Taylor GS Mini Acoustic Guitar

Hello!

In the last blog entry, I said I was going to review my acoustic guitar, the Taylor GS Mini. And here it comes!

Taylor GS Mini

I have had this guitar since summer 2011, so soon to be 2 years. The previous acoustic guitar I had was a cheap 100 dollar guitar, which was large and not comfortable playing on. The fretboard was bad and It hurt my fingertips playing it. When I got this, it was like heaven compared with the old one. The Taylor GS Mini is very easy to play on, meaning that you don't need to press your fingertips that hard on the fretboard in order to play notes. Major plus in my book!

Over to some technical data. The Taylor GS Mini is really a Grand Symphony guitar in 3/4 scale. If you are familiar with Taylor guitars, it can be compared with the Big Baby and Baby Taylor guitars. The total scale length is 597 mm with 20 frets.

Taylor GS Mini Mahogany

The GS Mini is only 1,8 kg (4 pounds), which is fairly lightweight. It is made up by both solid and laminate wood. The top is Sitka Spruce, with the neck and sides being Sapele. Giving it an good sound over the entire sound spectrum. With the sides being laminated wood, it makes the guitar suitable for travel playing because the laminate is stronger and more resistant to cracks. It has chrome tuning pegs and comes with a truss rod, which makes in resistant to changes in temperature while on the road. A truss rod in a steel rod that runs through the neck of the guitar used to stabilize and adjust the lengthwise forward curvature of the neck, which is also called relief.

The sound of the guitar is awesome. This small guitar can play loud. It has a nice tone both with finger style and strumming. When strumming it has rich powerful sound due to the large sound hole. The tuning holds very nice, even when changing it often. I often play with standard tuning and DADGAD tuning, and it holds the tuning very nice.

The guitar I have is 100 % acoustic, but Taylor has pickup which is easily installed in 5 minutes. The guitar has a removable end pin where you can install the jack to the pickup. The pick is optional when buying the guitar, but it can also be bought later for around a hundred dollars.

Overall the guitar is awesome to look at, awesome to play on and awesome to listen to. I don't use it as a travel guitar. I used it as my main and only acoustic guitar and I play any kind of genre. And for its listing price, this is an excellent buy for any guitar player. It also comes in a Mahogany version with the Sitka Spruce top being replaced by a Mahogany top.

If you are interested in seeing the guitars size or hearing the sound of the guitar, you can watch me play Andy McKee's "Drifting" underneath.

Hope you enjoy!

-Kianul

Update

Hi people!

I have been very busy the last two days and haven't had the chance to write any. But not to worry. Tomorrow I will write a review of my favorite instrument! My Taylor GS Mini acoustic guitar!

Stay tuned and I will speak with you tomorrow!

-Kianul

Review Roland F-120 SBA

Hi.

I thought it was a good idea to review some of the gear I have. This for the purpose of letting others choose a suitable instrument/gear, but also so that you can get some insight in what type or gear I have and what I use it for.

I thought I would start with my newest instrument, the Roland F-120 SBA. Its a 88 key Ivory Feel-G keyboard. Ivory Feel-G with Progressive Hammer Action is a term that mean that the keyboard has the feel and touch of a true piano.

It has a space-saving cabinet. It is only 30 cm in depth, which makes it not so dominating in a smaller room, or in any room for that matter. In my opinion it is a really nice piece of furniture. It looks really good in your living room.
My cabinet is black (Satin Black to be exact), but it comes in white as well  It's lightweight (about 34 kg or 75 pounds), which makes it easy to move around. Specially if you mainly have it in your living room, but record with it in your studio in your basement or garage.

It has a folding lid that covers the entire keyboard and keeps the keys dust-free and clean. When the lid is raised, it acts as a sheet holder. Practical and clean design!

It has many features, for example the Twin-Piano-feature which splits the piano into two parts, both of them covering the same octaves. This is very ideal if you got a teacher or a friends to teach you how to play. You can then play side by side, and you can see and hear when you are practicing together. Neat!

The keyboard also features a metronome and a recorder. That way you can practice on keeping a perfect time and listen to your performance afterwards.

It has three pedals, just like a true piano, which dampen and sustains the notes (a Damper, soft and sostenuto). It has several connectors. It has an input jack which enables you to play along with other songs, or listen to a tutorial on youtube via a computer (mini jack). It also has Output jacks (L/Mono and R - 1/4 inch jack). If you don't want to disturb your family members, you can always use one of the two headphone jack (2 x 1/4 inch jack). The piano also has MIDI connectors, In and Out.

The thing I like the most about this keyboard is that it really feels like a piano. The hammer action is perfect, in my head, the design is outstanding and clever. It plays loud enough with its two 12 W speakers. It has 189 prerecorded songs, all of them classic songs - which I'm not going to go further into.

It has 4 piano sounds, 4 ensemble sounds, as well as 22 other sounds, covering strings, accordion, orchestra, organ and choir.

All in all, a great keyboard with many functions and sounds. Feels and sounds like a true piano. Fits piano-players in all ages and all skill levels. And at a low price! You should try it in your closest store!

-Kianul

Request

Hi!

I would appreciate it if you could request something in the comment section. You can request specific topic you want me to write about, questions you have about my gear or recording methods, or you can request a certain song you would like for me to upload to youtube and this blog.

All request will be answered and considered before making the blog entry or the recording of the song. There is also a possibility to ask personal questions although I might not answer all of them if they are too personal.

Look forward to hear from you!

-Kianul

My Recording Gear

Hello people!

I thought I might guide you through the gear that I'm currently using to record music and sound.

I use several guitars, both acoustic and electric. Two acoustic guitars (Woodrock and Taylor GS Mini)
and three electric guitars (Squier Stratocaster, Ibanez RG350EXZ and a Ibanez RG7321 7string). I also got a bassguitar (Cort), a keyboard (Yamaha YPG-235), an electric drumset (Roland TD KX2 V-drums) and an electric piano (Roland F-120 SBA).

I got and Marshall 1960A cabinet with a Randall RH50T Tube amplifier head and a Orange Crush 30W Bass amplifier. Usually only used when practicing.

I got a MXL 990 and a MXL 991 condenser microphones. To record vocals and acoustic guitars I used to connect the condenser-microphones to a mixer, which is the Behringer XENYX 1202FX, which was connected to the computer. But that was when I used Audacity as my DAW. The Behringer mixer has phantom power which is what you need if you're going to use a condenser microphone. The phantom power gives the microphone power. Without that it simply won't work.

After a while I bought an Mbox with ProTools 9, which is the DAW I currently use. The Mbox has two inputs for jacks and two mic/line inputs. The Mbox is only connected to the computer by a USB cable.

I also got a effect pedal that I connect to my Randall/Marshall stack. The pedal is a ZOOM G9.2tt. I usually don't use this when I record, but I use it when I'm practicing. This is because I don't mic up the amplifier when I record, I use direct input into the Mbox.

When I record in ProTools, I use a USB-keyboard called KeyRig 49 from M-Audio. It's a small bus powered 49-key MIDI keyboard that is easy to use. Bus powered meaning that it gets power from the USB-connection, just like a typing keyboard or a mouse on your computer. This keyboard is great to create music with virtual instruments. You can choose a variety of instruments in ProTools and use this keyboard to create the notes. If you're familiar with MIDI, you will know that a MIDI-keyboard doesn't create notes. It only tells the program what notes it should generate.

Under you can see a slideshow of some of the gear. If you have questions about the gear or how it's connected, comment in the comment section below.

If you want to see the rest of the gear, check out my videos on youtube here.

Enjoy!

-Kianul

                          

Without You

Hi again!

Here is a new video for you! This time its David Guetta ft Usher "Without You". This is the first time I have ever sung in a video and uploaded it.

It was easy to make. Only a USB-keyboard and a cheap microphone to sing in. Recorded it all on ProTools via my Mbox.

Hope you like it. Feel free to comment in the comment section below with any opinions or critisism. Also you can submit questions about anything you want answered.

Enjoy!

-Kianul

R.I.P

Sad to real that the founder of Sabian Robert Zildjian just died at the age of 89. RIP. Thank you for all yourself contributions you have given us!

If you want to read up on him follow this link.

-Kianul