NTGD - Enya Nova Pro Arrived Today

[Goat Mick]

Lady Luck smiled upon me today and my work computer did a complete belly up crash and die so I got a free day off while they overnight a new one. Knowing that my Enya was scheduled to be delivered today, I went down to my local Mom & Pop (Campbell’s Music, Johnson City, TN - great store!), and played every travel guitar they had in stock from little Yamahas, Baby Taylors, and everything else I could find. I gotta tell you this little Enya sounds as good as any of them. Very thin, easy to hold and dang near indestructible. I’m very impressed. It is a little zingy but I think a lot of that is because the stings are new and haven’t been played. It by no means sounds like my J-45 or CEO-7 but for what it is I like it! And I can throw it in the car on summer trips and not worry about it at all. This thing is a lot more than just a guitar shaped object. The fretwork is clean, it’s set up well and the finish is perfect. I got it on Amazon during Prime Days for $159.00 with free shipping. Dang good semi-hard gig bag too. Pics to prove it happened.

[jricc]

Looks like a cool travel companion Mick, great price,no need to worry about it Congrats.

And BONUS! Day off to go play guitars, nice.

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by jricc

Looks like a cool travel companion Mick, great price,no need to worry about it Congrats.

And BONUS! Day off to go play guitars, nice.

I’m not complaining!!

[SpruceTop]

Nice, Mick, it looks like a lot of guitar for the price!

I'm tempted get the Enya X4 Pro AcousticPlus (EA-X4E Pro). At $899, is it too good a deal to be true for what seems to be a decent carbon-fiber, acoustic-electric guitar?

[RJVB]

Had a quick check and wondered why your Nova Pro has 6 instead of 4 strings

(IOW, did you mean to write Nova Go?)

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by RJVB

Had a quick check and wondered why your Nova Pro has 6 instead of 4 strings

(IOW, did you mean to write Nova Go?)

I was wondering the same thing, after poking around on Amazon for a while

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by RJVB

Had a quick check and wondered why your Nova Pro has 6 instead of 4 strings

(IOW, did you mean to write Nova Go?)

It says Nova Go on the headstock. It’s an expansion from their ukulele line.

[jdinco]

That's a great report for an affordable travel companion. Thanks ! Wondering if you played any of the HPL Martins?

[Crowyote]

Originally Posted by Goat Mick

Lady Luck smiled upon me today and my work computer did a complete belly up crash and die so I got a free day off while they overnight a new one. Knowing that my Enya was scheduled to be delivered today, I went down to my local Mom & Pop (Campbell’s Music, Johnson City, TN - great store!), and played every travel guitar they had in stock from little Yamahas, Baby Taylors, and everything else I could find. I gotta tell you this little Enya sounds as good as any of them. Very thin, easy to hold and dang near indestructible. I’m very impressed. It is a little zingy but I think a lot of that is because the stings are new and haven’t been played. It by no means sounds like my J-45 or CEO-7 but for what it is I like it! And I can throw it in the car on summer trips and not worry about it at all. This thing is a lot more than just a guitar shaped object. The fretwork is clean, it’s set up well and the finish is perfect. I got it on Amazon during Prime Days for $159.00 with free shipping. Dang good semi-hard gig bag too. Pics to prove it happened.

Awesome! Glad to hear it. Kicking myself for not jumping on the Amazon Prime deal, but then I am on a spending freeze and would hear hell if I had another guitar delivered . . .

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by jdinaz

That's a great report for an affordable travel companion. Thanks ! Wondering if you played any of the HPL Martins?

I used to have one of the black HPL 000 Matin guitars but I really couldn’t use it as a travel guitar because it was just as vulnerable to heat as a solid wood guitar. The HPL gives you more protection against humidity and impact but you still have to carry it in every where you go. Granted it does sound much better than the Enya but the main thing that pointed me towards the Enya is that I can leave it in a very hot or very cold car without worrying it’s going to warp or come apart. It’s not a great sounding guitar but it’s pretty nice and sounds just as good as a Baby Taylor or one of the small, all laminate Yamahas I tried Monday.

[RJVB]

Curious, would you have paid the full price? *)

I can't help but think it could have sounded better if they had put in a more standard soundhole.

Last winter I visited an old colleague and he showed me his "favourite" guitar in terms of quality/price ratio. Turned out to be a guitalele sized bright orange plastic nylonstringer that looked as if it was cast or blown from a single piece. He told me he picked it up for less than 50€ and it honestly sounded a lot better than you'd expect. And amazingly well intonated.

*) The question with all of these is of course what you get from them. I can see the interest if they allow you to keep studying while travelling but only if the size difference doesn't make it difficult to transpose what you acquired to your usual instruments (and doesn't come at the risk of developping bad habits).
If that's not the goal, won't the instrument become something you end up not taking along because it's just not rewarding enough to pick up and spend time with rather than doing travel-related things you can not do when back home?

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by RJVB

Curious, would you have paid the full price? *)

I can't help but think it could have sounded better if they had put in a more standard soundhole.

Last winter I visited an old colleague and he showed me his "favourite" guitar in terms of quality/price ratio. Turned out to be a guitalele sized bright orange plastic nylonstringer that looked as if it was cast or blown from a single piece. He told me he picked it up for less than 50€ and it honestly sounded a lot better than you'd expect. And amazingly well intonated.

*) The question with all of these is of course what you get from them. I can see the interest if they allow you to keep studying while travelling but only if the size difference doesn't make it difficult to transpose what you acquired to your usual instruments (and doesn't come at the risk of developping bad habits).
If that's not the goal, won't the instrument become something you end up not taking along because it's just not rewarding enough to pick up and spend time with rather than doing travel-related things you can not do when back home?

The scale length feels close enough to my “good” guitars that I had no problem playing it right out of the box. It’s a bit shorter but it feels a lot like my telecaster in my hands. And yes, I was planning on buying it at full price before I saw the Amazon Prime Days deal, it just made me pull the trigger a little faster. This guitar is not going to be the one I pick up every day and I didn’t expect it to be when I bought it. But it does sound really good for a travel size guitar and I’ll grab it anytime I want to take a guitar without having to worry about leaving it in a parked car for extended periods. After I install a pickup it’ll probably be my festival guitar as well. It’s a tool intended for a specific purpose and will be used as such.

[Captain Jim]

I guess I'm missing the point: is there a lot of call for leaving a guitar in a car? Under what circumstances is that a necessity? Traveling salesman? Even though carbon fiber can handle temperature and humidity extremes better than wood... why?

I like small guitars. And carbon fiber guitars. And wood guitars. But, I don't put any of them through "torture testing." I have had guitars that have traveled thousands of miles with me... just never had to leave them endlessly in a hot or cold car.

Anyone care to enlighten me? While I can certainly be a smartass, that isn't my intent here... just trying to learn. Wanting a small, inexpensive CF guitar - I get that. TIA.

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

I guess I'm missing the point: is there a lot of call for leaving a guitar in a car? Under what circumstances is that a necessity? Traveling salesman? Even though carbon fiber can handle temperature and humidity extremes better than wood... why?

I like small guitars. And carbon fiber guitars. And wood guitars. But, I don't put any of them through "torture testing." I have had guitars that have traveled thousands of miles with me... just never had to leave them endlessly in a hot or cold car.

Anyone care to enlighten me? While I can certainly be a smartass, that isn't my intent here... just trying to learn. Wanting a small, inexpensive CF guitar - I get that. TIA.

There have been several times that I thought having a guitar with me would be nice but not worth the trouble of carrying it with me every time I got out of the car. I understand you’ve never felt this need but that doesn’t negate my reasoning for wanting one.

[steelvibe]

I can think of one example that comes from personal experience. Say you have a job that requires your boots on the ground. You get a couple 15 minute breaks and an hour lunch. Your facility doesn't have a locker and you don't want a co-worker walking off with your guitar (many that share your workplace are high school dropouts and haven't had a felony in at least a year).

But you want to bring your guitar to practice on your lunch, and so CF fits the bill. I'd be more concerned that something like a RainSong or Emerald would be ripped off from your car than from any heat or cold extremes. That is the sales pitch of CF instruments from the get go, and a $159 guitar even makes more sense.