Travel Guitars

[jpfeifer]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if any of you all travel often for your work. Do you have a travel guitar that you're happy with?

Since I travel for my work often, I bought a small acoustic guitar for this called the "Baby Taylor". It's a great guitar even for playing at home. I've taken it on the road several times but it's too large to fit inside a suitcase and I get hassled sometimes from the airlines that consider it an extra carry on item. Since it is an acoustic guitar, it sometimes bothers people when I play it in a hotel room if someone is trying to sleep in the next room.

I've thought about getting a different travel guitar that is totally quiet, and smaller so that I could put it in my checked luggage. This would solve a lot of problems that I had with the Baby Taylor, and still allow me to practice while I'm away from home. I'm thinking about getting one of these:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...tar?sku=518703

Do any of you have this guitar? It seems to have some good reviews.

-- Jim

[tot_Ou_tard]

I haven't heard of it before, but I'd go for a corvette yellow one if you do decide to buy one & get a Zoom G1 or something similar!

Jim,

Here is another choice for a travel guitar:



http://news.harmony-central.com/Newp...Stow-Away.html

[jack_GVR]

Hi Jim,

The Soloette makes a lot of people happy. It's basically a guitar neck with a couple of removal aluminum curved side pieces that make a guitar shape. You play it through an ear phone, and you used to be able to carry it on the plane - since things have gotten pretty wierd since 9-11, I don't know if that's still true. I know several people who have had them and liked them, and I've played them myself and they are definitely OK although they don't have an acoustic sound.

There's also the Martin Backpacker. I don't like them much but they are a little more portable than the Baby Taylor, I think. There's a guy in Paracho Michoacan in Mexico who makes a nylon string version if that's your thing - and you want to make a trip to Paracho!

soloette URL:
http://www.soloette.com/

all the best -
Jack from Guitar Vacation Retreats
http://www.guitar-vacation-retreats.com

[tremoloman***]

I use one of my blue SX SSTs as a travel guitar. It's in my car all the time and has withstood the elements so far.

[jpfeifer]

An update on this ....

I finally broke down and bought the Traverler Speedster last week since I had a business trip to China this week. I brought the guitar with me and I'm really liking it. It feels very much like an decent electric guitar neck, especially with the extension arm rest attached. The action was great and didn't require any tweaking at all. (it feels similar to my Hamer) I just practiced a little this morning before our day of meetings here Chengdu city! I'm very glad that I bought this as it helps to cure the travel blues a little and allow me to practice. At least I can play blues when I have the travel blues now!

-- Jim

[Tone2TheBone]

You went to China? Tell us more!

[tot_Ou_tard]

You went to China? Tell us more!

Yeah more!! Do you speak any Mandarin?!?

[SuperSwede]

Did you eat dog? Tell us about all the strange chinese food!

[jpfeifer]

So far I've been to Chengdu city in the Sechwan province and today we're in Beijing. We have been in a lot of customer meetings so I haven't had a chance to really see much of the cities we're in. But I have had some good food. Yeah, there is definitely some weird stuff on the menus if you want it. Luckily they have pictures of most things and a short English description of most of them. The wierdest thing that I saw so far was a dish at a place in Chengdu with caterpillars on top of some kind of pork. We didn't order any.

I can't believe how inexpensive the food is though. It's about 1/10th the cost of a comparable meal in the US at a nice restaraunt.

Unfortunately I don't speak any Chinese but our hosts are teaching us a few phrases. Taxi rides can be interesting ... if you don't know the Chinese name for your hotel you're almost assured that you won't get back to it when you hop into a taxi. The hotel people gave us some cards with the Chinese name for our hotel for this purpose.

-- Jim

[warren0728]

what length is the traveler when broken down....do you carry it on or pack in checked luggage?

ww

[SuperSwede]

Pork with caterpillars... now THAT you have to try in the name of science. Be brave Jim

[warren0728]

yeah....it's a shame they took a great food like caterpillars and made it gross by adding pork!

I tried duck tongue once while in nyc.....not good....

ww

[SuperSwede]

Actually, duck is not bad at all. I havent tasted the tongues yet, but if I did I certainly wouldn´t ruin it with pork

[warren0728]

oh yeah...duck is good...but duck tongue was pretty bad. There is a gristle like substance down the center of the tongue so you have to kinda naw the meat off from around the gristle....

ww

[Tone2TheBone]

...didn't we discuss all this duck tongues before?

Is it easy to play that shape of guitar?

btw I'm waiting on the ratings for the Chinese babes...if any.

[warren0728]

...didn't we discuss all this duck tongues before?

yep and it is still yucky! new members do the search....

ww

[SuperSwede]

Yes, we had a very tasty discussion about _various_ food before.

[warren0728]

what length is the traveler when broken down....do you carry it on or pack in checked luggage?

still wondering.....

[jpfeifer]

Hi Warren,

Sorry, I didn't have a chance to get on email yesterday.

The traveler speedster is too long to fit into a suitcase (not sure the exact dimensions). However, it's shorter then a regular guitar because it's missing the body portion and the headstock is built into the bridge area. So it's essentially a normal guitar neck length but everthing else around it is extra compact. It has a detachable arm rest. When you put that on and sit down with it, it feels basically like sitting down and playing a Strat.

-- Jim