In my home actually.
It arrived here this morning.
First impressions:
I expected the koa wood to be relatively "plain" on a budget instrument such as this. It isn't! There is a lot of curly flame and chatoyance, where the whole thing moves like a hologram as you turn it against the light. Lots of characterful dark streaks in the grain too. I really like it.
I am used to playing guitars with a 1-3/4" neck these days, so I was interested to see how I would adapt to the 1-11/16" nut width. After a couple minutes my fingers/brain adapted nicely. Strangely, it was the right hand that took a little more concentration as the string spacing is narrower, and my fingerpicking thumb missed a few times, but that was quickly overcome.
I was surprised at the feel of the neck. It is thicker (from the face of the fingerboard to the back of the neck) than my other Taylor and my Martins, which gave it an "old style" feel, not unlike my 1960s D-18. Quite beefy in fact, but with a good feeling profile.
Tone: Now I confess to liking my guitars to have a tone tending towards the mellow end of the spectrum. This is something that one doesn't expect from a budget guitar and not from a small box such as the GS Mini. But I was more than pleasantly surprised. There was a little boxyness and brittleness to the sound on the wound strings, but I could hear the potential. Certainly the best small guitar sound that I have ever heard in my 50 plus years of playing. I wonder if.... and so I changed the bridge pins from the plastic ones to ebony. That made a huge difference. Very noticeably indeed. That works with the koa top beautifully. More mellow and fatter.
Sustain: This was something that I really didn't expect. It came as a big surprise! The 2014 GS Mini-e Koa guitar has sustain that rings on for ages. I particularly like that when playing slower fingerstyle tunes, where the notes "fill in" the chords as you continue to play.
Power: The GS Mini comes with medium gauge strings. I usually use lights on my guitars, but the shorter scale makes them feel lighter under the fretting fingers.... and it produces lots of power when you ask it to. Volume in spades full.
The ES Pickup: I played for a little while with the guitar plugged in. No worries or concerns at all. Adding a little reverb at the amp was needed to reproduce the acoustic sound. A little touch on the EQ or on the onboard controls was needed, for my ear and what I want to hear. Increasing the bass a little and backing off the trebles a little. But that's just me, as I prefer "mellow" rather than harsh in your face.
Back to playing
Rod
