Setting up Taylor Big Baby for finger picking

thecolourbox · May 2018

Hi all,

I have a Taylor Big Baby acoustic guitar but I often consider selling it on to fund more exciting electric based stuff but then whenever I get rid of an acoustic guitar, I invariably suddenly need one for something (like last year I had two outdoors acoustic tent type "gigs" which the Big Baby came in useful for. But I've never bonded with it, though this could just be acoustic guitars in general as I much prefer the sound and music I can play via a electric.

I do tend to err towards finger picking of chords, fairly basic stuff as I learnt it from listening to Simon & Garfunkel and early Bob Dylan, and now play Laura Marling type stuff as well so a bit of a mix of finger picking and light strumming.

But I find the set up on this acoustic (and one or two others I've played) makes it difficult, so I was wondering what can be done about it to try and get it set up to my liking and to suit what I play. Is it something I should just hand over to a professional (we have a Hobgoblin shop here in Birmingham who seem to be the natural choice to give it to) or can I do it myself as I do with my electrics?

Things I'd thought of (but am happy to be told I'm wrong or to accept other suggestions of what to do):

- Try to lower the action, though this seems like the job that will be beyond me a bit as it's obviously not as easy on an acoustic as on an electric. Would I need to sand off the nut or the bridge? Or both? I need to try it again but I think simply placing a capo on the 1st fret made it better before (had this on an old guitar) but is then a bit of a pain for muscle memory with fretboard markers etc.

- Give the neck and fretboard repeated coatings of lemon oil and fast fret thing to make it as nicely conditioned as possible

- Go for the lightest strings I possibly can, though might this affect tuning and intonation? See next point also...

- It's a screw on neck (screws around the 12th fret I think) that is short scale, i think it's 15/16" scale which is useful to me as I'm not a big guitar and used to playing small body electrics. I've a short scale electric as well (somewhere less than 24" scale apparently!) and that sounds a million times better since I tuned it up a semitone to F. Might the acoustic benefit from this as well?

- One alternative is to try to find somebody willing to swap the guitar for a Fender Telecoustic (had one before) or a Danelectro Convertible (seems to be similar) as although they won't sound as nice they are easier to play for me as they are closer to an electric.

- Or would a smallish hollowbody electric with a wide ish neck do the trick albeit with slightly different sound?

Thanks all in advance for your thoughts - I'm not knowledgeable about acoustics at all (hence why I have a Martin Big Baby, I know I know...) so could be an interesting learning curve.

Matt

CHRISB50 · May 2018

The single factor that made fingerpicking easier for me was nut width and subsequent string spacing. I found a wider neck definitely helped me.

For me Lowden's 45mm width is the most comfortable, but I am OK with up to a standard classical measurement of 50mm. I've never tried anything wider. You have more room to work with and your fingers don't get in each other's way.

thecolourbox · May 2018

Thanks Chris, would that make the high strings any easier though? I've not thought that much about it but my initial though would be if I had an instrument with a wider neck and high strings, they'd be harder still to press down? I know I've put about swapping this one for a different one (more like an electric) or a hollowbody with wider neck, but I'm not really very keen to have to shop for a whole new instrument. Plus I'm guessing a wide neck is more likely to be on bigger guitar bodies than I can handle.

On a separate thought I recall having a good time trying out a Gretsch Jim Dandy actually, that sounded great and was easy to play.

It's not that I find finger picking difficult (to the level I play at anyway), and I can do it fine on normal electric necks so it's not that I need to make it easier in that sense, just easier in the sense that the strings are too high on acoustics for me so would reduce this if possible

CHRISB50 · May 2018

No worries mate.

Sure, string spacing is not going to have an effect on action or the pressure required to fret a string. It made it easier for me to pick far cleaner, but if you're good on an electric spacing, it's obviously not something you have an issue with.

Lowering the action will make a difference to how the strings fret. I'd imagine you would need (or get someone else) to make a new bridge saddle or to shave down the existing one. I'm not sure about the nut, but you may have to change that if you went for different gauge strings anyway.

Lighter strings will make them easier to hold down but can have a detrimental effect on tone. The heavier the string, the more they 'move' the soundboard. Going too light won't sound as good. It may also limit the tunings you can get away with, which may be a problem or not depending upon what you use.

Conditioning the board will just make it feel nicer, I can't see it making any difference to actually fretting a note.

I'm really no expert when I comes to guitar set up or the physics of it all, but I'd say most of the other suggestions you have made would improve your personal playing experience.

Good luck!!

thecolourbox · May 2018

Cheers mate. Must admit the thought of sanding the nut or bridge bits does terrify me a little bit. It does sound like it's not a home job though to be honest doesn't it!

Not sure it's worth spending much money on it though that's the problem. I know I don't know much about them but it doesn't seem to be that great an instrument in general, I got it in a trade for a Boss Multi FX though so was thinking if I could sort it cheaply by myself it may be worth it. Sounds more like a trip to Hobgoblin with it to see what they can do or whether they have anything I could swap it for in their budget stuff, or somewhere else if they do a budget small sized hollowbody.

For the same reason, the tonal difference doesn't bother me if a string gauge change causes it, it doesn't sound very good anyway so I wouldn't be sacrificing anything of any note...

earwighoney · May 2018

CHRISB50 said:

The single factor that made fingerpicking easier for me was nut width and subsequent string spacing. I found a wider neck definitely helped me.

For me Lowden's 450mm width is the most comfortable, but I am OK with up to a standard classical measurement of 500mm. I've never tried anything wider. You have more room to work with and your fingers don't get in each other's way.

I think you mean 45mm and 50mm for a classical? 450mm and 500mm seems enormous!

thecolourbox · May 2018

earwighoney said:

CHRISB50 said:

The single factor that made fingerpicking easier for me was nut width and subsequent string spacing. I found a wider neck definitely helped me.

For me Lowden's 450mm width is the most comfortable, but I am OK with up to a standard classical measurement of 500mm. I've never tried anything wider. You have more room to work with and your fingers don't get in each other's way.

I think you mean 45mm and 50mm for a classical? 450mm and 500mm seems enormous!

haha yes with a 450mm neck width I think action would be the lease of my problems. I've got tables smaller than that

earwighoney · May 2018

thecolourbox said:
- Try to lower the action, though this seems like the job that will be beyond me a bit as it's obviously not as easy on an acoustic as on an electric. Would I need to sand off the nut or the bridge? Or both? I need to try it again but I think simply placing a capo on the 1st fret made it better before (had this on an old guitar) but is then a bit of a pain for muscle memory with fretboard markers etc.

Can you measure the string height for high and low E's at the 1st fret and 12th fret? What's the relief like? How much 'free' saddle is there?

They should give you an idea whether the action is suitable to be lowered or not.

thecolourbox · May 2018

Thanks I'll give it a look later on, I will have to ask the missus though as while I've the eyesight of an owl over distance, I've also the blindness of an owl at close range so won't be able to read the ruler

BigLicks67 · May 2018

I would check the neck relief and height at 1st and 12th fret, as stated above. If you need to adjust the truss rod or sand down the saddle for lower action then that is easy enough to do yourself. However, if your problem is a poorly cut nut then I'd take it to a professional. Last time I looked pro level nut files were about £80.00 so probably cheaper to take it to a tech.

CHRISB50 · May 2018

earwighoney said:

CHRISB50 said:

The single factor that made fingerpicking easier for me was nut width and subsequent string spacing. I found a wider neck definitely helped me.

For me Lowden's 450mm width is the most comfortable, but I am OK with up to a standard classical measurement of 500mm. I've never tried anything wider. You have more room to work with and your fingers don't get in each other's way.

I think you mean 45mm and 50mm for a classical? 450mm and 500mm seems enormous!

Nah I've just got big hands.

I'm glad you're paying attention!

Edited accordingly.

thecolourbox · May 2018

I popped into Hobgoblin today to ask, as thought best to at least check with them as they are supposedly the acoustic folk people. Very nice chap in there incidentally, though he did tell me I was most likely wrong about the instrument being "Not very good" but we shall see about that as and when I can take it in to them! Reckons it'll be about £40 for a set up unless anything drastic repair-wise is required, which given the above sounds reasonable for the amount of work but I think ultimately I'm not sure I can justify it on the guitar given I'm not hugely keen on it or acoustics in general, as in that effectively knocks even more off its value in terms of selling it and in terms of playing it as there's then greater pressure on me to like it when it's cost me even more, if that makes sense.

Seems it's much harder to get a decent playing instrument for acoustic than electric unfortunately, which is the annoyance when you favour/can justify it on the electric. Just one of those things! But would be nice to have something comfortable to repeatedly play The Boxer and Kathy's Song on

Think I'll do the measuring and restring it over the weekend, try it with a capo on the first to see if that's enough to make it playable enough for me to sing along (even if a semitone higher than normal)

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Setting up Taylor Big Baby for finger picking

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