Have Guitar Will Travel

There are a couple of ways to have music when you travel. You can bring along the prepackaged stuff…that which has
already been recorded, mixed, proeduced and uploaded onto your ipod.

Or you can make your own.

The latter tends to be much more fun, even if you have the crooning talent of a cat being strangled. It is also easier
to share. It’s more communal. Yes, many a camping trip has been enlivened when the sun goes down, the fire gets lit,
and someone breaks out the acoustic. Of course, you don’t NEED an acoustic. You might be lucky enough to be camping
with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, but not all of us are fortunate enough to have a
world-class a capella band along when we camp. So we bring guitars. But one of the problems with taking guitars along
is that they tend to be big, unwieldy things that don’t fit nicely into a backpack; they don’t travel well.

And that is where the idea of a travel guitar comes in. One of the largest
manufacturers of travel guitars is Traveler Guitar, and they have a new compact instrument called the Escape. The
Escape is 29″ long and just 3.75 pounds, meaning you can easily carry it on the airplane and/or strap it to the back of
your pack. It retails for about $500, which ain’t chump change, but is worth it if you must have your music along.
Travel guitars tend to sound tinny, but they nonetheless put out good enough sound to sing by. Just be careful who
you’re singing with. I’ve known some people to perform a John Belushi on a guitar when someone starts singing
Kumbaya.