Baby Taylor

I have one of these, and declared it a POS *UNTIL* I realized that those two screws on the neck (at the body) were not there as some sort of economical factory assembly feature (positioning for gluing), but rather a means to detach the neck. This feature allows you to shim the neck. It took a little while because of the trial & error: detach, shim, reassemble, tune up, see how it feels; repeat until happiness ensues. It made all the difference in the world.

Where/how did you acquire shims? From Taylor?

I’m letting my GT settle in, but I can foresee a neck-angle adjustment.

Ah!

I saw the label in there and assumed.

It appears that the truss rod is not adjustable with an allen wrench. Would a socket work or do I need to buy a wrench from Taylor?

A small nut driver will do it.

Action is better.  Still kinda high, especially higher up the neck.   New strings helped.  Any other tips besides the truss rod?

Does any particular beverage can sound better? Like the cherry Chapstick situation?

Thanks again fellas.  I recall my old '65 Mustang had a neck shim.  Would a finger nail file work?  My wife has those little wooden ones everywhere😱🎸

At 3/16" you might find the biggest one to be inadequate. I've run into this a handful of times with Babies. Sometimes I have to supplement with some extra material, sometimes it is a really hard "dog tongue" kink in the neck (think relief, but not in the area that a truss rod has any impact). Try the shims and see how it goes from there.

Capo down by the nut, loosen strings, pull pegs, and coil them up and out of the way.

Yeah, sure. They'll be slack at the posts but should work fine, assuming the strings are wrapped around the posts at least once. FWIW, I've successfully loosened the strings enough on my Les Paul to get the tail-piece past the posts. You shouldn't need to loosen yours so much to get the pegs out.

It's impossible to say how thick your shim(s) should be. You need time and patience, knowing that you will end up with a fine playing guitar. Just try to get what you like, one shim at a time. (I used an index card to cut out my shims, and (of course) they all had the same thickness.) Loosen all the strings well, place a capo on the neck, sort of close to the nut, if you only have one capo, to keep the strings in place in that area. Be sure to use a properly sized screwdriver and remove those two screws on the fretboard. Lift the neck up and out of its neck pocket, and just lay the neck off to the side so that the strings are not in the way of the neck pocket (I flipped the neck over 90 degrees/perpendicular to the guitar body); it's best to work on a large table or on the floor so the neck doesn't accidentally want to fall off the table).  As long as you don't put any kinks in the strings, you're good. Lay down a shim (I suggest the thinnest to begin with) like Peegoo's photo depicts. Carefully reassemble the neck, putting the screws back in carefully and not too tight; you don't need to muscle those screws; the wood is relatively soft (not like maple). Take off the capo and tune up. See what you think; you have to play it somewhat, checking the action, but also seeing if any fret buzz crept in. I did this adjustment cycle three (3) time before I got the action I was comfortable with it. There are no short cuts; it's what you have to do. As long as you don't kink your strings or strip out your screws holes with macho screwdriver twisting, you'll do good.

PS - The odds are that your outside e strings will not be evenly following the outside edges of the neck when you’re done.  Just loosen those screws just a little and nudge the headstock one way or the other to line them up.