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  #46  
Old 09-24-2020, 09:20 PM
DavidE DavidE is offline
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This is the second post asking about travel guitars in two days. I'll give the same answer. I've tried, and owned, a ton.

I've been happiest with the Journey Overhead OF660. Great quality, excellent low end for a small body, great feel, great sound acoustic and plugged in and it is true overhead sound that fits on every plane I've been on.

Why I don't recommend the Voyage Air, and I still own one, it's too big. It doesn't meet regulation size for any airline overhead compartment. When that's what I was using, it was really stressful every time I was preparing to get on a plane. Trying to get on as soon as possible to secure space. Often it would not fit in overhead compartments and I was at the mercy of the crew allowing half of it to take up my foot space and once the plane was empty enough that they strapped it in a seat for me since they were intrigued by the design. Too much stress. Now it's a great campfire guitar, but I'll never try to fly with it again. Flying is too stresssful already.
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  #47  
Old 09-25-2020, 08:09 AM
dberlind dberlind is offline
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This is an edited x-post of my reply from the other thread on travel guitars. Hopefully this is helpful to you.

I am (or was before the pandemic) a HEAVY air traveler who wanted to practice in my hotel rooms. I set about on a mission to understand the pros and cons of all the travel guitars out there. I bought (and subsequently sold) many models to put to them to a real world test.

Here are some important bullet points:
  • I prefer an acoustic for travel but have come to learn that the people in the rooms next to me do not. Especially late at night. It's something to think about if you want to be courteous to your neighbors in hotels. But if you think you'll be playing for friends when traveling, then stay with the acoustic. You get what you pay for here. I had an Emerald X7 Acoustic/Electric (carbon fiber guitar) and sold it. In hindsight, I should not have sold it. I was able to eventually replace it with a CA-Cargo (also carbon fiber) and that is my current go-to. I'm pretty sure you could row a canoe and block small arms fire with one of these carbon fiber models too. I have not tried the KLOS (much more parlor sized).
  • Overhead bin space can, as you probably know, be very hard to come by. You need to be in one of the elite tiers of the airline to get preferred boarding (eg: groups 1 or 2) in order to find a bin that will fit your guitar. If you know you'll get the preferred boarding, a gig bag will do. However, if you're not sure and there's ANY chance that you'll be forced to check the guitar as luggage, your only option is to use a hardshell case and for many guitars, the hardshell case could be problematic with overhead bins. This isn't a "most of the time" thing to think about. The one time you travel and have to check your guitar in a a gig bag may be the last time you see that guitar in one piece (although the carbon fiber guitars will take the punishment better than wood ones). Even a hardshell case is no guarantee. Search "United Breaks Guitars" on YouTube. It's both funny and sad at the same time.
  • The acoustics with the foldable/detachable necks like the Voyage Air did not work for me. They usually come in a custom fitted backpack that can't hold much else and while the backpacks don't take a lot of horizontal overhead bin space, they sometimes would not fit due to the lack of vertical bin space. If you travel with a backpack for your other stuff (computer, books, etc.), you end up bringing two backpacks. You will never be able to carry-on three items (computer backpack, guitar, and wheel-aboard luggage). Something will have to be checked. I would always check the luggage. One thing I will say for the Voyage Air, it sounded great, had good action, and remarkably stayed in tune after detaching and reattaching the neck (not that that really matters).
  • The higher end parlor sized acoustics like the Martin LX1 (or LX1E) or the Baby Taylor are better than all the other cheap ones (Luna, Johnson, etc.) by a country mile. You get what you pay for. But even they don't match what I got from the carbon fiber ones. As said earlier, I'm not sure about the KLOS (also a parlor guitar, in carbon fiber). Ed Sheeran plays an LX1E (the electric/acoustic version of the Martin). The Martin LXK2 is the prettiest of that family because it's made with Hawaiian Koa wood. The Taylor GS-Mini is slightly bigger than the Baby Taylor BT1 (but still not a full size acoustic) and the sound is quite noticeably better. But even at that slightly bigger size, you may have overhead bin challenges. The very best of this bunch though, IMHO, is the Australian-made Baby Maton. It's more expensive, but the exchange rate between the US & AUS makes it a little more tolerable. I was in Australia two years ago and regret NOT buying a full size and baby Matons. I just should have done it while I was there.
  • Do not get a backpacker guitar. Period. You'll hate it.
  • The silent acoustics are a nice option. I have an Aria Sinsonido which I'm pretty sure is a licensed, mass produced, cheaper version of the Soloette which is more expensive and probably better manufactured. The boughs literally detach and these guitars will take the least bin space of any guitar out there. But I suspect that the best of this bunch are the Yamaha SLG 100/200 models and I've been keeping watch out for one of those too. The SLG200N is the classical nylon version. The SLG200S is the steel sting version. All of these come with onboard battery driven amplification and a headphone jack. I take the Sinsonido when I travel to Europe because the European Airlines are VERY finicky about bringing instruments on board. British Airways for example strictly forbids it (I discovered this the hard way) and considers guitars to be a special luggage item that I was charged $200 to check. But they would probably never know that one of these silent guitars was actually a guitar. The case does not look like a guitar case. It looks more like a case for a pool cue.
  • On the electric side of things, many electrics.. even full size ones, will easily fit in the overhead bin if they're in a gig bag. Something to think about. Some special travel electrics have a headphone jack built-in. For others, I suggest buying one of Vox's little tiny palm-sized mini amps that make it possible to listen to what you're playing in your headphones. This is a great option if you want to be nice to your hotel neighbors. But not so good if you will be playing for other people wherever it is you travel.
  • One electric that I owned was one of Mark Erlewine's Chiquitas (infamously "played" by Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future). It's tiny, even its hardshell, but very neck heavy. You need a strap, even when sitting with it, and your fretting hand will spend energy holding the guitar in position. It's super short scale length and diminutive frets means you'll need heavier strings for standard tuning. The string sizes are printed on the back of the headstock. Not a big deal. Just something to be aware of. I sold mine but if you get one, be sure not to get one of the Korean-made Hondo versions. Look for the Schaller bridge. None of the Hondos came with it. Speaking of Mark Erlewine, he makes another travel guitar that's probably not neck heavy (there's no headstock) called the Lazer which Johnny Winter played quite a bit. It's significantly more expensive and rarer than the Chiquita. I wish I asked him to let me play one when I visited his shop in Austin. He and his wife are wonderful humans.
  • I was also not satisfied with the Traveler Guitar model I owned. These guitars are full scale length without the headstock. Not only was it difficult to restring, I had to take it to a luthier because it was difficult to keep in tune. It turned out that the long string path wrapping around the base had a lot of friction points. He had to do a bunch of modifications to eliminate these. In the end, I got rid of it.
  • Strobel makes a very interesting looking headstockless travel electric with a highly exposed stringpath called the Rambler. I've never tried it but I'm not crazy about it's design. Based on my experience, a travel electric doesn't need *that* smaller of a body and you need a decent amount of wood for some resonance. But, again, having not tried it, maybe they figured it out and it's smaller size means you'll find a spot for it in the overhead bins, even without priority boarding.
  • One travel electric that I also regret selling (and I'm currently watching for another one) is the Fernandes Nomad Deluxe. All Nomads come with a built in speaker and the Deluxe comes in with a built digital effects machine that is also a drum machine which I liked to use as a metronome (it had A LOT of different drum simulations; Shuffle, Reggae, etc). I had mine in a non-guitar-like gig bag and it traveled very well and in hindsight, the neck was like butter compared to every electric I've played. I was stupid to sell it. The downside is that the onboard electronics will drain a 9-volt battery in about 15 minutes. They come with an A/C adapter but you end up tethered to the wall to use it. There is a battery pack that mounts to your guitar strap that takes a bunch of AA batteries that will last longer than 15 minutes but they're nearly impossible to find on the various markets. If you're good with electronics, you can fabricate one. It just has to simulate the A/C adapter.
  • Two other headstockless electrics worth checking into are from Steinberger. The one that I almost never see for sale anywhere and would love to lay my hands on (because I've heard really good things) is the G Series (GN, GR, GU, etc). It's shape reminds me of Ibanez's exaggerated Strat design, but with no headstock. The little cousin, which way less expensive too, is the standard Spirit series. It's one very small electric, that's for sure. When I was really looking at them, the G-series were very expensive. If you Google "Steinberger Guitars" you'll see some that list in the thousands of dollars. But for some reason, right now, I'm seeing a bunch of these on sale through a retailer called DHgate for $248 (example). These might be cheap knock-offs. I don't know. But if they're the real McCoys, that seems like pretty short money to give one a try. Steinberger's web site doesn't list these anymore. Just the Spirits. Maybe some other manufacturer took over the design and is making them super cheaply.
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  #48  
Old 09-25-2020, 09:44 AM
shawnbrock shawnbrock is offline
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Well I am a little uncertain about the cutaway and pickup options, but the Furch little Jane model is absolutely mind-blowing to me. If you look them up on youtube, you are sure to be intrigued, and even if it does not fit the bill, it is definitely worth looking at in my opinion.
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  #49  
Old 09-25-2020, 12:03 PM
Kerbie Kerbie is offline
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Multiple threads merged.
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  #50  
Old 09-25-2020, 02:09 PM
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KevinH KevinH is offline
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Agreed. While there isn't a cutaway, anyone else looking for a travel guitar should take a look at the Little Jane. It is small (parlor size) and disassembles into a small pack. But it has a bigger sound than say, a GS Mini, which used to be my travel guitar, and it has a 1-3/4" nut.

Quote:
Originally Posted by shawnbrock View Post
Well I am a little uncertain about the cutaway and pickup options, but the Furch little Jane model is absolutely mind-blowing to me. If you look them up on youtube, you are sure to be intrigued, and even if it does not fit the bill, it is definitely worth looking at in my opinion.
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  #51  
Old 09-25-2020, 04:05 PM
Aspiring Aspiring is offline
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I will add another vote for the little Jane. I also did a thread a while back on travel guitars.

Another interesting option is the eo folding silent guitar. It travels way smaller than the slg yamaha and plays extremely well.

I also love the nux mini travel amps and Snapdragon guitars makes some interesting options as well at a good price

The klos travel guitar is a nice option for true acoustic but minimun size along with durability.

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