NGD! Taylor GA4!

[Tugboat]

New guitar day yesterday! Got a used 2011/2012 Taylor GA4 at a really good price. Solid sitka top, solid Ovangkol back and sides, ebony bridge and fretboard. Bought it without playing it actually. There isn't much in the way of options around here in southeast Georgia. I played all of the guitars in the price range (only Marin and Taylor around here) and liked the Taylor GA guitars the best the 314ce was pretty good but the 814ce was amazing. Too much money though. I originally thought that a D-28, D-18 or 000-28 would be doable but with a wedding and honeymoon this year I decided those were a bit too much, even used. The Martins in my price range didn't really impress me.

Liking the 814ce so much I started looking at 414ce's since Ovangkol is supposed to be really close to rosewood in tone, with a bit more midrange. Ended up finding this used GA4 for a great price and pulled the trigger! I found the cutaway on acoustics to be pretty useless and it has a Fishman Matrix Infinity installed.

It came last night and so far I'm very impressed! It's very sensitive to where you pick. It's got a much smoother and clearer treble than the 314 I tried but I'm not sure what strings are on there. They look and sound new though. It's got a surprisingly great low end, great volume, and sounds like a very good mid size OM type acoustic. It's definitely louder than my cheapo dreadnought it's replacing. I can hear Ovangkol's resemblance to rosewood. I'm sold on Ovangkol as a tone wood. The guitar easily exposes bad fingerpicking technique. Sounds great when finger picked when you get it right though! It's equally adept as a strummer as well and the light gauge strings are much more comfortable when playing bendy bluesy stuff. I'm having a lot of fun getting to know this guitar! :yah:

I need to replace the saddle. It's a cheap plastic one and the strings are cutting in it. The G string has a bit of sitar like fret buzz when bending notes in some places if you don't pick light. Hopefully a new saddle fixes it. If not I may have to do a bit of fretwork.


Untitled by dafack01, on Flickr


Untitled by dafack01, on Flickr



Untitled by dafack01, on Flickr

Untitled by dafack01, on Flickr

[Cindy]

Congratulations on a stellar guitar! Looks fantastic and I'm sure it sounds awesome!

[Strumming Fool]

VERY NICE-LOOING INSTRUMENT! I'll bet it sounds great too. Congratulations!

[oatordeal]

congrats on the your new GA4! it still looks brand new if you ask me!

[jrporter]

I'm glad it arrived ok, and you're pleased with it. The strings are D'Addario EXP11s, and I recently changed them before shipping. I play light and never noticed the sitar sound, but have found on other guitars that it's often a function of bend angle and too low saddle height. Play her in good health....

[Giraku]

Great looking guitar!!
Congrats!!!

[Tugboat]

I thought the strings were different. They sound better to my ears than the Nanowebs that Taylor puts on. They have a much smoother top end. The guitar plays flawless except those few spots on the G string when doing bends.

I like the nut width. I have big hands and there's plenty of room for my figers when doing tight chords like an A7. It responds very well when played light but it can also take quite a heavy hand as well.

I need to work on my fingerpicking too. It sounds great fingerpicked but it really exposes bad technique.

[ctkarslake]

Fine looking guitar Tugboat.  Love the back, sure looks a lot like rosewood too even though it's not.  Thinking about your "sitar" issue, maybe a slight turn of the truss rod would help eliminate that.  I've loosened mine just enough to do the same thing on a few of mine.  That would be a slight (!) counterclockwise turn of the truss rod.
Bet you anything that will stop the twang.  I don't think a new saddle would do it unless it's significantly taller than the one already on there.  Truss rod adjustments can be very effective in this case.

[Tugboat]

I'm definitely getting a new saddle and I'll be fitting it to the same dimensions as the stock saddle. It has 11's on it now according to jrporter so I'll try 12's since that's what they come with from the factory...maybe the 11's have something to do with it? If those don't work I'll tweak the truss rod.

Thanks for the help!

[jrporter]

D'Addario's EXP11s are 12s (.012-.053)...

[Tugboat]

D'Addario's EXP11s are 12s (.012-.053)...

That shows how knowledgeable I am on acoustic guitar strings! LOL! I guess I won't be changing string gauge. I'll try the saddle first then the truss rod.

I'm assuming that D'Addario has some sort of logic behind the EXP11 name besides to confuse inexperienced acoustic guitar string buyers like me.

[JB12]

^ Haha!  The same thing happened to me a month ago, as I tried to talk to a local luthier about strings I had on a guitar.  He suggested I try them (EXP11), and I said, I'm not sure about 11's.  He corrected me quickly, lol.

No shame in learning!

Enjoy the GA4.  Those Ebony tuning pins sure do top off that beautiful guitar!

[Joseph]

Nice guitar... congratulations! Ovangkol is a great wood. I own a 415 jumbo (spruce/ovangkol).. and it sounds great, especially when you drive it hard - it doesn't get muddy at all - (reminds me of my brothers '67 Chevelle with a custom 427 c.i. engine.. it sounded great around town, but when you put the pedal to the metal.. the car would just lift straight up and take you down the road without a hiccup..500 hp growling.. and your heart racing along with it) - well... maybe that's not quite a good comparison to the guitar, but the jumbo guitar with ovangkol is awesome.. and I am sure that your GA4 is too! 

[lmacmil]

Congrats.  I think the GA shape is just the perfect shape for a guitar.  Let us know how you like the Fishman after you've had a chance to plug it in.

[Jurrasicway]

Under rated Ovankol strikes again. When I first played one the bass and range of tone blew me away, enjoy