Need advice and/or leads for buying a Taylor Acoustic/Electric Guitar or Big Baby...

January 19, 2008 9:36 AM

Need advice and/or leads for buying a Taylor Acoustic/Electric Guitar or Big Baby...

I am ready to buy a guitar, and I have 3 things to consider:

My hands (2 fold):

1) I am rehabbing from an injury where I severed extensor tendons in my left hand. I have always wanted to learn to play, so I am going to use this as a way to help get more range of motion in my hand.

2) I have small hands... should I go with a Taylor Big Baby? I have held a friends full size taylor and it is just a bit too big in the neck, although much better than most acoustics that I have held.

and

3) My finances.


Where do I go to look for good deals on used a used Taylor... or where do they have the very best deals on new, last years models?

Does anyone out there have one for sale?

I would love to get the least expensive acoustic/electric, which Taylor model is that? The Big Baby model is not acoustic electric... would it be the best bet for my conditional terms?

MeFi Folk... what are your opinions?

posted by caveat empress to shopping (4 comments total)

Re: 2 Have you spoken to a physical therapist or hand surgeon about this? Honestly it sounds like a really bad time to start a new instrument. It's going to put all kinds of new strains on your hand and you may end up hurting yourself badly.

Sorry if you have this covered. That's my first thought.

My second thought is that I don't think you need gigantic hands to play guitar well. You are going to get a better guitar, in general, when you buy full size. I think body size may be more of a problem, but you could get an OM size or whatever the smaller sized Taylor is.
posted by sully75 at 10:50 AM on January 19

I wouldn't start learning guitar with a particular brand. What kind of music do you want to play. Something that rocks, get a Gibson accoustic. Country--a Martin. Taylors im not 100% what they are best for.
posted by Ironmouth at 12:27 PM on January 19

The Big Baby Taylor is a full sized guitar, 25.5" scale. I just checked the stats.

Yeah, don't be locked into one maker. There are a lot of good guitars out there. I played a lot of Taylors, Martins and Gibsons before I bought my Larivee. My sister just got a Guild GAD-25 for $250.00 on ebay. It's a fine sounding guitar and a lot of guitar for the money.
posted by wsg at 2:43 PM on January 19

I have a Baby Taylor that I adore, but then again I am tiny with tiny hands. I have taken lessons for years and my teacher swears that the best guitar for the money (about $300 on sale) is a Seagull S-6.
posted by fiery.hogue at 4:29 PM on January 19 [1 favorite]