Surprise GAS - small acoustic

champ222 · November 2022

So i was in the area for work the other day, so i popped into Andertons. I mainly went it to try some Charvels.

On my way out i popped in the acoustic room. Almost at random, i picked up a small martin guitar. It was really nice. Ive always struggled with acoustics because they are bulky and the strings are hard work for me. This felt really easy to play. It was a shawn mendes martin junior. No idea who shawn mendes is, but i cant stop thinking about that guitar!

Googling suggests its largely the same as the 000 jr martin and the dreadnought junior. Smaller body and a 24" scale.

So im going to try and test some smaller acoustics. The Taylor GS mini looks like a good alternative for testing, slightly smaller scale at 23.5", is there anything else i should look at around the similar price and size?

Cheers

Dave_Mc · November 2022

I bet you do know who Shawn Mendes is

There were some deals on the Taylor GT but they may have all sold by now. The GSes are very cool if you want small. The more acoustic specialists will probably have better ideas than I have, though- Taylors tend to sound a lot more modern than Martins (but I haven't tried the Shawn Mendes one, even if I'm not pretending I don't know who he is

)

Tannin · November 2022

Never heard of him.

Welcome to the acoustic world @champ222

champ222 · November 2022

Ive googled him now youve said that

30 seconds on YouTube was enough for me. I didnt hear or see a guitar, so the martin signature seems quite bizarre. Not my thing thing at all.

Ill check out the taylor gt.

Cheers

Dave_Mc · November 2022

He's pretty famous, is he not? He was also going out with Camila Cabello for ages, too. (I was only keeping you going about pretending not to know who he was, just in case that wasn't obvious!)

Most of the pics of him on Wikipedia have him with a guitar... I think he does play ok.

Tannin · November 2022

Never heard of her either.

Dave_Mc · November 2022

Tannin said:

Never heard of her either.

I thought you'd say that!

Tannin · November 2022

But I've heard of you @Dave_Mc. Enough of these no-name, no-account celebrities no-one has ever heard of. When are Martin going to bring out a model with your name on it?

champ222 · November 2022

The Taylor GT looks good, scale length wise, but at £1500 its a bit much for me. What were the deals like that i missed?

goldtop · November 2022

IIRC, that signature model has a few minor upgrades over the standard 000Jr. Something to do with sustainable woods and some inspirational phrases laser-etched inside the body. I tried to find one locally, but couldn't. And the asking price was about the same as the GTe I just got anyway.

champ222 · November 2022

goldtop said:

IIRC, that signature model has a few minor upgrades over the standard 000Jr. Something to do with sustainable woods and some inspirational phrases laser-etched inside the body. I tried to find one locally, but couldn't. And the asking price was about the same as the GTe I just got anyway.

Its got a wooden fretboard rather than richlite like the standard models. i dont like the inlays though

Kilgore · November 2022

champ222 said:

So i was in the area for work the other day, so i popped into Andertons. I mainly went it to try some Charvels.

On my way out i popped in the acoustic room. Almost at random, i picked up a small martin guitar. It was really nice. Ive always struggled with acoustics because they are bulky and the strings are hard work for me. This felt really easy to play. It was a shawn mendes martin junior. No idea who shawn mendes is, but i cant stop thinking about that guitar!

Googling suggests its largely the same as the 000 jr martin and the dreadnought junior. Smaller body and a 24" scale.

So im going to try and test some smaller acoustics. The Taylor GS mini looks like a good alternative for testing, slightly smaller scale at 23.5", is there anything else i should look at around the similar price and size?

Cheers

Are you specifically looking for 24" scale or shorter? If body size is the primary consideration there are a number of 00 and parlour size that fit the bill but more likely to have 24.75 or longer scale.

Eastman do the actg1 which is basically a copy of the GS Mini.

Could you live with a 12 fret? The Faith Mercury is 24" scale but a 12 fretter.

champ222 · November 2022

Kilgore said:

champ222 said:

So i was in the area for work the other day, so i popped into Andertons. I mainly went it to try some Charvels.

On my way out i popped in the acoustic room. Almost at random, i picked up a small martin guitar. It was really nice. Ive always struggled with acoustics because they are bulky and the strings are hard work for me. This felt really easy to play. It was a shawn mendes martin junior. No idea who shawn mendes is, but i cant stop thinking about that guitar!

Googling suggests its largely the same as the 000 jr martin and the dreadnought junior. Smaller body and a 24" scale.

So im going to try and test some smaller acoustics. The Taylor GS mini looks like a good alternative for testing, slightly smaller scale at 23.5", is there anything else i should look at around the similar price and size?

Cheers

Are you specifically looking for 24" scale or shorter? If body size is the primary consideration there are a number of 00 and parlour size that fit the bill but more likely to have 24.75 or longer scale.

Eastman do the actg1 which is basically a copy of the GS Mini.

Could you live with a 12 fret? The Faith Mercury is 24" scale but a 12 fretter.

I wasnt specifically looking for an acoustic at all. I have a cheap acoustic now. A crafter, its a bowl back, and slimmer than a full size, 25.5" scale.

The shorter scale is what i liked about it i think. The smaller body is a bonus, so im going to test them some more to see what i think.

12 fret it probably fine i guess. I have no real preference yet.

Ill check those out. Thanks

Dave_Mc · November 2022

Tannin said:

But I've heard of you @Dave_Mc. Enough of these no-name, no-account celebrities no-one has ever heard of. When are Martin going to bring out a model with your name on it?

I might have more chance if I stopped saying I wasn't that keen on them! (And also if they never hear me play!)

Dave_Mc · November 2022

champ222 said:

The Taylor GT looks good, scale length wise, but at £1500 its a bit much for me. What were the deals like that i missed?

About £800, I think. The electrics version was just under £1000 I think.

Faith Mercury is probably worth a look, too- Faiths are pretty nice, especially if you find a good one, and the prices are usually competitive (though, like most guitars, a lot less so than they were 2-3 years ago!). However- I really wanted to like the Mercury because it's much easier to play and hold (I'm more used to electric guitars!), but the few I tried I thought sounded very middy and honky. That might just be par for the course for such small guitars, and maybe I just prefer the sound of bigger instruments, but it's worth pointing out. But I have seen some deals on them for Black Friday (I forget exactly where, I've looked up so many of the guitar shops over Black Friday that my head is kind of spinning

), around £400 for the naked ones I think.

goldtop · November 2022

Dave_Mc said:

champ222 said:

The Taylor GT looks good, scale length wise, but at £1500 its a bit much for me. What were the deals like that i missed?

About £800, I think. The electrics version was just under £1000 I think.

Faith Mercury is probably worth a look, too- Faiths are pretty nice, especially if you find a good one, and the prices are usually competitive (though, like most guitars, a lot less so than they were 2-3 years ago!). However- I really wanted to like the Mercury because it's much easier to play and hold (I'm more used to electric guitars!), but the few I tried I thought sounded very middy and honky. That might just be par for the course for such small guitars, and maybe I just prefer the sound of bigger instruments, but it's worth pointing out. But I have seen some deals on them for Black Friday (I forget exactly where, I've looked up so many of the guitar shops over Black Friday that my head is kind of spinning ), around £400 for the naked ones I think.

Yes, the GTe was 888 and the plain GT was 789 (Thomann).

The honkiness of small guitars varies. GH2Z's YT channel had an interesting comparison, and the GS Mini was by far the best of this three for balanced tone (IMHO):

bertie · November 2022

champ222 said:

The Taylor GT looks good, scale length wise, but at £1500 its a bit much for me. What were the deals like that i missed?

I didnt pay much more than that for a 614ce

in 2002

bertie · November 2022

champ222 said:

The Taylor GT looks good, scale length wise, but at £1500 its a bit much for me. What were the deals like that i missed?

I didnt pay much more than that for a 614ce

in 2002

thomasross20 · November 2022

Prices have really gone up big style.
Even the last two years, prices seem to have gone up 50% and no joke

Dave_Mc · November 2022

goldtop said:
Yes, the GTe was 888 and the plain GT was 789 (Thomann).

The honkiness of small guitars varies. GH2Z's YT channel had an interesting comparison, and the GS Mini was by far the best of this three for balanced tone (IMHO):

Thanks

I tried several GS MInis years ago and I don't remember them being honky.

goldtop · November 2022

^ There's also an Andertons' video with the Taylor and Martin vs a parlour Faith. That showed the same, and the Faith was definitely on the honky side. GS Mini is a winning formula.

Dave_Mc · November 2022

^ Yeah the Faith Mercury is very, very small. I imagine that's not helping. As I said- I really wanted to like it, and I've liked pretty much all of the other Faith models I've tried. I think it's just a bit too small, and maybe the small scale length isn't helping either- a bit bigger would probably sound better and still be a lot more manageable than even the Venus.

(My sister thought the same, fwiw- I tried all of these when she was buying her acoustic, and she did settle on a Faith Venus. And I agreed with her that it was my favourite- without spending a load more money- too! So it's absolutely not a bias against Faiths in general.)

champ222 · November 2022

Thanks guys

I think it will be between the martin junior and the gs mini.

I was leaning towards the martin, not really sure why, but the koa gs mini does look nice. But pricey over the standard models. There are some cheaper options, but the junior and the gs seem to be the best options.

Need to find a shop that has both and try them out.

WindmillGuitars · November 2022

Kilgore said:

champ222 said:

So i was in the area for work the other day, so i popped into Andertons. I mainly went it to try some Charvels.

On my way out i popped in the acoustic room. Almost at random, i picked up a small martin guitar. It was really nice. Ive always struggled with acoustics because they are bulky and the strings are hard work for me. This felt really easy to play. It was a shawn mendes martin junior. No idea who shawn mendes is, but i cant stop thinking about that guitar!

Googling suggests its largely the same as the 000 jr martin and the dreadnought junior. Smaller body and a 24" scale.

So im going to try and test some smaller acoustics. The Taylor GS mini looks like a good alternative for testing, slightly smaller scale at 23.5", is there anything else i should look at around the similar price and size?

Cheers

Are you specifically looking for 24" scale or shorter? If body size is the primary consideration there are a number of 00 and parlour size that fit the bill but more likely to have 24.75 or longer scale.

Eastman do the actg1 which is basically a copy of the GS Mini.

Could you live with a 12 fret? The Faith Mercury is 24" scale but a 12 fretter.

@champ222 ;Make sure and check out the Eastman - it's not a copy of a GS Mini at all in that it's all solid woods and handbuilt

I have stock if you're interested

bertie · November 2022

Dave_Mc said:

^ Yeah the Faith Mercury is very, very small. I imagine that's not helping. As I said- I really wanted to like it, and I've liked pretty much all of the other Faith models I've tried. I think it's just a bit too small, and maybe the small scale length isn't helping either- a bit bigger would probably sound better and still be a lot more manageable than even the Venus.

I had one for a while, when I tried it out (Mansons ) against other parlor sized guitars (usual sub £500 suspects) it stood out head and shoulders, hence I bought Micks @Jalapeno off him...................... kept it for a while but it lost its edge for me......... the TW73 is in a different league altogether - same size, but different, not sure if the bridge position (as well as the woods) make much difference - but the TW is much more pleasing "aesthetically" as well.

So I guess what Im trying to say is (not at you) , don't judge a "size" on one guitar, not all parlors sound the same !!

Kilgore · November 2022

WindmillGuitars said:

Kilgore said:

champ222 said:

So i was in the area for work the other day, so i popped into Andertons. I mainly went it to try some Charvels.

On my way out i popped in the acoustic room. Almost at random, i picked up a small martin guitar. It was really nice. Ive always struggled with acoustics because they are bulky and the strings are hard work for me. This felt really easy to play. It was a shawn mendes martin junior. No idea who shawn mendes is, but i cant stop thinking about that guitar!

Googling suggests its largely the same as the 000 jr martin and the dreadnought junior. Smaller body and a 24" scale.

So im going to try and test some smaller acoustics. The Taylor GS mini looks like a good alternative for testing, slightly smaller scale at 23.5", is there anything else i should look at around the similar price and size?

Cheers

Are you specifically looking for 24" scale or shorter? If body size is the primary consideration there are a number of 00 and parlour size that fit the bill but more likely to have 24.75 or longer scale.

Eastman do the actg1 which is basically a copy of the GS Mini.

Could you live with a 12 fret? The Faith Mercury is 24" scale but a 12 fretter.

@champ222 ;;;Make sure and check out the Eastman - it's not a copy of a GS Mini at all in that it's all solid woods and handbuilt

I have stock if you're interested

@WindmillGuitars ;;;

I hope it didn't come across as dismissive. I just meant copy, in the sense of very similar shape and dimensions and a couple of hundred cheaper.

Just for clarification, isn't the actg1 laminate and the actg2 all solid.?

Dave_Mc · November 2022

bertie said:

Dave_Mc said:

^ Yeah the Faith Mercury is very, very small. I imagine that's not helping. As I said- I really wanted to like it, and I've liked pretty much all of the other Faith models I've tried. I think it's just a bit too small, and maybe the small scale length isn't helping either- a bit bigger would probably sound better and still be a lot more manageable than even the Venus.

I had one for a while, when I tried it out (Mansons ) against other parlor sized guitars (usual sub £500 suspects) it stood out head and shoulders, hence I bought Micks @Jalapeno off him...................... kept it for a while but it lost its edge for me......... the TW73 is in a different league altogether - same size, but different, not sure if the bridge position (as well as the woods) make much difference - but the TW is much more pleasing "aesthetically" as well.

So I guess what Im trying to say is (not at you) , don't judge a "size" on one guitar, not all parlors sound the same !!

I've seen you saying that had a Mercury before (probably in response to my saying something similar to what I said here!

). I'm not surprised it was better than other options at the same price- Faiths are really good value, at least they were before the current crazy prices! The problem was I was trying them against bigger Faiths, not other parlours- so they sounded a bit honky by comparison. But that's a good point about not judging all parlours by the Mercury- don't worry, I'm not!

bertie · November 2022

@Dave_Mc ;; indeed I tried the "bit bigger than an OM" model hi-gloss spruce on r/wood (is that the correct term ?) and it sounded amazing, I wasnt in the market for one, just wanted to see what the bigger models were like

Im currently having moral and ethical internal battle over selling my Brook and Furch to fund a "better" OM

Dave_Mc · November 2022

bertie said:

@Dave_Mc ;;; indeed I tried the "bit bigger than an OM" model hi-gloss spruce on r/wood (is that the correct term ?) and it sounded amazing, I wasnt in the market for one, just wanted to see what the bigger models were like

Im currently having moral and ethical internal battle over selling my Brook and Furch to fund a "better" OM

That's the one my sister ended up going for- the Venus high gloss (yeah I think that's the right term, it is spruce top/rosewood b&s). It really sounds excellent- it sounded (and played) noticeably better than any of the other Faiths we tried (which all were pretty good too). Not sure if it's just that one or not, but from the sounds of it the one you tried was really great, too.

Funnily enough I remember seeing a video where Richard from RichardsGuitars said that the funny thing was that almost everyone buying online went for the Venus, but when people tried them in person they went for the Neptune. But that's not what happened in our case, we both preferred the Venus even when we tried it (we didn't buy in Richards, just to be clear, just we did try them in person first). Granted- we're more electric players so the more manageable dimensions made a pretty big difference to the decision. But we thought it sounded really nice, too... it was basically the only rosewood guitar we tried where we were like, "Oh ok, now I see what all the fuss is about rosewood!"

LOL about the "better OM"

That must be something pretty nice you're thinking of, the Furches I've tried have been killer and while I haven't tried them, I know the Brooks have a killer reputation!

champ222 · November 2022

Loads of good info, thanks guys.

It might seem strange, but for me it will be about how easy it is to play, and how nice it feels. As long as it sounds good, in isolation if need be, thats fine. They'll all sound bad with me playing

Looking forward to finding some time to test them.

Jalapeno · December 2022

bertie said:

Im currently having moral and ethical internal battle over selling my Brook and Furch to fund a "better" OM

Wut the actual ?

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Surprise GAS - small acoustic

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