taylor.

I take it when travelling and on occasions when I don't know if I'm going to get a chance to play, but would regret not having an instrument.

I really like the boxy raw tone for blues and use it live occasionally for blues lead into a mic (haven't succeeded in finding a suitable p/u) over another guitar. Short scale makes for easy bends. The Baby wouldn't cope with another guitar without amplification, but it does fine backing up fiddle, flute or mandolin.

Hope this helps.