u/onlyich

After always wanting a Baby Taylor, I finally bought one and it’s great. I really love this small, handy guitar.

But now I’ve been thinking about how I could amplify it so that I can use some effects like chorus or reverb with it. Most soundhole pickups won’t fit in the Baby Taylor’s soundhole. Also I don’t really want to attach a piezo pickup to it because I’m worried about scratching the finish.

So I was wondering: would the Taylor ES-Go pickup for the GS Mini fit a Baby Taylor? I haven’t been able to find any information about the required soundhole size.

Every time I hear people talk about budget guitars it’s always Harley Benton, Squier, Jet Guitars or some other cheap brand. But Rocktile is almost never mentioned anywhere. So recently I decided to just buy a Rocktile Vinstage because I thought the relic style looked pretty cool and I wanted to try it out myself. I honestly didn’t expect much, but this guitar really surprised me.

The setup out of the box was so much better than on any Harley Benton or Squier Sonic / Affinity model I’ve tried before. The neck and fretboard are both roasted maple and feel really good while playing. The guitar is also pretty light compared to most Harley Bentons, which I personally kinda like.

The intonation isn’t perfect, but that’s true for most budget guitars.

What really surprised me was how good the guitar actually looks. Sure, the relic work isn’t custom shop quality (how could it?!), but for the price it’s definitely worth mentioning. I originally thought the relic finish would just be painted on because of the low price, but it’s actually some kind of relic work. You can feel the wood and all the little imperfections here and there. They even added some fake rust on the bridge, which looks pretty convincing to me.

The pickups are just some no-name who cares ones, but they don’t sound bad at all. At first I was a bit put off because the bridge pickup was extremely bright to my ears. But that’s easy to fix with the tone knob.

After spending some time with it I actually started enjoying the sound of both pickups because they sound quite different from the guitars I already own. It doesn’t really sound like a classic Tele. With gain it almost leans a bit toward an SG-style sound, while still being really bright if you want it to be. It's a really unique sound.

The string action is also pretty low without any buzzing. I’ve tried so many Harley Bentons before and most of them were disappointing out of the box: high action, fret buzz and poor setups. Even some major flaws or a few defects. In my experience Harley Benton’s quality control can be pretty inconsistent and bad. But this cheap Rocktile Vinstage turned out to be surprisingly good right out of the box. The only real criticism I have is that the tone and volume knobs feel a bit cheap and clunky. The knobs are way to stiff. Still, with a bit of work and maybe a few upgrades this guitar is definitely something worth considering.

Has anyone else ever tried one? Maybe I was just lucky with this one, but I wanted to share my experience with this unknown brand. This guitar isn't boring, I like to grab it and play. So I'll keep it;)

Here are some pictures I made from the guitar:

https://preview.redd.it/5lrw019nxvah1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b3064b48adc3cabc891c5bc2f33f4429a4c16028

https://preview.redd.it/vt1ejz8nxvah1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d48fa9de5b2edb07d85df53033843725b9b21c83

https://preview.redd.it/emvzk9lsxvah1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f3a42d22d4ee5490943f6cbdc5433304715375c