Taylor Guitars Big Baby

We've had this guitar for about 2 years. Two necks later and lots of strings, it's the same guitar! I bought it for my son, who at 14 is playing a lot more than most teens, bluegrass lessons every week, etc. I researched a long time and picked the BB for what everyone says here: Lots of good sounding value. American, and good customer support. All those have come to fruition. See below.

I play a little, mostly play the mandolin. But I love the sound of this guitar. It's very deep and woody, and seems loud. I think the finish helps, it just "seems" a think matt finish doesn't mute the sound like a glossy does.

The setup was good from the factory. Over time the action got high. We live in Tucson and you don't know hot/dry til you've been here. My son also doesn't baby, the baby. The frets and neck(s) have always seemed level and good. Never a buzz. The body has survived a few medium knocks fine. I note the finish is wearing off where his arm goes over the top, sign that he plays a lot and doesn't wipe it down?!

But the first time we noticed the action getting high, we took it in for a neck adjust. The excellent mom-pop dealer here came out in five minutes and said: "we cannot fix the neck, it's too warped." Waaah...? I started to balk, but then the tech said he'd contacted Taylor and we'd get a new guitar. Actually they replaced the neck and all was fine. Until the next time. About a year later we went in for another action adjust. "just need to shim the neck" the tech said, "they settle after a year or so." Next call revealed he couldn't (for some reason) shim that neck, so they pulled a neck off of another BB in the shop and we now have that one. I believe it's a bunch of flukes, but 3 necks in 2 years? Perhaps they should mount them like their other guitars.

Taylor has been excellent about fixing the above neck problems at no charge. Fast and easy.

I don't want to give up on this guiter, it sounds so nice and is becoming an "in demand" item. I note Martin makes a copy now. But - I might try to extort a good tradin on a higher end Taylor for my son. He wants something acoustic with a pickup and cutaway.

Great laminated guitar with a good solid top.

The neck is great (as any Taylor neck I guess). Ebony fingerboard, mmmm...

The gig bag is an excellent one.

For that price...
In the other hand, the tuners could be better.

It is a 15/16, but it sounds as good as many full size guitars. The sound definition is great and sound as loud at any place on the neck.

Compared to a full size dread, it lack bass. But compared to a 000 or 00 it is just fine.

I find it well suited for fingerstyle.
Playing hard with a pick makes this guitar sound too full of highs.

The setup is very good and the neck allows an incredible low action. I am feeling this guitar is very easy to play. It takes less concentration to play.

Hard as a rock. It feels so good to have a good quality guitar without being afraid of scratching it.

Once again, the tuners are bad.

No need for customer support yet.

My other guitar is a Martin d-16 gt. While I really like my Martin, I don't miss it when I play my Baby Taylor. The perfect guitar has a Taylor neck and a Martin bassy tone...

I'm having GAS considering exchanging my Martin for a Taylor 310... That neck !

Hello, I'm not an accurate guitar players and there are a lot of reviews for this guitar allready, so I will try to be quick and I use my words of non accurate player :)

I hows this guitar since several years,
according to me the finish is not that good, more specially if when you will need to change the strings for the first time, you will maybe have some little problems to remove the pins, because the 'circle' when you put the pin inside is not 100% clean. some little pieces of wood are makind it harder to remove them (on my guitar)
The tunners could be better, but there is not any major problem with them.
The frettboard is NICE ! and fast. Since I have tried this one I need the same wood for all my new guitars.
this guitar is sold with a bag, be carefull , some vendors may 'forget' to give you the bag !

It is what people call the taylor sound, very bright and nice, but some people prefer a sound with more powerfull bass.
I like it and It makes me want to own an other and better taylor guitar to have this nice and pure sound.
I like the fact that in any place of the frettboard, the guitar sound good, no buzz anywhere.

When ou buy it, the action is not well fitten, my local vendor has solve that problem for me and now the guitar is nice to play with and comfortable. Don't forget to ask for that when you bought the guitar, It cost me 25$ later :(
By the way I think that most of the guitar that you buy need a tussroad adjustment !

I can't really answer for this, I take care of all my guitars, cheap or not, so there is no problem with that point.

Well, this guitar has show me what is the taylor sound, but I think it's not a serious guitar, looks cheap, not enough power and sustain, and it's a smaller guitar. However, the sound is not bad and the freattboard is great. Plus, this is a good guitar to take with you in travel (I think that taylor has made it for this purpose)
Since I hown a 1000? takamine jumbo, I know what is a true and serious guitar. I also own a yamaha apx-4 that cost 400? and even I pefer the yamaha one. For the value I'm sure that you can have a better guitar. Oh, yes, there will not be 'Taylor' written on it, but you will have more pleasure with it.

Mine is a 2001. The top is a light satin finish, the grains of the wood are really beautiful. The back has a dark finish and curves slightly out towards you in the middle. Other features are as mentioned below. Obviously, this guitar doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a full sized Taylor but when you look at it closely you can see that it is well crafted ie: instead of inlay around the sound hole there is a tiny pattern stamped into the wood which I think looks quite nice. I have played this guitar so much that the places where my forearm and palm rest on the guitar have become highly polished and it has given the guitar a weathered look which I like. The main thing I don't like is the tuners, I think they are a little bit flimsy and they don't keep the guitar in tune long enough.

I play fingerstyle generally and I think this guitar suits that style of playing. The sound probably has more treble than bass in terms of tonality. One thing I like is that when you strum quite hard on the bass strings you can get a nice 'rock' tone ie: it sounds a little bit distorted and the bass becomes a little fuller. You can therefore play some quite nice blues on it especially if you use a capo further up the neck. Other people often comment positively on the quality of the sound the guitar produces so that says something also. I have recorded in a studio with the guitar and it sounded great.

The guitar was set up well and had no flaws I can recall

I would not recommend this guitar for live playing unless a) you use it as a back-up or b) you change the tuners on the guitar to better quality ones. As already mentioned the satin finish does wear off but I think this actually enhances the appearance of the wood grain on the top of the guitar. The guitar seems to be structurally sound although it is so light at the body end of the guitar that you could damage it quite easily. I think the lightness of the guitar helps give it its resonance so it is not an easy trade-off.

I have been playing for about 15 years. For the money I paid for this guitar I could have probably bought something a bit better second hand so I would look at something else if it were stolen. Overall I think this is a great guitar and I really enjoy playing it.

A little bit smaller than a standard dreadnought acoustic. Has got a solid sitka spruce top, laminated sapele, ebony neck with pearl dot inlays starting from the 3th fret with chrome tuners. A plus is that mine comes with a typical Taylor pickguard from the factory, I suppose. But NO, gigbag included .. THAT's A SHAME !!!! If I want it I have to order it seperately.

This guitar sounds very POOR!!! A piece of cheapness!!! Well , can't blame it, cause it 's a low budget one! It only has got good looks, but concerning the sound quality I have to say NOOOO !!! I also own a Taylor 510 and tha sound differs like earth and heaven comparing it to this big Taylor ! Well, it has got a very thinny, metallic sound. I wouldn't call it bright to my ears, 'cause it has a boomy, dull, short resonancy. Not bright at all!
I am a strummer with a flatpick but when strumming this guitar there's no sustain at all. Even when I started to fingerpick it ...but it stills sound quite ugly. Although, i have purchased it with the naive idea that i will get used to the sound because it sounds different not like the others.
Afterwards for me ,this is a horrible sound quality comparing to the other guitars in the same price range. I would rather choose for the middle-end range Seagulls, such as the M6 gloss. The M6 has got more sustain and sings bether for tha bucks.

The playability is ok. Low action just like all Taylors.
Some glue noticed inside the guitar... but that's no big deal for me.
The tuning pegs seem to stay in tune quite well.

No real major flaws 'v been seen.

Had bought it for just 3 days and then returned it back to the store for a refund . Couldn't live with it anymore. THe sound of this big taylor takes away my appetite for playing guitar.. Too many complains about the sounding .
I had no other option than to return it back and ask my buckies back to buy another better guitar!

I've been playing guitars for about 16 years now and never heard such a bad sounding guitar . I have 2 taylors, a Fender DG and 2 Spanish classicals.
I would not recommend this one to those who are familiar to high ends guitar sound. And not good for people who mostly like to strumm,'cause of the short sustain. It has no ringing level.

Taylor Big Baby, made in 2004 in California. Stunning ebony fingerboard with a gorgeous blond streak through it. Ebony none-more-black bridge. Has the typical Taylor scratchplate. Other than that, the features are all listed below. Came with an impressive gig bag. Basic features, but the gig bag makes it an 8

I bought this guitar blind, although I'd never ONCE heard a bad thing about the Big Babys from people whos opinion I respect. When I got it, the first thing that struck me was the lack of bottom end, which tok a lot of the thrill out of my new guitar. Then I stopped thumbing the E string and played a song, and I fell in love. I do a lot of stumming, but I favour finger picking, and this guitar is perfect for both. I don't even notice the lack of bottom end any more. Beautiful tone out of this specimen. I can't really complain about the sound, as I love it. Can get quite a lot of volume out of it too, which surprised me.

Action isn't too low, not too high. Just right! Everything is fit together very nicely, although there's a bit of residual glue where the 'heel' of the neck meets the body (I'm nit-picking). It's a bolt on, so there isn't a heel as such. The spruce top has a knot in it that adds a lot of character. Lovely neck on it. Actually, lovely is a word that I use a lot when describing this guitar to people.

The guitar is very light, and the top is quite fragile. I'm going to treat this guitar very carefully (no playing it at parties!). So long as I don't mistreat it, I fully expect to pass this guitar on to my kids, assuming I ever have any. It seems to stay in tune fairly well, but I'd imagine its fairly susceptible to atmospheric change.

I've only had it for two (glorious) weeks, so I can't say much about reliability.

No idea, but they're supposed to be very good (so long as you live in the US, which I don't). One thing that has to be said is that they take pride in every single guitar they put out. Buy a Taylor, and you're pretty much gauranteed a great guitar.

I've been playing 4 years (flunked a year of uni because I spent the whole year in my room learning guitar). I've got a Pacifica, US Deluxe Strat and a crappy Johnson semi (Don't know what possessed me to buy this). I've played one guitar better than this, a fairly high-end Takamine. This guitar screams "QUALITY" very loudly. I wouldn't change a thing on it. If it were lost, I'd get another one as soon as the mourning period was over. If stolen, I'd catch the bollix and do unspeakable things to him. On the strength of this guitar, the next time I upgrade, Taylor will be top of my list. I am very happy with this guitar. I can't stress that enough. There's great high register access, and the tone is fantastic all over the fingerboard. Can't congratulate Taylor enough. Lovely.

2004 Big Baby,20 frets, solid spruce top, sapele laminate sides and top,satin finish,african mahoghany neck,ebony fretboard and bridge,tusq saddle and nut,gig bag included, no electronics

Has a tinny, thin sound, like a cheap acoustic, frets buzz, light gauge elixor strings, low action, but not low enough to cause all of the buzzing

nut looks good, saddle looks cheap, low quality spruce top, arched laminate back. No flaws, just the way guitar is made, fret work looks real good ,but produces buzzing and poor quality sound,

Would not use one, turned it down, after I ordered it, too tinny sounding, poor intonation

no

25 years playing, own nothing now, have had Martin D-16, 59 Telecaster,76 Gibson Les Paul, 96 Fender DG20S - You could not give me this guitar and I love most Taylors, spent about an hour in the store trying to get it in tune

Made in CA in September 2004, and bought it in November 2004. I guess you all know the features of this guitar. Solid top, very impressive gig bag, ebony fretboard and bridge, Sapele laminated back and side, 15/16 sized body, no back bracing, and etc...

I have to admit that its low-end bottom sound is really weak compare to a full sized dread guitar, and I don't agree that it sounds much better than most >$1,000 guitars on the market. However, it sounds rich and warm that fills the air in an apartment, and has absolute 'Taylor tone' - very clean crisp airy sound. To my ear, it is very unique treble sounding guitar. If you really want a full dread sound guitar, get the 110 which is the best bang for the buck. After playing about 15 Big Babies and several 110s, I found 110 has richer and fuller sound with more projection of bass. But BB has its own sound which I really like.

Factory setup is perfect for me. Much better than that of Martin's. It is quite bookmatched on top and back, and almost no flaw except some excessive glue residue inside the soundhole. Tuners are good enough, but not that stable after hard strumming. I think I got a pretty well made Big Baby. On the other hand, I have seen many poor made entry level Taylors on local shops.

It doesn't look like to withstand hard road playing. Strap buttons are solid, hardware(tuners?) is OK... I don't know I can depend on it on a gig - FYI, I have never been on a gig so far :-)

Heard good things about Taylor customer services. Never dealt with them though.

I have played guitars for 20 years, but still playing like a highschool band's guitarist (no offense there). If it were stolen, I will definetly buy another. I really like its crisp sound, small size body (15/16), action and playing ability, Ibanez electric guitars like neck ... to make it one word: simplicity!!! Laser etched rossette, no binding, solid spruce top, circle sticker inside the body, and very well matched pickguard. I really don't like one thing: two wall screws on the 16th fret, but I got used to ignore it and it doesn't bother me to play this guitar. For the price, I would recommend this guitar to everyone even if they already have a D-45, Larrivee collector's edition, Collings, Taylor 9xx series, or Asian made cheap plywood guitars. If you find a well made BB and the BB sounds just as good as other more priced Taylors, just buy one. You will not be disappointed! I am not a big fan of Taylor guitars, but it is a real gem even if you had paid the full list price of $548.

2004 model. Made in El Cajon, California. 20 frets, pearloid dot fret markers. Solid Sitka Spruce top, Tropical American Mahogany laminated back and sides, Ebony fingerboard and bridge, and the headstock is made from East Indian Rosewood. Turtoise pickguard, standard stock Taylor tuners. Came with a deluxe padded gig bag, which was nice.

The only things I wish it had were a preamp and a cutaway. Otherwise, it's a top-notch instrument with a puny price tag.

I play fingerstyle, acoustic rock, and worship tunes with this thing. It sounds great for what I use it for.

The sound is breathtaking. Full, round, thick, chiming chords sound just like a Grand Piano. In my opinion, this is what every acoustic should sound like -- a nice, bottom-heavy, even-layered Grand Piano. Lead sounds good too, and fingerstylists and flat pickers will absolutely LOVE this instrument. It sounds great on everything...heavy acoustic rock, melodic chord progressions, hot licks, Blues in E minor, everything.

The Solid Sitka Spruce top gives the guitar that traditional Taylor sound; poppy, bright, organic, alive. The strings compliment each other when they're ringing in unison. Open tunings would sound stellar on this instrument. Glass slide? No problem. This 'Baby' is equipped to do it all.

There is something about this Big Baby that just pulls you in. I compared it to a lot of other Taylors that were 3-4x its' price, and nothing compared. I think I got a one-of-a-kind guitar.

The sound is excellent. I call this guitar my "little cannon", because that's exactly what it is, it projects sound across the room like a little cannon. A smokin' guitar, she is.

I have not changed a thing on the instrument since I've gotten it (except a G string that broke for no reason at all). In fact, the reason I took it up to the counter was because it played so nice, it was sweet like honey and smooth like butter. And the thick, juicy, organic traditional Taylor tone that just oozed out of that sound hole and vibrated throughout the body was just too much. I HAD to have it. The back and sides are smooth as felt, the neck is very comfortable, and the ebony woods really make the instrument stand out and shine.

There is an 'ugly spot' on my guitar to the bottom left of the soundhole, looks like a badly polished knot in the wood. it really shows up bad in pictures, and when light reflects off of it, it detracts the beauty a bit. I've seen other Big Baby's that were worse though, fretboards with yellowish streaks from the ebony wood. Luckily mine wasn't one of those.

The finish on the instrument is extremely light, in fact I think all they did was sand down the woods, piece it together, sand it once more, and put a very very light coating of gloss on the wood. You can barely tell it's there.

So far I have not found any defects (save that 'ugly spot' on the top), so I have no reason to complain. I've heard stories of the bottoms on Big Baby Taylors bubbling up and the tops shrinking, but I guess time will tell.

I've played it out once before, and took it to practices, Worship meets, etc. Mainly it's a stay-at-home guitar though.

The tuners aren't as solid as I'd like them to be, but they're surely not the worst in the world. I've seen stock tuners that were 10x worse than these ones.

I would definately trust it out for repeated gigs.

?

I've been playing for about 2 years, and I currently own a Fender Stratocaster, a Yamaha FG412-S, Taylor Big Baby, a Behringer GM110, and my effects are constantly changing, but I usually have an assortment of Boss, MXR, Electro Harmonix, Ibanez, DOD, Arion, and Danelelectro effects pedals.

I tried to get them to knock down the price $50 or so, so I didn't have to walk out of the store with my tail between my legs so to speak, being ashamed that I paid almost twice as much as some of these guys paid. However they didn't budge, so I decided to pay full price, since I loved this guitar so much. They offered to throw in some free picks and my choice of a strap or a set of guitar strings, hehe...I reached my hand in the pick bowl and grabbed a handful, and went over to the elixirs, grabbed the most expensive pack and went on my way.

One thing I do wish it had was an internal preamp, so I could plug this thing in. But I guess the best things in life have their shortcomings as well, for now a soundhole pickup will have to suffice.

This is really a great guitar, I mean, wow...I know I got ripped, but it was worth it. I congradulate Taylor for marketing such a well-designed guitar at such a low price. You don't see that too often these days, the only brands I can think of that really do that are Fender and Ibanez, and maybe Takamine as well.

The Taylor Big Baby is one of the best values on the market today, and I would encourage anyone who is putting some serious thought into them to go up to their local store and try one out. Seriously, I think you'll be in for a big surprise. I played this next to some high-end Taylors, including the 110, 214, 310, 314ce, 414ce, 510ce, 712ce, and even the 814ce -- the holy grail guitar for many famous acoustic artists. I compared this to every Taylor guitar in the store, and this one just could not be beat for the price. The only Taylor that sounded better was the 814ce, but only by a fraction...and I couldn't really justify paying $2k more for an instrument that was only 35% better than the one I was holding in my hands with a price tag I could afford. Sure there's no cutaway or preamp. But who cares? I can get along without them for awhile. Maybe if I become a big time rock star, I'll buy one of those fancy KOA Brazillian Rosewood All-Solid wood guitars for $35k from eBay with a cutaway and a preamp that I probably won't even use half the time 'cause I'm enjoying playing my 'little cannon' so much.

Seriously, do yourself a favor and go try one out. They're the biggest bang for the buck on the market next to the Fender Stratocaster. Way to go, Bob Taylor.

God Bless!

Sweet & simple & already covered! I prefer satin finishes, so that is part of the appeal personally. Tuners are classy looking & pretty nice, but could stay in tune a tad longer.

Sound? Hmmm, now this is a tough one. Like most Taylors I've tried, this guitar leans on the trebly side. Bass notes can be heard w/chords but I don't believe that it is "even" across the tonal range. Not loud enough to play out w/out a pickup being installed. It is not especially loud & if it is strummed too vigorously you get some some buzzing & unpleasant overtones. The tone I find to be rich, but not full. Absolutely SUCKS for slide. That being said, I find the "tone" of the guitar to be almost hypnotic.Very beatiful, almost harplike tone. Lots of what some people call shimmer. Love the way minor chords sound especially. Very capable for a 15/16ths size guitar. (Remember it is not full size, so ratings are relative to what it is & what its for) NOTHING in 3/4 size even comes close!

Wood joints all clean. Action was pretty low w/no buzzing all the way down the neck. Neck feels GREAT - just like an electric, very fun to play. Neck could be wider. Fat fingered people beware of open b chord! But a wider neck might also detract from the "fastness" of the neck as well.

Very,very,very light w/arched back. Hasnt been dropped or fallen over yet. Feels solid enough so far though. Finish is satin & will definately wear of quicker than a highly glossed axe.(dont have to spend alot of time wiping off fingerprints, which is a good tradeoff to me) Loud enough for living room noodling for friends, but probably not up to a coffee-shop gig w/out mic'ing.Strap buttons solid, but nothing special.

Havn't had too deal w/Taylor about any issues. Been to their web site & I like the vibe of the company. Cant rate yet.

Taylor doesn't allow online ads for their guitars, but you can see what I paid new from guitar trader. Nice people, great service and on this axe, unbeatable price.(No taxes or s&h on that price either) I Highly reccomend them. Shit, these are going for 60-70 bucks more on e-bay USED. This is the best practice/travel guitar I've ever played. Not loud,but nearly double the volume as the baby or martin LXM & alot more playable. Nice tone, good looking, EXCELLENT quality gigbag as well. I find playabilty its best feature.