Hi guys,
I am going to buy a travel guitar, so I can take it to work, on holiday, on fell walks, etc.
I have looked at prices for the Martin Backpacker, Taylor Baby, Wash-burn Rover, etc.
Could you anybody offer any advice from their experiences?
Not sure on your budget, but I quite like the Yamaha Silent guitars. I used one of their classical versions for a few years - when I was attempting to learn classical technique.
I've been using a Cordoba Mini R, and it was okay for the price, but left me a little wanting. On a whim, I recently bought a Romero Creations Baritone 6 Guilele (20" scale) and it's crazy excellent: loud, resonant and with a silky sweet tone. It can be tuned as a standard E A D G B E but sounds best at G C F Bb D G (Terz) strung with Romero Creations Guilele strings (UG1). I use a capo on the 2nd fret when I need requinto/ukulele tuning (A D G C E A) but I suspect it will sound good open at that pitch if I can find a little lighter strings.
You appear to want a steel string guitar. Forget the Martin backpacker, for the money you can get much better sounding instruments. Travel guitars seem to fall into a couple of categories, super compact or those that dont take up a lot of space and could fit in an over head compartment in an airplane. The Taylor GS Mini is about as big as you can go in that class, probably upper price range as well, $500. I have one and like it. What is your budget??? The BabyTaylor is smaller as is the Martin LX series
The new Yamaha CFS series of travel guitar is very nice for maybe $350. Parlor guitars by Washburn and Seagull/Art&Luthier/Norman. There are so many variables when it comes to travel guitars go gotta go out and play them to see what you like.
I would HIGHLY recommend the Journey Instruments Overhead models. I have the carbon fiber model Was pricey but it comes apart for travel and folde in to a back pack, rock solid construction and sounds excellent. The solid wood top models are great too and less money. I just felt the all carbon was nice for travel since i dont have to worry much about the elements.
The composite acoustics cargo is another carob guitar that sounds really good, i guess about the size of a GS mini.
The gs mini and the yammy cfs both sound great - my biggest concern with these is that if you do bring it on a plane and they decide its too big for an overhead, you risk checking it and getting damage. sAEM GOES FOR THE COMPSITE ACOUSTICS CARGO..
The journey is probably the best travel guitar you can get..
I've never played one, but I've read a lot of enthusiastic comments about the Tacoma Papoose. One comes available on Craigslist or Reverb every so often.
I have heard great things about the Journey now I know why. Great playing Joe, you are very talented and the guitar sounded wonderful. Can you tell how you recorded it and what equipment you used
I have heard great things about the Journey now I know why. Great playing Joe, you are very talented and the guitar sounded wonderful. Can you tell how you recorded it and what equipment you used
Thanks for the kind words. This is an amazing travel guitar. Recording this was using a audio Technica 4030 microphone and and oktava mk012 mic. Feed into a presonus audiobox interface going into garage band.
I've never played one, but I've read a lot of enthusiastic comments about the Tacoma Papoose. One comes available on Craigslist or Reverb every so often.
Martin backpackers are horrendous ... at least I think they are.
The Taylor GS-Mini is probably as large a "travel" guitar as a person would want - but many find that it's a fine guitar in its own right. I've owned the Koa GSM, the Mahogany GSM and the Spruce over Rosewood GSM. Of those, I thought the best sounding was the solid Mahogany top version - which just so happens to be the least expensive. I wish I hadn't sold that hog top - I would sooner have sold the spruce top but it had some fret wear after years of ownership and I needed to turn some guitars over quickly for the most $$.
I'm not familiar with any other "travel" guitars so I can't comment on them.
Think through your use case before buying. You'll probably want something different to play in your office or hotel than you would around a campfire.
I used to carry a Washburn Rover acoustic to practice on holiday. It was too loud to play in a hotel room. I've replaced it with a Traveler Escape solid-body which I can play through headphones without disturbing my neighbors, and I carry a mini-amp if I think I'll want to share.
If my Escape got crushed I'd probably replace it with the fully electric version of the same rather than the "acoustic". Probably not this one though. (Probably).
