JonThysell
Well-known member
After a year of testing tons of different brands and models (both acoustic and classical), I finally found a guitar that I fell in love with as soon as I sat down to play.
It's a brand new Taylor GS Mini-e Koa.
I've been playing the uke for about 4 years now, and have bought and sold dozens of instruments as I learned what I liked and didn't like.
These days I pretty much just play my 19" bari, tuned Open G (DGBd) to play adapted arrangements of Hawaiian Slack Key tunes. Only occasionally do I take out my concert or soprano for some traditional cha-lang-a-lang.
It took a long time for me to accept and be comfortable with venturing out away from standard uke to baritone, then again away from the plethora of uke material in standard tunings to Open G. It's meant a lot of extra work transposing, but ultimately I love the tuning and the music I can make with it.
I started looking about a year ago, off and on, still debating if I as going to go ahead and get a guitar so I could play the original slack-key arrangements. I never found a full-sized or dreadnought model acoustic that I was comfortable with, and I never really liked the wide fret-boards on classicals or any size. I tried a GS Mini about a year ago, but I wasn't a good enough player to feel like I could make a call on the instrument. Likewise I had no luck with any of the various six-string ukes, like the Cordoba Mini. They were all way too cramped for my hands.
Now, a year later and a year better, I sat down with this koa model, and I loved it. The shorter scale and spacing were very comfortable (compared even to shorter scaled guitars I'd tried) and I love the mellow, rounded sound over what the spruce-topped ones make. The steel strings will get a little getting used to, but they're not as bad I was expecting. I love that it's small enough to have on my lap on the couch but not dead or muted sounding like so many of the smaller guitars I tested.
I have it tuned to taropatch Open G and there it'll stay. I have zero desire to learn standard tuning. The only things I want to play are slack-key, plus a little fingerstyle blues on the side.
Ok, time to train my thumb to start using those extra strings!
It's a brand new Taylor GS Mini-e Koa.
I've been playing the uke for about 4 years now, and have bought and sold dozens of instruments as I learned what I liked and didn't like.
These days I pretty much just play my 19" bari, tuned Open G (DGBd) to play adapted arrangements of Hawaiian Slack Key tunes. Only occasionally do I take out my concert or soprano for some traditional cha-lang-a-lang.
It took a long time for me to accept and be comfortable with venturing out away from standard uke to baritone, then again away from the plethora of uke material in standard tunings to Open G. It's meant a lot of extra work transposing, but ultimately I love the tuning and the music I can make with it.
I started looking about a year ago, off and on, still debating if I as going to go ahead and get a guitar so I could play the original slack-key arrangements. I never found a full-sized or dreadnought model acoustic that I was comfortable with, and I never really liked the wide fret-boards on classicals or any size. I tried a GS Mini about a year ago, but I wasn't a good enough player to feel like I could make a call on the instrument. Likewise I had no luck with any of the various six-string ukes, like the Cordoba Mini. They were all way too cramped for my hands.
Now, a year later and a year better, I sat down with this koa model, and I loved it. The shorter scale and spacing were very comfortable (compared even to shorter scaled guitars I'd tried) and I love the mellow, rounded sound over what the spruce-topped ones make. The steel strings will get a little getting used to, but they're not as bad I was expecting. I love that it's small enough to have on my lap on the couch but not dead or muted sounding like so many of the smaller guitars I tested.
I have it tuned to taropatch Open G and there it'll stay. I have zero desire to learn standard tuning. The only things I want to play are slack-key, plus a little fingerstyle blues on the side.
Ok, time to train my thumb to start using those extra strings!
