In 2006, I was flying often to help with my Dad's care. I reworked another company's travel instrument, but even with a new nut, saddle, tuners, & adding a pickup it still sounded, and felt like a cross between a banjo and ukelele with six strings to me. I needed to make a real guitar small enough to fly with.
This body style is "worn" inside your right thigh like a flying vee. Your wrist rests on the body and bridge stabilizing the instrument. The size is like headless guitars without the odd feel they can have. The hollow bodies are very resonant for their size. This guitar has a maple core with Honduran Mahogany top and back. Everything else is full scale. The 3 piece bird's eye maple neck is 25" scale with a 12" radius. The tuners and hardware are top quality. These Pickups are coil tapped Seymour Duncan hot rodded humbuckers that let me play everything from jazz to hard rock ON STAGE. A well padded gig bag lets everything meet the strict overhead compartment limits now enforced by the airlines.
Sold but can be recreated. $1300.00 with fitted gig bag
In 2006, I owned another maker's travel guitar, but even with new tuners, nut, saddle, & adding a pickup it felt, and sounded like a toy to me. I needed to make a real guitar small enough to fly with.
This body style is "worn" inside your right thigh like a flying vee. Your wrist rests on the body and bridge to steady the guitar. The size is like headless guitars without the odd feel they can have. The hollow bodies are very resonant for their size. This guitar has a spruce/mahogany top, with a figured maple back. Everything else is full scale. The Satin oiled, figured maple neck is 25" scale and a 12" radius. The tuners and hardware are top quality. This guitar has a t-style bridge with Seymour Duncan stacked hot rails for tele, and a Stew Mac '59 Parson Street P-90 that creates the classic twang we expect from a "t style" ON STAGE with a rock punch from the P-90! These instruments come with a gig bag to stay within the strict new overhead compartment limits enforced by the airlines.
$1200.00 with fitted gig bag
In 2006, I owned another maker's travel guitar, but even with new tuners, nut, saddle, & adding a pickup it felt, and sounded like a toy to me. I needed to make a real guitar small enough to fly with.
This guitar is "worn" inside your right thigh like a flying vee. Your wrist on the body and bridge steadies the guitar. The size is like headless guitars with a better feel. With a spruce/mahogany top and figured maple back, the hollow body is very resonant for its size. The rest of the instrument is full scale. The satin oiled, figured maple neck is 25" scale with a 12" radius. The tuners and all hardware are top shelf. The pickups are a set of Stew Mac Parson's Street '59 PAFs (Alnico 2 bridge, Alnico 5 Neck), using the "50s circuit" for all the classic tones ON STAGE that we expect from this combination. The bridge is a Gotoh wrap around with Tune-O-Matic style saddles.
A padded gig bag lets these fit the strict new overhead compartment limits set by the airlines.
$1200.00 with fitted gig bag
In 2006, I owned another maker's travel guitar, but even with new tuners, nut, saddle, & adding a pickup it felt, and sounded like a toy to me. I needed to make a real guitar small enough to fly with.
This guitar is "worn" like a vee shaped guitar inside your right hip. Your wrist "lands" on the body and bridge stabilizing the instrument. There's a headless guitar size to these with a better feel. The chambered body has surprising resonance. This instrument uses a figured maple core with bloodwood top and back caps. The rest of these instruments is full scale. The flamed and figured laminated neck is 25" scale with a 12" radius. The tuners and all hardware are top quality. These pickups are a set of coil tapped Seymour Duncan hot rodded humbuckers that let me go from warm jazz through the hardest rock ON STAGE.
A gig bag lets these stay within the airlines' strict new overhead compartment limits.
Sold, but can be reproduced for you. $1400.00 with fitted gig bag
This photo shows how the controls are accessible in standard fashion. The neck end strap button is on the upper bout neck bolt.
Like all my neck to body joints, there is a constant regard for a smooth tactile ease that lets you play without rethinking your grip on the neck.
The bolt on process has let me "swap out" neck and body combinations for several customers who found that what they thought they wanted at first didn't quite work for them. They kept what they wanted, and I rebuilt new for what needed to be changed.
You also get a nice view of the color core ply I use for many of my bodies.
Sometimes You just Can't Make It Up! In 2016, my wife was an exhibitor at the Artist's Craft Show in the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Dance Museum. I got the gig as background music for the show. Sitting in front of the Firebird costume display got some raised eyebrows, but you can see my busker's rig. I put a 6" Weber speaker, and an extension jack in my Roland Cube so that I can add a 10” speaker cab I’d built. At conversational volume levels, the sound is warm and rich. As you can see, supporting these like mini Vee body guitars keeps them stable and comfortable. I've used a Vox Amplug with headphones while riding Amtrak from Rochester to Rhinecliff, NY for even lighter travel.
The point of these guitars is to have a small, stage capable version of YOUR guitar. The instrument in this photo is the mini version of my mahogany "understated perfection" guitar in the electrics gallery, including the same full feature neck profile and electronics, the average listener would be hard pressed to tell the difference in sound between the two guitars.
This is the travel guitar body that had been Tom's "Italian" guitar. It got a new neck and is now a full featured mini guitar with a body of natural finished Jotoba (Brazilian Cherry) that's "worn" inside your right thigh like a vee shaped guitar. Your wrist rests on the body and bridge stabilizing the instrument. These are small without the headless "something's missing" feel. The body is totally chambered and resonates like a much larger body.
Everything else is full scale. The laminated flame maple neck with ebony fingerboard is 25" scale, 12" radius. All hardware is top quality. Pickups are coil tapped Seymour Duncan hot rodded humbuckers that cover everything from jazz to hard rock. This guitar has a Schaller Tune-O-Matic wrap around bridge.
To comply with the new strict overhead compartment limits enforced by the airlines, these instruments now come with a gig bag. $1400.00 with fitted gig bag
In 2019, Brent called from Alabama to request a travel version of his Ernie Ball Majesty Monarch. We discussed various options and went with a 25.5” scale through neck like the Monarch. My headless basses use this technique so by adding a headstock and a different bridge, this was the result. One big contributor to the sound and feel of the guitar was to reverse the wood sequence for the neck and body core from maple shoulders on a mahogany center, to a maple center with Mahogany shoulders. It looks stunning and feels warm and smooth. Hollow wings add resonance. The Monarch’s neck is nearly identical to 70s Martin neck specs. I had a Martin from that era in the shop for repairs so it was easy to replicate the shape for Brent.
Brent chose the DiMarzio Sonic Ecstasy pickups, a premium set with a premium sound! Coil tapping adds tone choices from classic humbucker crunch to hot tele. With a string through, low profile, locking saddle ABM bridge, the tone and sustain is much bigger than the guitar’s size would indicate.
The sister instrument can be seen on the Stormy Monday page.
This back side view of Brent’s travel guitar shows the through neck and the significant clearance at the heel that is possible with this construction method.
Brent’s other requests that added a slight twist to my usual travel formula were 24 frets and a 25 1/2” scale. As with the headless basses, the wings are a hollow sandwich construction of maple on mahogany.
This instrument is the “sister” to Brent’s “Prince”. The only differences are in the custom blended color, and a set of coil-tappable Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Pickups. This guitar was reviewed in the December 2023 issue of VIntage Guitar magazine. the 4 color print image was a little “off” in print, but the review was very gracious in its praise.
This is an exceptionally playable instrument that never fails to impress sonic-ally or visually.
$1500.00 with padded gig bag
Here is a rear view showing the neck’s maple core with mahogany shoulders. This produces a very nice feel but helps offer a defense against the classic head stock break that plagues solid mahogany necks with a headstock angle.
The tuners are Grovers mini locking tuners like the ones used on Brent’s instrument. A very nice auto lock mechanism that doesn’t add the extra weight of knobs, pins, gears, etc.
The color is a custom blend made with art pigments and finished in Nitro cellulose lacquer.
This guitar will turn heads because of its looks and its sound.
Nekoda requested a travel guitar with a jazz flavor and visual feel. He also wanted it to be for a left handed player. It would need to be able to rock out when called for, but sing sweet, smooth, and low for jazz work. He provided a seymour Duncan Benedetto A6 neck pickup, and after speaking with my Seymour Duncan rep, I chose a custom custom for the bridge.
We decided on a spruce top with maple for the rest of the very chambered body. Bindings would have added disproportionately to the cost, so we opted for a finishing trick similar to one I used on my Manhattan Semi-hollow electric. By masking the sides and back, staining and sealing the top, I could, then, mask the edge of the top and stain and finish the back. Final finish coats were applied to the entire body. The next slide shows the effect’s final appearance.
No extra costs were incurred by being built as a left hand instrument.
Sold, but a twin sister with Lace jazz fusion pickups will be completed soon.
This photo shows the effectiveness of the two tone-no binding finish. You can also see the high grade spruce top and highly figured maple used for this guitar. The pickup combination achieves exactly what Nekoda is looking for sonically.
This is the near twin sister to Nekoda’s Left hand travel guitar. All details and features are identical, except for the Lace Jazz Fusion set of Pickups. This is the second instrument that I’ve used these pickups in, and they don’t disappoint! They’re smooth, and versatile, with a no hum ,tapped single coil tone and full bodied humbucker range. This is a beautiful looking and sounding instrument to take with you on your travels or onto that “wish it was larger” stage venue.
$1375.00 with padded gig bag