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/product/Traveler-Speedster-Travel-Electric-Guitar?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/2006/Stewart-Guitar-Company-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

 

[jpfeifer]

Hi Guys,

Well it's time to head for home today so my trip is finally over. Beijing is one large city, 30 million people live in this city alone. I've never seen traffic like this city has. There's also alot of construction going on everywhere you look. Part of this is due to the city getting ready for the 2008 Olympics, but in general China as a country is in a gigantic economic boom.

The people have been great, very nice and friendly. They don't seem to be as formal as I have found the Japanese or Koreans to be. They're a little more easy going.

-- Jim

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Jim, or anyone else that can comment, could you give me any hints for taking a small guitar on a plane? I was going to bring my son's S101 small acoustic. Not great, but something to play with. Probably about the same size as the baby Taylor or Martin. It is in a nice padded gig bag that more substantial than most gig bags. I was wondering about what the airlines would say about it as a carry on. It would fit in an overhead bin for sure.

 

[jpfeifer]

Hi Steve,

If the guitar is the size of a Baby Taylor it shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure to divide up your carry on luggage so that each person in your group has only two items, where one of those items will fit under your seat.

I've only had hassels where I try to take two luggage-size items. They will often ask me to check one of them.

I also had an issue traveling through London's Heathrow airport. Because of the incidents that happened in London, Heathrow will only let you take 1 carry on (no exceptions). If you have a laptop that will count as one item. They forced me to check my traveler speedster guitar the last time I went through there. It's a durable guitar but I only have this small padded case for it. The guitar arrived, still playable but it sustained some dents and was knocked around in the process. It really bummed me out but I had no choice at the time. It was either that or risk that my laptop would suffer the same damage.

-- Jim

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Thanks Jim. Good tips on the carry ons. I may have access to a little nylon string loaner that I can at least fiddle with. My instructor said he doesn't care if it gets damaged or even destroyed (he said if I didn't bring it back, it would be a favor), and is going to see if it will stay in tune well enough to take along. I took a sister nylon string guitar to this one down to Moab last fall and it worked to have something to play with. This one is just a bit more beat up. It will fit in the Baby Taylor sized gig bag my son has. I likely will go that route rather than risk my son's steel string acoustic, just in case I end up in a situation like your Heathrow deal. My instructor is a nice guy!

 

[marteau]

Lapstick travel guitar

Anybody interested in travelling with a guitar should really check out the Lapstick. This is a new approach based on the idea that you want to be able to play while travelling and not just lug something around. The instrument is ultracompact and fits into the same case as your laptop, yet the sound and performance will blow you away. The site is www.lapstick.com. It's probably not for everybody but it's definitely worth looking at if you're a serious player.

 

[Justaguyin_nc]

Anybody interested in travelling with a guitar should really check out the Lapstick. This is a new approach based on the idea that you want to be able to play while travelling and not just lug something around. The instrument is ultracompact and fits into the same case as your laptop, yet the sound and performance will blow you away. The site is www.lapstick.com. It's probably not for everybody but it's definitely worth looking at if you're a serious player.

Interesting Lil'Guitar and sound...
Welcome to the board marteau! :beer:

YA forgot the videos..

 

[just strum]

Here's another interesting travel guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnPX5dUEnYg&mode=related&search=

BTW, how do you put the videos right in you post?

 

[marteau]

Thanks for the welcome

Interesting Lil'Guitar and sound...
Welcome to the board marteau! :beer:

Thanks for the welcome justaguy. A beer is always welcome.

I've been playing the Lapstick for a few years now. I use it mainly for checking out arrangements for the big band that I play in, since I'm not such a good reader as the horn players in the band. I can do this on the train without bothering anybody which gives me an extra hour and a half of practice time a day! This has saved my butt on a couple of occasions and when I work out all the hours of practice time I've gained the Lapstick has been an amazing deal. I use it with a Korg Pandora and it sounds just great, plus there is an onboard tuner and rhythm tracks.

By the way, here are two of the most important things I have discovered as a rock/blues player now playing jazz. Always count bars whether you are playing or not. Always carry clothes pegs when playing outside, Murphy says the breeze will start blowing as soon as you start playing.

Cheers

P.S. How do you get a rock/blues player to turn down? Give him some sheet music.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Here's another interesting travel guitar.



BTW, how do you put the videos right in you post?

Stummy, just quote me & look at what I did to your link.

 

[just strum]

Stummy, just quote me & look at what I did to your link.

???

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

???

I learned how to do this by clicking the quote button on one of Vood's posts & looking at what he did.

Basically, you enclose the youtube video Id (a bunch of numbers & letters that should be obvious from the html) between a

youtube

& a

/youtube

HTML tag. Put those tags in square brackets [].

There probably is an easier way, but I don't know it.