Taylor GS Mini e Plus Koa set up
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- This is an action tweak (and nut replacement) on a brand new Taylor GS Mini e Plus Koa acoustic. I'm a big fan of Taylor guitars partly because of the sound and the quality, partly because of their brilliant bolt-on neck + reciprocal shim pair system that allows their necks to be reset periodically and the action to be set precisely with a fraction of the misery of trying to do the same on a traditional glued-in neck joint.
So even for a tiny action improvement from brand new (which is what I'm doing here) we still use the neck shim system; that's its beauty. Whether it's fixing a rising action after 15 years of slow structural deformation (happens to almost ALL acoustic guitars) or just shaving a half mm from the playing action from the 'get-go' this bolt-on neck and shim system is the way to do it.
You'll see me hit a snag with the nut replacement - a tiny bit of cleaning up detritus in the nut slot AFTER I thought I'd reached my perfect 1st fret action saw the nut needing a slight lift. I prefer not to shim with loose materials in a nut slot so my chosen approach is to glue on some scrap Tusq to the bottom of the nut and work it back to the correct height - and probably finish off with using the Hosco files to perfection. This added some time to this set up - so be prepared for a long and fairly uneventful (and uncommunicative!) process as I boost up the nut (only short by about 1/10th mm!) and work it back to where I needed it to be. Apologies for how dreary it is!
On the plus side, Rich was absolutely thrilled with how his new GS Mini plays and sounds. So the fiddly work was worth it :)
I've never watched anything like this and thoroughly enjoyed it 🫡
Hi Sam - thank you for the video, very interesting. Good to see Taylor are giving people options on action adjustment. I can confirm the guitar plays really well and is a joy to play, as they say, the right guitar is the one you can’t put down…Many thanks for your diligence in getting this work spot on, much appreciated! - Rich
Hi Rich, most welcome - I enjoy it as you know :D
Hi Sam, I wonder if you can advice in one thing, please...what is the main issue if there is almost no harmonics (mainly above 5th fret) on strings (E and B mostly) ? Is it becuase harmonics are "muted" in too thin nut slot ? thank you, Tom.
Hi Tom... that's a good question. Sometimes when strings are dead (or badly-made or even counterfeit - yes, it does happen!) then they don't ping at the right place and sometimes they don't ping at all. If you suspect the strings or they're very old, it's a good idea to replace them and check again.
Another more technical reason why you might get no ping over - say - the 5th or 7th frets (for example when you're trying to tune with relative harmonic tuning) *could* be that the bridge is slightly out of place. If you increase (or decrease) the playing length of the string then the harmonics will be in the 'wrong' place i.e. not over the 5th and 7th where you'd expect them. This is effectively because your neck and fret positions now no longer match your actual scale length. It's unlikely your bridge would be so far out that this would occur but it's technically possible.
Your string may also not ping the harmonics properly if the nut slot (or saddle) is flat i.e. the string has no clear start point or end point but if that were the case, you'd likely also notice that the string sounding dead when you played it open. Both nut and saddle need sharp, well-defined apexes for the string to pass over to make a clear note.
Check for old, cheap or fake strings first; then check your neck scale length (i.e. measure front edge of nut to middle of 12th fret and double it) and then measure the actual scale length i.e. the distance from nut front edge to bridge high E apex. That saddle apex should be on or very close to the scale length that your neck is made for. If it ISN'T then you have a mismatch between string scale length and neck scale length. On electric guitars this can often be compensated for by moving the saddles forward or backward; on an acoustic guitar it's a more serious problem since the bridge saddle is in a fixed position with very limited intonation range or adjustment.
Hope that info helps!
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars thank you Sam very much...I did the scale length measurement already and it is OK, had new Elixir strings (but will check if genuine) so I think it will be the nut slot shape thing.....Thx again and all the best in new year ..
Let he who is without shim cast the first stone
I'm a shimophile, I admit it.
Gibson uses veneer and lots of it..Gibson's semi-hollowbodies like the ES-335 and ES-339 have tops and backs constructed of layers (either 3 or 4) of maple veneer. My understanding is that the veneers are assembled in successive cross-grain layers with the top layer having its grain longitudinal to the length of the guitar. The tops and backs are approximately 1/4" in thickness after layup.
Thanks Moe - that's useful info. I"m about to remove finish from a maple-laminate Gibson 333 back so good to know what I'm working with.
Hi Sam can you advise me on what is lowest action you recommend for this model?
Hi Rob - my preference is NOT what Taylor states as it's 'recommended' action - but I tend to aim for 2.25mm at the last fret on the low E, with a spread across to 1.5-1.75mm on the high E. The frets on Taylors are almost always good enough to work with that kind of action. Remember - that's MY preference and the preference of most of my customers; but you can set whatever feels best to you. You can go as low as 2mm low E, 1.25 high E but you're likely to need to do fret levelling at that point.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars thanks Sam. Much appreciated.
Gesundheit! Yes, I watched all 109.95 minutes, Sam. To witness, as if a fly-on-the-wall inside a luthier’s lair, the passionate if not painstaking craft of guitar ‘repair’ was engaging. I was stricken by the pathos imbued in your nut adjustments and inspired by the calm that permeates your very nature. Thanks for a fascinating video. PS: I intend to track down The Streets of Sam (sic) Fransisco and I covet your workshop!
You're very kind Antoine! Some days a replacement nut seems to just 'drop in' and other days I'm doing modifications, repairs and shims for hours to get it right :D If you find The Streets of San Francisco just try to avoid the part in Season 4 where they wrote Steve (Michael Douglas) out of the show and brought in a replacement. Like they did when the wounded and all-bandaged up 'John Boy Walton' came back from WW2 and when the bandages were removed he was a different actor. I don't thing I've quite overcome that childhood trauma yet. What WERE they thinking?!?
Hi, is a camber under the bridge of about 3.6 mm normal on a Taylor GS Mini-E Koa or should I be worried?thx
Hi Marco - I've seen many similar guitars including Taylors with 3mm on both sides (when a ruler is placed on its edge behind the bridge). Taylor seem to imply that any such 'bellying' is caused by too much humidity - which I think is cynical because it's an easy way to put the responsibility on to customers. I'm far more persuaded that in most cases, this bellying that you're measuring is caused primarily by string loading, 24/7. This indicates that the structure of the guitar is - in my view - not capable of withstanding the loading. It's 'our' fault as consumers; we wanted more tonal dynamics and we keep buying guitars that fold up under string loading.
The end results of the bellying of the guitar top behind the bridge is that the playing action rises a little and if it continues, the bridge may eventually break free of the (now curved) top and rotate forward.
On the positive side: you've got a Taylor which is constructed in a way that recognises (acknowledges!) the slow structural deformation - because its bolt-on / shim system allows you to correct it even WITH that belly bulge.
So don't worry about the bellying. You could fit a JLD Bridge System to (hopefully) arrest / stop further bellying and rotation of the bridge.... but most of all get your guitar action set to how you like it (via a luthier or tech who has the Taylor shims and knows how to do it). With a lovely low and light action you'll forget that the string loading is a bit too much for the structure and just enjoy playing :)
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars what scares me a little and which is a month old, I'll keep under control for some time. Thanks a lot for the answer
@@marcolopresti5412 Acoustic guitar makers will say that their guitar tops are not meant to be completely flat but it seems like they will never clearly state how much 'radius' or roundness you should expect from their guitars i.e. a brand new GS Mini for example. The nearest I ever found was a custom / small bespoke acoustic guitar maker who quoted the top curve as something huge like 275 inches (!!!) or 22 feet. That, I can promise you, is almost undetectable to the eye and certain isn't 3.5mm on each side measured with a straight edge.
I have a contact in Taylor and I think I'm going to put this question to them and see what they come back with. I can do it in this kind of format "I have several customers who ask me how much curvature their new guitar tops should have. One recently measured it as 3.5mm either side (with a straight edge placed behind the bridge). Can you give me any guidance as to the normal curvature of the top and how it is measured / checked?"
Let's see what they say.
The point being, IF 3.5mm each side is out of spec (according to them) then you should be entitled to send it back to them under warranty. Assuming it WAS beyond spec, then what they would DO to it would depends on what they blame the excessive curvature on. I've had one customer with the same problem report that Taylor flatly stated "You've let it become over-humidified, it's not our problem..." and it was that way from the day they bought it in the store....
Let's see how they reply to me - if they do.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars I'm waiting for Taylor to answer me, tomorrow I'll talk to the luthier of the dealer where I got the guitar. What worries me is how such a curvature has occurred in such a short time. not even 30 days. Thanks again for your availability and kindness
@@marcolopresti5412 Keep in touch and let me know. I also emailed my contact at Taylor Netherlands so I'll let you know if I get any useful information back.
Glad you got there in the end! 🙂
Thanks. I keep trying to hit the action spot on by only working from the underside of the nut. Very noble...but so many things get in the way, for example some dried glue. Clean it out and suddenly you're below the minimum 1st fret action and you have to either replace the nut with a new one and start again or build the nut up as I do here and start again...