Taylor Ben Harper GS Mini-e Special Edition

Ben Harper's Look, GS Mini Size

Earlier this year, Taylor and Ben Harper teamed up on the Gold Label 512e Grand Concert. Their second collaboration goes the other direction: a GS Mini-e Special Edition that carries Ben's visual style over to Taylor's compact acoustic.

If you've played a GS Mini, you already know the appeal. It's small enough to live next to the couch or ride along in the back seat, and it still plays like a real guitar. This version keeps all of that and changes a few things that matter, both in how it looks and how it sounds.

The Gold Label Look, Scaled Down

The finish borrows from Ben's Gold Label model. The top wears a custom shaded edgeburst, set off by a cream pickguard with a black underlay and a three-ring cream-and-black rosette.

The body is gloss and the neck is satin. You get a Crelicam ebony fretboard with 4mm Italian acrylic dots, die-cast chrome tuners, and a custom interior label inside.

Torrefied Top, Medium Strings

The top is solid torrefied Sitka spruce. Taylor roasts the wood to give it some of the warmth and sweetness you'd hear in an older guitar, and here that comes across as a strong, full midrange. Back and sides are layered sapele, with X-bracing inside.

Taylor strings it with D'Addario XS coated phosphor bronze mediums. They add some heft, and they help a guitar with a 23-1/2-inch scale hit harder than its size suggests.

Easy to Play, Easy to Take Along

The mahogany neck has the slim Taylor profile and a 1-11/16-inch Nubone nut, so it's a comfortable reach whether you've been playing for a month or for decades. ES2 electronics cover the plugged-in side, for a small gig or a recording session.

It ships in a tan structured gig bag. Travel, campfire jams, everyday practice, writing songs on the couch: it's the guitar that's easy to bring.