About "Travel" Guitars

Who needs a guitar for travel, are they crazy?

Surely a guitar is already a highly portable instrument so why would anyone possibly need something like that?

These are common first reactions when asked what we do and why we do it. But it is also the case that many guitarists are simply unaware of this new class of instrument and when faced with one of our products for the first time reactions such as “wow, what is that?”, “incredible, I have never seen one of those”, and “where can I plug that in to try it out?”, are equally common. If you have not yet had the opportunity to see or play one of these instrument take a look below and it may help you get an idea of what we are talking about.

Compare this Tanglewood acoustic/electric cutaway with an equivalent Traveler Mk1 Escape. Both guitars have the same scale, the same size neck and the same number of frets too !	And here are the same two guitars, packed and ready to travel. By the way, the Tanglewood in its hard case weighs 14 lbs (6.3 kg) whilst the Traveler is a true lightweight at just 4 lbs (1.8 kg) including the headphones tucked into its gig-bag !

Or how about these electrics ...... Here we have a Fender Telecaster next to a Traveler Speedster. The Speedster is also a full scale guitar sharing its 24.75 inch scale with a Les Paul !

Of course we must agree that a guitar is already a very portable instrument - but portability must take into account the reality of the travel in the modern world and also our own physical capabilities. "Portable" to a strong, fit and able 21 year old does not necessarily mean the same to a 13 year old faced with a 2 mile walk to school, nor to a 70 year old suffering from arthritis. In any case, to an airline, a full size "portable" guitar is a revenue earning opportunity second to none ! And don't forget the poor bass player! How many door frames has your bass failed to clear when slung over a shoulder?

The chances are that unless you are a working musician, your favorite instrument has probably spent most of its life in the warmth and safety of your home, for several very good reasons that we will all recognise

• A good quality instrument is not cheap to buy and is hard to replace. A hard case or very good quality gig bag is needed to protect your instrument against knocks and bangs, moisture and heat whilst being transported.
• An electric solid guitar in its case/bag becomes rather bulky and is very awkward to carry, commonly weighing in around 20 pounds (9 kg) and upwards of 44 inches (110cm) in length. Bad enough on its own but a real issue if you have other luggage or baggage to manage.
• Limited storage on planes, buses, trains etc. means that your instrument will probably need to travel separately in a hold or baggage area significantly raising the risk of damage, loss or even theft. The days when an airline would accept a guitar as hand luggage are now long gone so they must now travel in the baggage hold or on a paid for seat, all of its own!
• On long journeys (even if the guitar is with you) it is usually impractical to use or play the instrument whilst travelling due to a) its size and b) the sound (noise) it generates (or doesn't, in the case of electrics).
• Anyway, as soon as it is out of its case (which then needs to be stored) it again becomes vulnerable and whilst an electric instrument will need some sort of amplification an acoustic instrument probably needs to be muted! The same holds true when you finally arrive in your hotel, apartment or dorm!

I could go on, but by now you get the idea and for those that have been there and done it, you probably agree that with all the hassle, once was enough!

Above we can compare a full size Guild Starfire IV with two smaller but same scale Traveler electrics, a Speedster and an EG1 - all in red!

And that's a shame because when we arrive where we are going, on holiday, on business, at college, for a weekend, for a week or a month or more, it's not long before we begin to miss our guitar and the opportunity to practice and amuse ourselves or others!

OK, so if we could imagine a guitar adapted for such a situation, what characteristics might it possess?

• it should be relatively lightweight but sturdy.
• it would be great if it was small enough to carry on board an aircraft, this means it can always stay with me yet it should retain a full scale neck for playability.
• it must be comfortable to play seated or standing.
• It could include a headphone pre-amp to allow headphones to be used.
• it should be capable of being amplified.
• It should be a pleasure and joy to own and play and be good enough for use in live performance.

So, whilst a small bodied acoustic guitar goes some way to meeting these needs this list suggests that an electric instruments probably offer far more potential to meet size, weight and performance criteria whilst also satisfying the widest range of styles and needs.

Certainly one can already find a wide choice of specially developed acoustic 'travel' guitars. There are acoustics with small bodies, thin bodies, short necks, and even folding and sliding necks. However in our opinion such designs will always and by their very nature, compromise the performance of an acoustic guitar.

Happily this is not an issue with an electric guitar design supported by good quality electronics. At least this is the conclusion that we came to and so we have decided to focus and concentrate our own efforts on sourcing innovative and high quality electric instruments, both guitar and bass.

Here is that same Tanglewood cutaway with a Traveler Ultra Light and an Escape MKII alongside. All three share the same full scale.

We also think that the term “travel guitar” is very misleading. For many people it suggests a guitar that is bought only to be taken on holiday, perhaps something “cheap and cheerful” and even disposable.

Any musician will want to play something good, something that is in the same class as their existing instruments – but better suited to use in another place, perhaps something unique that creates new possibilities for its use .....

Not just for occasional trips or holidays but a guitar to keep with you always, in the car or truck, in the office or workshop, in a locker at work, in a locker on your boat, on your back every day to school or college.

Happily there are now instruments that do all this and more. Sophisticated guitars with a unique character and real flair. Guitars that can perform as well as, or perhaps even better than their full size, full weight, electric or acoustic ancestors and with unique designs that stand out from the crowd of “me too” look-alike products that have been around for years.

And more ...

Play your guitar using headphones driven by an internal pre-amp or an external effects processor. Plug in your MP3 player and play along. Wirelessly connect your guitar to a Hi-Fi or FM radio when no amplifier is available or take along a portable amp that charges its batteries whilst you play and have mains power then gives you autonomy when you don't.

But how do you achieve all these conflicting requirements in a guitar design?

Well, there are a number of designers and manufacturers that have tried and this has sometimes resulted in some unusual and rather innovative products.

One approach is simply to make the guitar physically smaller by simply reducing the size of both body and head, thereby also reducing the total weight whilst retaining a full scale neck.

Two good examples of this approach, both with their origins in the 1980's, are the US designed Kay K-45 and the German designed Hofner Shorty, now being remade in China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Kay 45 "Austin Hatchet"

A "new" Hofner Shorty remake.

A short scale Erlewine Chiquita.

 

A variation on this theme can be seen in the Chiquita travel guitar (above) which due to shorter neck then requires a different tuning to compensate for the new shorter scale.

A completely different approach to the problem can be seen in the design of the Aria Sinsonido range, a licensed variant of the US Soloette design, where the solid body has been replaced by a detachable frame and the head, normally found at the end of the neck, is repositioned to the other end of the guitar, thus shortening the instrument by several inches/centimeters.

This design, together with its competitor, the Yamaha Silent Guitar, incorporates a headphone pre-amp and thus make an ideal practice instruments where making "noise" is a problem. Of course both types can also be amplified in the normal way for live performance and courtesy of their removable frame design, both breakdown into a small size and are easily carried in a supplied gig bag.

Aria have now developed their range to include fretted and fretless bass guitars too.

Retaining the headless approach, but with a semi solid body, are several designs by Traveler Guitar, originally introduced in the 1990's. Some of these incorporate a headphone pre-amp and EQ whilst one model features a  stethoscope to provide a completely battery free operation! However each model has a full scale neck and all their models are truly lightweight ranging between just 2½ – 4 lbs (2Kg). They too now offer bass guitar weighing less than 6 lbs (3 Kg) and just 36 inches long. Fantastic for the smaller player.

So, somewhere amongst all these designs is a guitar suitable for pretty well any style, bass, classical, folk, rock .... and you will have a choice of single or dual, single coil, humbucking and piezo pickups, passive and active.
Frankly the only limits are your own imagination!

We hope we have, at the very least, raised your interest in these superb guitars and you can see even more in the products section of our web site.

 

 

 

 

 

A Traveler Pro Series with acoustic piezo pickup and single coil electric.

"Lefties"can also join in the fun too! Here is a Traveler Escape MKII specially built for the left handed player.

And now, one maker who is bringing things right up to date is the Swiss company Triff with their THEBONE range of guitars.

Take a look below and you can see the B200 "Stage" model (with its frame removed) positioned neatly alongside some familiar sports equipment to give you a better idea of scale. Don't forget you are looking at a top quality, full scale electric guitar just as home on the stage or studio is it is in the cabin of an aircraft. Oh yes, the B200 actually fits easily inside the case of the badminton racket in the picture. Useful if you ever lost its own gig-bag!