Great Travel Guitar
I’ve been playing acoustic guitar since 1977. In all these years, I’ve owned many many guitars. I play live every few months and do lots of composing/recording.
I bought this guitar a week ago for a variety of reasons.
Firstly, I live in a subtropical environment and own a very expensive Martin that is now struggling due to humidity. It’s a beautiful guitar but it’s in need of specialised repair now, which is not available in my area. I’m watching it fade away and am absolutely considering cutting my losses and selling it.
Secondly, I liked the various video reviews for the Lava, particularly of the onboard chorus and delay. Just seemed like a nice idea.
Finally, I bought it because I was going camping for a week and needed a small/light travel guitar that wouldn’t mind being in a hot tent during the day.
I’ve owned it for a week and here’s what I’ve discovered:
The build is great, being a one piece “carbon fibre” (sort of) instrument - i.e. the neck and body are one - I have the feeling that it’s solid. I like the action and the playability a lot. The neck feels great. Frets are nice. Machine heads are quality and keep it in tune. A lot of thought went into the engineering of this guitar.
The sound is better than I thought it would be. Definitely more on the treble end but good volume and sustain. Easily as good as any more expensive wooden guitars I’ve had.
While I like the internal delay/chorus, I found that I used the internal effects sparingly as the guitar is just fine without them. This being said, I don’t regret paying the extra to have them included as they offers a nice option should the wish for a different sound arise. This isn’t a criticism of the installed “free boost” module but rather a comment on how good the guitar sounds on its own. This was a surprise given its size.
It was baked in a hot tent during midday but stayed in tune and seemed happy and content. This is maybe the guitar’s most important selling point. I have a feeling that it’ll will be around for a long time without the need for repair.
It’s small. If you like to play solos high up on the neck you should probably stay away. It plays nicely with a capo on the 7th, which is mostly as high as I like to go.
Overall the guitar has exceeded my expectations at this point. No regrets at all.
My Martin is looking at the new Lava Me 2 with some concern . . .
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