Greetings, all! I just bought my first Taylor, a GC 8. In fact, I've never bought a new guitar before, my 80s Washburn being a gift from my wife when we got married. I've had the GC for about a month and love to play it. I'm also playing around with different strings. I found the Elixirs that came with the guitar to be a bit "thick" and high for my small, uncalloused fingers. (I haven't played regularly for a long time. But I'm making up for it now!) I tried DiAddarios and Martin SP, but went back to Elixir extra light and adjusted the truss rod to lower the action a bit, while I got used to the guitar. I backed off the truss rod adjustment after getting some string buzz. I'm just learning fingerpicking. I tried growing my nails on the right hand, but couldn't get used to it, so I'm shopping for some good finger picks. Any suggestions?
Also, I found a few dead notes, F,F#, and G on the 5th string. Notes just die almost instantly. It's not the neck, as the dead notes migrate on the fretboard when the string is tuned down or up. It's always those same notes. The dullness is less pronounced but still evident on those same notes on the 4th string. I found a post on a different forum from GC owner who said exactly the same thing. I don't spend alot of time on those 5th string frets, so while I'm not planning on returning the guitar, I'd still like to hear from others on the best way to mitigate the problem. And, no, I didn't have the guitar set up before bringing it home. Should I have that done? My gut tells me the problem lies with the resonance of the body, but again would like to hear from others. From other postings, this seems like a fairly common problem.
All that aside, I love my Taylor! Before buying, I attended a Taylor Road Show. The most interesting part was, after Wayne Johnson played all the various styles of Taylors, they asked for a show of hands as to which body style had the sound the attendees preferred. Almost every hand went up for the Grand Concert. I find it interesting, because I've been reading in other forums, on other guitar makes, that Taylors are "too bright"! Yet compared even to other larger body Taylors, the less "boomy" GC was chosen as having the best overall tone.
Anyway, that's my intro. Looking forward to lots of playing and chatting about Taylor guitars!
