Travel Guitar

woolbrig · 07-09-2010, 02:20 PM

For my job I have to travel alot and would like to take a guitar with me. A full size guitar is out of the question since I travel by plane.

I found this one: http://www.edgguitars.com/

Has ony one tried this one? If not any suggestions. I would like for it fold up and fit in my carry on luggage/backpack.

houseguitarshop · 07-09-2010, 02:52 PM

great idea

if I ever have to travel for my job, I would try to wheel and deal my company to give me a $200 allowance for buying a cheap guitar while I was out of town.

before I flew back I would just pack it up and drop it in the mail for my house

softwarejanitor · 07-09-2010, 02:57 PM

Its an interesting concept, I wonder how well it really works...

rlyacht · 07-11-2010, 09:01 AM

I recommend the Stowaway from Stewart Guitars. It's a strat-type guitar with a removable neck that fits into the body. Quite ingenious - here's a video demonstrating it.

http://stewartguitars.com/images2/Bl...wApartBack.jpg

The hard part is getting Woody Stewart to sell you one, as he seems to have a big backlog. The last time I spoke to him, he was making new production arrangements. If you read the reviews on harmony central, you'l l see that people really like them, and like dealing with Woody.

I've had mine for a while, and have had it back and forth to London many times as carry-on baggage.

A friend of mine has the Speedster from Traveler. I tried it out a while back and liked it too. I believe I read a review of the EDG that was quite critical, but can't recall where ... some googling should dig it up.

wickedtools · 07-11-2010, 10:37 AM

Why can't you just unscrew the neck of your own guitar and just have case or bag built for it or convert a suit case? You can even built an amp in the suit case so it could be all one unit.

rlyacht · 07-11-2010, 12:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wickedtools

Why can't you just unscrew the neck of your own guitar and just have case or bag built for it or convert a suit case? You can even built an amp in the suit case so it could be all one unit.

The problems with doing that are

There's probably a limit to how many times you want to screw/unscrew the neck
You may have to reintonate after reattaching the neck - it won't be in exactly the same place when reattached

Stratatattat · 07-11-2010, 12:56 PM

i'd like to get a hold of this one and use it as a travel guitar http://www.rondomusic.com/product2202.html. it doesn't come apart real easily, but it is 3/4 sized.

rlyacht · 07-11-2010, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stratatattat

i'd like to get a hold of this one and use it as a travel guitar http://www.rondomusic.com/product2202.html. it doesn't come apart real easily, but it is 3/4 sized.

It's cool, but the problem is it's 36 inches long. Carry-on luggage is limited to something like 22 inches long. So you'd have to remove the neck.

Stratatattat · 07-11-2010, 02:36 PM

true. i never think about flying w/ one. i don't fly often enough. for me, it'd be for road tripping.

eric93 · 07-11-2010, 03:33 PM

If you are thinking electric you'll also have factor in lugging around an amp. If you aren't ruling out acoustics, i highly recommend the Washburn Rover. They sound good & fit in plane overheads.

rlyacht · 07-11-2010, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eric93

If you are thinking electric you'll also have factor in lugging around an amp. If you aren't ruling out acoustics, i highly recommend the Washburn Rover. They sound good & fit in plane overheads.

I carry my Boss Micro-BR and play with headphones. A friend uses the Korg PX5D.

I don't your hotel would be too happy about your using an amp!

Stratatattat · 07-11-2010, 11:11 PM

Danelectro makes a really nice battery operated mini amp called a Honeytone. it clips to your belt and fits in the gig bag. I don't have 1 yet, but every review I've read gives it high marks.

woolbrig · 07-12-2010, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlyacht

I recommend the Stowaway from Stewart Guitars. It's a strat-type guitar with a removable neck that fits into the body. Quite ingenious - here's a video demonstrating it.

http://stewartguitars.com/images2/Bl...wApartBack.jpg

Thanks, I'll have to take a look at it as well. The one thing all the travel guitars seem to have in common is the high price! (At least higher than I want to pay)

Guess there is a price to pay for portability...

Squirr · 07-12-2010, 03:45 PM

Loads of travel-guitars here http://www.jedistar.com/travel_guitar.htm

dman · 07-13-2010, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlyacht

The problems with doing that are

There's probably a limit to how many times you want to screw/unscrew the neck
You may have to reintonate after reattaching the neck - it won't be in exactly the same place when reattached

If you use threaded inserts and machine screws you won't have that problem. Bill Kirchen did this mod so he could break down his Tele for flying.

As far as an amp, there's a number of plug-in headphone amps that take up no space and would fill the bill. I have heard some good things about the Vox units.

woolbrig · 07-14-2010, 05:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlyacht

I recommend the Stowaway from Stewart Guitars. It's a strat-type guitar with a removable neck that fits into the body. Quite ingenious - here's a video demonstrating it.

http://stewartguitars.com/images2/Bl...wApartBack.jpg

The hard part is getting Woody Stewart to sell you one, as he seems to have a big backlog. The last time I spoke to him, he was making new production arrangements. If you read the reviews on harmony central, you'l l see that people really like them, and like dealing with Woody.

Took you suggestion. I talked to Woody and now I'm on the waiting list to get one of his guitars. Hope the wait isn't too long!

Telepicker · 07-14-2010, 08:35 PM

One that I was considering was the Traveler Escape EG-2. It's 28 inches long. Does that mean it won't fit in an overhead luggage bin of a plane? It says it can.

http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/tregesguwh.html

arrowspace90 · 07-25-2010, 03:54 PM

I second the nomination of the Stewart Stow-Away.

Nothing out there adapts to real airplane travel like the stow away.
I have been carrying mine for over 2 years now. The more I play it, the better sound I get from it. I now use a Line 6 pocket pod and a pair of mp3 headphones.
You can stroll through the airport terminal and no one can even tell you have something unusual with you. It goes right through security without removal like a laptop.
Very, very durable. You have to read the instructions carefully at first and practice a bit with the setup, but after that it is very fast.
I struggle just a bit with the round barrel, body mounted tuners, but they conserve a lot of space and make the entire design possible. The neck separates and fits into a routered channel on the back.
The solid ash body is on the heavy side, even though it is slightly smaller than the body of a "real" Fender strat. But would you want it to be just a frame or a piece of plastic?
The best thing is the maker, Woody Stewart, a class act who will bend over backwards to make it right for you.
Easily worth the money. I am in my 3rd year with mine.

rlyacht · 07-27-2010, 11:25 PM

One more great thing is that is nondescript. You can bring it to a meeting and everyone will assume it's a big laptop bag, or a small travel bag. With some of these others, you'll get questions, invariably leading your colleagues/clients to ask you to play "Back In Black" for them.

YeahDoIt · 07-28-2010, 05:49 AM

Interesting design. http://www.stewartguitars.com/stowaway.htm

BillStickers · 07-28-2010, 07:31 AM

They all look pretty cool!

The EDG seems a bit retarded... just a tiny bit...
The Stowaway pulls it off a little better.

Speedster is very nice, me likes it... but I suspect it wouldn't suit everyone's tastes.

That Jedistar site sure is handy

I find it funny that the Roadstar is considered a travel guitar when it's basically just a regular bolt-on Neck Strat-type. If that's what qualifies, you could just screw the neck off one of your already owned Guitars and cart that around

.

That SX looks damn nice anyway, looks like a badass project, or maybe even badass as is.
If it were me, I'd buy the SX and take the Neck off whilst traveling. That, or buy a Steinberger-esque minimalist Guitar.

A awesome but probably too expensive Travel guitar is the Chrysalis guitar.
When you hear the story (which for some bizarre reason is not detailed on the site) it becomes even more interesting, almost like Les Paul became a Scientist (RIP Mr. Paul).
The guy who invented it studied to be an Entomologist (Entomology; study of insects and other arthropods), he knew that a Guitar created vibrations in the air against the body as well as driving the strings' vibrations into the Neck and body via the Bridge, Nut, Frets and your fingers (fingers if it's fretless). I'm sure I'm not wording this terribly well but never mind. The guy figured the best thing to do was to have the body and the strings sustain well against the resistance of the air. His Entomologist knowledge told him that the best thing to cut through air and stuff is an insect's wings. He couldn't make one literally as that'd be mean and silly

so he used a balloon with some carbon fibre. Hey presto, it looks cool and sounds great with plenty of sustain... methinks it has good tone but I've not seen one in action. Don't mind my description because I'm painfully paraphrasing, go check it out by Googling it as well as visiting the site:
http://www.chrysalisguitar.com/
OOOooooo soundclips:
http://www.cumpiano.com/AUDIO/chrysalis.mp3
http://www.cumpiano.com/AUDIO/Chrysalis.wav
...They're still illusive on how to buy them or their pricing... guess you have to phone the guy up.