Selecting a Travel Guitar
Hey folks. Again, I thank my friend David for the topic of this article. David wrote to say he was taking a cruise this fall and wanted to take a travel guitar with him. Aircraft and guitars don’t go well together if the guitar has to go in the hold and cruise ships tend not to offer a ton of space, so size is definitely a criteria. So of course is playability, because if the guitar feels like crap, it won’t go on the trip and of course it needs to sound decent but not be so loud on a ship or in a hotel room as to cause issues with the neighbours. Thus, we can conclude that this is a demanding kind of item.
For nearly thirteen years, I was travelling every week and hotel rooms tended to look and feel the same pretty quickly and as I am not a bar person, most of the non-business time was spent on my own, so a travel guitar became a boon to me. I opted then, and still have a Steinberger GT-Pro travel guitar. It is an electric guitar, with no headstock, a very small body, a very decent vibrato system that plays well and sound great. My mode then was to plug it into an iPad using an adapter and software from IK Multimedia. It worked a charm. Today, I forego the app, the cables and the adapter and just use a tiny Fender Mustang pocket amplifier and ear buds. I’m not expecting studio grade sound and in fairness am not getting it but what I do have is something comfortable, small, light, that has always successfully gone in the aircraft overhead compartment and strapped well to my carry on luggage.
When David sent me his question, I thought it would be appropriate to see what is available nowadays in this space.
One of the first questions, one should ask is if you want an acoustic guitar, an acoustic guitar with a pickup or an electric guitar. Back when I bought the Steinberger, they were the electric of choice and Martin had their Backpacker acoustic. The Backpacker still exists. I personally do not like it as I find it uncomfortable and I think it sounds terrible but your requirements and expectations are likely to be different from mine. It is certainly compact and transports really easily. So let’s start with acoustic options, and with respect to the great makers, we will start with the Martin
Acoustics
Martin Backpacker
The Martin Backpacker is a very compact, 15 fret acoustic. It has a very small body as you can see in the image and offers steel strings. The top is spruce and the back sides and neck are what Martin calls Tonewoods. I have no idea what that actually means. The nut is Corian and the tuners are chrome. The specifications detail on the instrument is pretty skimpy. It comes with a padded gig bag. There is no pickup. You can get the Backpacker at your favourite Martin dealer.
Epiphone Lil’ Tex
The Epiphone Lil’ Tex has a solid spruce top and laminated Sapele sides and back. It has a 19 fret neck and die cast chrome tuners. The nut and saddle are plastic and there is a piezo under saddle pickup installed. It has a more traditional shape, but is physically larger than the Martin Backpacker. I have never tried one and have no idea on the sound or playability, however, Epiphone products are in my experience well built to fit an assigned budget. You can order this guitar from your favourite Epiphone Dealer.
Big Baby Taylor
A few years ago, I was at a Taylor event and won a Baby Taylor. It’s a fine instrument and an excellent value. My adult daughter uses it all the time. It’s very compact, but for a few dollars more, you can get the Big Baby Taylor, and I think it’s a better buy. The top is solid spruce, the sides and back are laminated walnut and the fingerboard is ebony. The neck is maple. I prefer the sound of the Big Baby and while it is larger, it still qualifies as a travel guitar. The base model has no pickup, but you can get a version with a pickup. I think it is a great middle ground between the smaller Baby Taylor and the larger GS-Mini. Many pros of my acquaintance love and use a GS-Mini regularly but you might find an airport gate agent could be difficult with you, although considering what they let through as carry-on these days is anyone’s guess. Note that this guitar has the full 25 ½ scale length which increases the size.
Taylor GS-Mini
While the Big Baby is a nice instrument, the body and neck are longer than on the GS-Mini. The GS-Mini is deeper by 7/16 of an inch but the scale length is 23 ⅛, more than two inches less than the Big Baby according to the Taylor website. I have played many of these and they sound terrific. Solid spruce top, layered Sapele back and sides, mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard. There is a more expensive model with a pickup available. I prefer the slightly smaller overall size and in my opinion the sound is better. I’ve even used one for recording. It’s the best of the bunch and also the most expensive. It does include a formed gig bag, my only concern would be the ability to carry it on an airplane which depends on the carrier and the attitudes of the gate staff. Being at the gate early, being polite and letting them know that you have a fragile instrument before boarding has yet to cause me a problem, but as we all know, flying these days is more cattle truck than fun experience. You can find either Taylor guitar at your favourite Taylor dealer.
Electric Guitars
There are a number of choices in electric guitars. If you find one that you like, I always recommend a headless version because of reduced size. Also because I recommend the Fender Mustang tiny amp, you save space on the cables and other stuff. Whether the guitar has vibrato or not is a personal choice.
Steinberger GT-Pro
I have to admit my bias up front. I have had mine for a long time and it has always excelled. The GT-Pro is only 30.25” long in total and still delivers a 25 ½ inch scale length. There are two hum buckers and a single coil pickup, the Steinberger R-Trem vibrato and 40:1 ratio tuners. The guitar has a fold down leg rest, takes a standard ¼ cable or the Mustang Micro and has a five way pickup selector. The body is basswood and the neck is three piece maple. There are 24 frets with a 14 inch radius. It comes in a padded gig bag. There is a higher end version with a flame maple top. The only challenges are that you buy direct from https://www.steinberger.com/index.html as they are not sold in stores and by default the guitar requires double ball end strings. You can get strings direct, although I use D’Addario XL 9-42 strings on my guitar because I can order them through my local guitar shop.
Traveler Acoustic Electric
While I have not personally played one of these guitars, they have an excellent reputation. This guitar is built like an acoustic but foregoes the big box in favour of a piezo electric pickup under the acoustic bridge saddle. It is only 28” long and the body rest is removable for transport in the provided gig bag. My good friend and professional photographer Rick Sammon has used one a lot. There is a standard ¼ jack and you could use it for the Fender Mustang Micro which has an acoustic amp option. It weighs just under three pounds and comes with D’Addario strings. The scale length is 24 ¾ and there are 22 frets Different colours are available. There is even a nylon string version. Consult https://travelerguitar.com for your closest dealer. If in Canada, the authorized dealer is Long & McQuade
Traveler Electric
The Traveler Ultra Light Acoustic Electric also as an all electric version (first image) as well as a slightly larger bodied version called the Pro Mod-X (second image) that includes a detachable armrest. Both are still only 30” long in the included gig bags. The bodies are hard maple, with a black walnut fingerboard. The single pickup is a dual rail hum bucker with separate volume and tone controls in the Ultra Light. The Pro Mod-X adds an undersaddle piezo bringing you both acoustic and electric as well as blended sound. As I have not tried one, I am not sure if the Fender Mustang Micro would fit. Consult https://travelerguitar.com for your closest dealer. If in Canada, the authorized dealer is Long & McQuade
Micro Amplifiers
So far, many of the instruments proposed have built in pickups and as a generalization, I will always recommend a pickup even if an acoustic guitar. Thery add little to the cost in exchange for massive flexibility. I have mentioned the Fender Mustang Micro many times as I like it a lot for its size, price point, the 12 amplifier simulations and the multitude of effects that are built in. The downside is really the orientation and visibility of the buttons and the LEDs depending on the instrument that it is used with. I confess, that a front panel jack is optimal and has it does not support bluetooth headphones, you must have a wired set of earbuds or headphones to use it. You can get the Fender Mustang Micro through your preferred Fender dealer.
A recent alternative is the Spark GO. Positive Grid has some really awesome portable amplifiers. I have not gotten into the Spark GO because my only experience with it is via the tiny built in speaker which too my ears sounds like the transistor radio my granny bought me back in 1966. However, as a result of this article’s requirements, I plugged a set of earbuds into my Spark Mini to see how it sounded. The only wired earbuds that I have are a set of old Etymotics that I used on planes before noise cancelling was available in an earbud. They sounded great back then and sounded very good with the Spark Mini. Since both the Mini and GO use the same DSP engine and communicate to their controlling app via bluetooth, I expect that the audio over earbuds from the GO will be as good as from the Mini. You can buy these through Amazon or direct from Positive Grid.
The Spark GO does need a guitar cable but you can get an excellent three footer with appropriate plugs for any of these guitars from Pig Hog such as the three footer found through the link. I can never overstate how important cable quality and reliability is and I never understand why people putting hundreds and thousands into guitars, amplifiers and effects accept the mountain of garbage sold as “quality” cables.
Getting On The Road
I hope that this article detailing some excellent options in travel guitars in acoustic, acoustic electric and electric styles along with tiny amps to go with them has been helpful to you. Please leave a comment or submit a question. Thanks as always and until next time, peace.
