Taylor GS Mini-e Bass £827

Taylor can boast to have made a vast number of guitars in its 40-something-year history, but basses? Well, its 2017 new additions include this GS Mini-e Bass, designed as a travel, practice and ‘fun’ bass – for the younger player, but also for the guitarist needing a bit of bass action for either performance or recording.

It uses a very short-for-bass scale length of just 597mm (23.5 inches), the same as the six-string GS Mini guitar. If you’re not up on your bass scale lengths, then even a short-scale bass is typically 762mm (30 inches). We wonder if this can actually be called a bass until we have a quick cursory plonk. Thanks to special strings conceived with string giants D’Addario, with multi-filament nylon core and outer wraps with phosphor bronze wrap wire, yes, it certainly sounds like one!

Along with its scale, it follows the standard 14-fret GS Mini guitar closely with layered sapele (with a thick poplar core) sides and arched back, which means back braces are unnecessary. The Sitka spruce top has plenty of grain detail and a pinkish tinge that stops it looking too white and bland. Although unbound, the body has a thin piece of violin-like purfling that’s installed inside the outer edge, creating a bound-edge appearance. The sapele neck, which here is perfectly quarter-sawn with a head-splice and heel stack, follows the GS Mini style, too, with ebony fingerboard, simple dot inlays and small fretwire. It’s a very understated piece, although the tortie pickguard and multi-ring soundhole give it a more finished appearance than Taylor’s Academy series guitars.

Sounds

As reflected in its price, it’s far from a cheap-feeling instrument. To a bassist, it’s going to feel rather dinky, but to a guitar player it feels more grown-up, primarily thanks to the body size. Strings gauges are in the light-for-bass category and feel on the lower side tension-wise, but again give the guitar player an easy feel. It’s extremely engaging to play, with good acoustic volume and there’s an almost fretless-like character to the note, especially with a little hand vibrato. There’s also a surprising amount of low-end: played with a thumb, it’s oldschool thump; played with fingernails, a crisp detail; and there’s good definition played with a pick, although if you really dig in, the strings do flap a little.

Amplified via the onboard ES-B system, it kicks out a healthy signal, and straight into our small-gig PA there’s almost too much low-end waffle that might need a little cleaning up. Some compression certainly helps and, of course, it is fully hollow so feedback will potentially play its usual part in your performance.

Recorded, it sounds very clean and, without some tone roll-off, rather ‘new string bright’ – you’ll probably need some pre- and certainly post-recording help. It’s certainly not a Rickenbacker but has a rather likeable rootsy character that sits well under our nylon-string for those Bossa moments. It melds well with strummed and picked steel-strings and certainly has enough character and depth in its upper positions for melody top lines used over a conventional bass part.

Verdict

At its full retail of £827, it’s not a cheap impulse buy (at the time of writing its ‘street’ price seems to have settled at £699). Although far from an overcrowded market sector, the electro-acoustic bass is well represented by the likes of Fender, Washburn and Ibanez – all with proper bass scales and all comfortably under the price (retail or street) of this. But like the GS Mini, its highly portable size means it’s very engaging to play without the bulk of the full-scaled piece, and for practice and songwriting alone, it’s rather attractive. While it might not be your first choice for that multi-city acoustic tour, for smaller ensemble performance there’s no reason why it can’t be utilised, as its sound – acoustically or amplified – is much, much bigger than it looks.

You didn’t think you needed another guitar, let alone a bass, but having had this around for songwriting and practice duties for a little while, we honestly don’t want it to leave. [DB]