Best Backpacker / Travel Guitar Reviews: Find the best-selling travel guitars: acoustic, electric and acoustic-electric.
Introduction
Most guitar players own multiple guitars and in case you travel a lot with your guitar, it makes sense to leave your $5,000 solid-wood Martin guitar at home, and instead use a dedicated travel guitar when you hop from one location to the other with your axe.
The best travel guitar is the one which you can take along with you wherever you want, and you have a few options here – use a 3/4 size guitar, or use a full-size guitar with a foldable neck, or use a travel-dedicated guitar.
A travel guitar is much easier to carry around (compared to a regular guitar), and a great choice while away from home for a few days (for whatever reason and if you wish to take along a guitar).
Best Travel Guitars (At a Glance)
Here are the top lightweight & compact travel guitars, that give you full scale length.
- Yamaha SLG200S Silent travel guitar: Full acoustic experience, makes discrete practice simple
- Traveler Guitar Ultra-Light: Solid-body electric guitar, dual-rail hum bucker pickup
- Taylor BT2: Baby (mini) Taylor acoustic guitar
- Martin Steel String Backpacker: Travel Guitar with distinct oar shaped body.
- Cordoba Mini II MH: 1/2 size classical guitar, travel-friendly
- Yamaha FG JR1: 3/4 size, small scale acoustic guitar
- SX Trav 1: Value travel guitar by Rondo music
Travel Guitars: Reviews
Here’s a detailed review of travel guitars that are worthy of taking with you on your next trip.
Martin Backpacker (Acoustic & Steel String) Travel Guitar
Though not as big as a full-sized vintage guitar, it actually sounds much better for its size and looks. 24-Inch Scale Length, 15 Frets, Solid Spruce Top.
The Martin Backpacker is lightweight yet tough, easy to tune, and nicely designed to fit into the smallest of spots. It has a slight uke like sound, but for the portability, I guess its a small sacrifice.
Even though it looks tiny, the guitar is quite well made, has a solid tone-wood top and a solid mahogany neck, back, and sides that gives this little guitar a surprisingly huge sound projection.
TOP: Solid Spruce. BODY: Solid Mahogany. NECK: Solid Mahogany. FRETBOARD: Hardwood. BRIDGE: Rosewood.TUNER: Chrome. GIG BAG:
Despite its small size, the guitar has a nice sustain and superb resonance.
Its also quite sturdy – built to take on the bumps when you’re outdoors. You could install a piezo pickup to it, in order to play live.
- Steel string: Buy on Amazon | Buy on Amazon.co.uk (UK) | Buy on Amazon.de (Germany)
- Classical / Nylon string: Buy on Amazon | Buy on Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Traveler Ultra Light Acoustic-Electric (Steel & Nylon) Travel Guitar
Available in a neat, compact package, its quite easy to play and easily transporatble full-scale travel guitar. Full 24-3/4″ scale, 22-frets, standard 1/4-inch output, Includes deluxe gig bag.
Available in steel as well as nylon strings, the guitar lets you play all the songs without any sort of restrictions. Without amplification, the sound is good enough for personal practice, but you can also connect it to an amplifier for better sound. In fact, you can even play it through ear phones so that your playing doesn’t disturb anyone. And although its a travel guitar, you can always connect it to the computer to create and edit your own songs and recordings.
Pros: Built for travel, affordable
Cons: Okay sound quality
This guitar now comes with a high-quality gig bag that easily stows inside most airline overhead compartments.
Features
- Steel string (also available as nylon string)
- Full 24 3/4″” scale acoustic/electric steel-string travel guitar
- Fits in airline overhead bins
- Eastern American Hard Maple Neck-through Body
- Weighs 3 pounds
- Features a Shadow Piezo Pickup
Complete with a Shadow acoustic piezo pickup and a lightweight detachable lap rest frame, the guitar weighs just three and a half pounds and is only 28″ long; a perfect companion when on the road! In all probability, this will be your add-on guitar; it’s tiny and light so you could really take it just about anywhere you want to. It sounds great when heard through a set of headphones/amps.
Though the neck is a bit smaller & shorter compared to a classical guitar, the Traveler Ultra-Light Nylon guitar is the perfect solution if you are a nylon-string player on-the-go and on a budget.
The Washburn Rover Steel String Travel Acoustic Guitar
Budget backpacker guitar that is sturdily built, available at a great price.
Take your guitar wherever you go, quite handy when you have a few minutes to play. A nice guitar that sounds great. Full 24″ scale and guitar sized neck, Cordura case, Guitar strap, picks and Learn to Play CD ROM.
This backpacking guitar may have a small body, but it makes no difference to the quality of the sound (nice projection and rich tone). This is among the more reasonably priced guitars.
Features:
- Available in various pleasing colors.
- Comes with a full 24-inch scale.
- Solid spruce top, a mahogany body and neck and also a rosewood fingerboard.
- High quality tuners, professional binding and inlay.
- With the purchase, you also get a quality cordura case (with luggage straps). It comes with a hard foam lining and folded interior. Has interior and outer pockets for keeping accessories. The case is designed to fit aircraft overhead lockers on airplanes.
The Washburn backpacking guitar is sturdily built, and feels great and asks to be played. While it may not compete with backpacker guitars such as little Martin or Baby Taylor travel guitars, for the price, its a winner.
Rokkomann Case Porter Backpack Attachment
The Rokkomann Case Porter Backpack Attachment makes it easy to travel with your guitar, you just have to strap your guitar case into the Rokkomann Case Backpack. The adjustable straps allow it to fit most classical guitar cases. The padded backing and padded straps allows you to wear your guitar case like a backpack!
“I expected this case porter to have 2 adjustment locks on both sides at the lower horizontal belt, while it actually has just 1 lock on 1 side. Therefore it can’t fit my Hiscox Pro 2 case. I had to get the belt cut and attach additional lock, and now it fits my case really well. I think the manufacturer should re-design and add 2 locks at both sides of the belt for different sizes of guitar cases,” says one user.
Travel Guitar Buying Guide
Here are some of the characteristics of the best Travel Guitars:
- They are compact & lightweight, but have great playability.
- Suitable for most weather conditions, be it rough, hot, cold, wet or dry.
- You can use headphones for silent practice, in case you want to play in your hotel
- They sound great and look cool.
- Use it at home, on stage, in the office, in a hotel, or even on a plane.
We have listed some great travel guitars here being among the better ones but feel free to use your ears (try them out, its the best way to know if it suits your style). You may also consider using a mini guitar (3/4 guitar), but if you pick an electric one, you will need to carry an amp with you (but it gives you the option of playing live).
So no matter what style of music you like to play, you can choose from a wide selection of travel guitars, ukuleles, or bass to suit you.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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