Sweet Baby James

Anniemay has a thing about James Taylor. I have a thing about Taylor guitars.

On the right is a Taylor Big Baby; on the left is a Martin Grand Performance. Now, to the untrained eye, they might not look that different in size - the Martin’s a bit bigger, but not much. The photo’s deceptive though - the Martin has a much longer neck, which makes it a bigger beast altogether.

The Martin is a full-size guitar. Big Baby is a ‘travel guitar' - for when you might want to travel with a guitar …..

Anniemay’s youngest, Dan, will shortly leave Australia to go travelling. He wanted a travel guitar and settled on a Taylor Baby. Ever since he got it, he’s been on at me to get one. Last week we were in ‘the UK’s biggest guitar shop’ in Newcastle and I tried one out. It was very impressive. But hanging next to it was a slightly larger model, the Big Baby. This was something else altogether.

Although only a little longer in the body than the Baby, it’s twice as deep. And the resulting sound is sweet and mellow - not at all harsh, like many travel guitars.

The size of a guitar body affects the sound it makes. Put simply - as the body gets smaller, the sound gets thin or ‘tinny’. But a big bodied guitar is not really convenient to carry round, unless you have a roadie or two.

For example, when heavy metal bands come over all romantic and decide to do the obligatory ‘acoustic number’, the fans get out their lighters and the band get out their Jumbos and Dreadnoughts. These have big bodies to project a big sound (the guitars, I mean. Although a life on the road fuelled by burgers and beer, might well result in Jumbo performers). But these big guitars are never going to fit in the overhead locker of an aeroplane - a Big Baby will though.

So - have guitar, will travel. And rockabye Sweet Baby James.