Travel / Portable Guitar Dilema

Gru

Guys, having trouble racking my brains with this one.

I have been looking to get something better for some time, but really dont want another dreadnought and ideally not mutliple guitars as one is always under the bed.

This weekend I want to buy a guitar for holiday (UK) next week + 3 or 4 UK hols a year.  Options are:

Martin LX1/LX1E:
I have had the chance to play one and liked it, great size for holiday, takes up less room in the lounge (good enough to sell albums).  I think it is the most robust option and I wouldnt worry to much about the children and there grubby mits.

Taylor GS Mini:
Bar far the best sounding of the selection, better size than LX1, but less portable (amazing gig bag though!).   More fragile that the Martin and would be a little more concerned about kids touching the guitar)   No onboard tuner option. 

3rd Option:
Yamaha APX T2: on board tuner, cheap £160, all laminate, would live under the bed apart from 3/4 holidays a year, maybe a waste of money? would prob buy a lounge guitar (GS Mini) later in year.

Or Gretch Jim Dandy, again cheap, not sold on bluesy sound, would again end up under the bed if another guitar (read GS Mini) made its way into the house.

Please give me your thoughts.

ICBM

Get the Martin for all the reasons you listed.

Gru

Thats what I like, straight to the point. :-)  And pretty much what I have been thinking, but just needed to check I wasnt going to make an error.

victorludorum

Get a mandolin ;-)

wrinkleygit

I would check out the sigma & tanglewood lx style guitars,

Jalapeno

... and Faith

Gru

I am guessing you mean the Faith Mercury? Not sure I would put that down as a travel guitar option?, although granted I did put the GS Mini there. I know the naked is a decent range at £345, but wouldn't it mark easily due to the finish? I think I need to get to the shop again, although I think the faith was a little too bulky from memory, no denying the quality though. . Thankfully my local has Faith & Martin in store.

Gru

Just coming back to the faith, the reason I threw the Jim Dandy in there is because it was relatively small but also a cheap pop in the car option, that I would concern myself with knocking about (again no case supplied). The downside is that I would probably end up with 2 guitars in the long run.

The faith with a hard case certainly becomes a big proposition to squeeze in the car. The martin could possibly sit on the parcel shelf?

But thanks for the views, certainly got me thinking again. Aghhhh!

Roland

Is this to be a Travel guitar as in "I'm away from home Monday to Friday", or a holiday guitar? If the former then it depends what you play and how you're travelling. If it's for holiday then my advice is to take a holiday, give the guitar a break, and return refreshed.

Gru

The guitar needed to fill a couple or roles really.
1: smaller than current dreadnought that takes up less space, and also more comfortable to relax with in the evening ( shorter scale length)
2. Be portable and robust enough to be able to put in the car for uk holidays, but also if I want to throw it on my back and take it to work, something I have never considered.
3. Be of decent build quality where I won't be to worried about leaving it around the children.

This morning I tried the two main options, LX1 vs Faith Mercury.

In the end I purchased what I went there with the intention of buying, the LX1. It is very well made and ticked all of the required boxes.

I won't lie, the the Faith Sounded great/better and wasn't hugely bigger than the LX1 from top to tail, but every time I picked up the Martin, it just felt more solid with the stratobond neck and richlite finger board. The only disappointment is what appears to be a plastic nut but I could be wrong.

So there we go, purchase made. :-). Cant wait to play it tonight.

ICBM

Gru said:

The only disappointment is what appears to be a plastic nut but I could be wrong.

It will be Corean, which is "plastic", but not the cheap and nasty soft type which that usually means. I wouldn't worry about it given that the rest of the guitar isn't exactly made from traditional materials .

As far as I know Martin don't use bone nuts on any models, but I might be wrong about some of the very high-end ones.

Gru

Thanks for the info. The name corean sounds right. I just thought it was odd as the bridge, I believe is tusq isn't the same. Good to know that it isn't the cheap soft type. It would be a little annoying on a guitar of this price.

This does now give me the opportunity to sell my budget dreadnought. I don't imagine it will get much £20 maybe. I am sure my wife we be glad to gain some space back.

I did say to the staff in the shop that if worst comes to the worst in 9-12 months time, if I do a turnaround and think I need a more complete sounding guitar, the faith mercury would be a fantastic addition to the stable. But the LX1 was the winner today.

10thumbs

I didn`t like the Taylor mini , no room for my fingers ,

 and it  felt so flimsy , I thought it would break if I sneezed, seriously felt like it was made of card or something.

Everybody else seem to like it though.

NB ; My bad , I meant the Baby Taylor

stimpsonslostson

Can I throw another brand into the mix? 

I was looking for a small bodied "sofa guitar" after growing tired of wresting with a dread for years. After MANY visits to the local guitar shops I ended up with an Art Lutherie Ami- parlour sized but the neck still feels comfortable and not cramped at all. Solid Cedar top & the rest is (i believe) silver maple. 

They aren't THAT common, but I took a punt on eBay and landed one for just under £200. 

Simon & Patrick, Seagull and AL are all part of the Godin family I think, each "brand" has a small bodied model & they're all worth looking into. 

Those wee Sigma 000 mahogany models are LOVELY too, but have quite a pronounced V shape to the neck, which takes some getting used to.

stickyfiddle

The only other option I can think that hasn't been mentioned is the Taylor Baby - closer to the Martin LX1 than the GS Mini

Gru

The guitar is currently on its first hols.

The size was ideal, fitted in the boot with all the other gumph and on day one survived my son crawling over the top of it in the boot, phew.

Been very easy to move around the house and luckily very resilient to suncream, wind and sun.

I did actually make a small error on purchase, I thought I was trying a LX1, but it was actually an LXM. I was a little annoyed with myself at first as I didn't read the label when I picked it up and would have liked the spruce top version (I did initially think the wooden to felt weird) but have actually made the better choice for a travel companion imo.

The sound is fine until you start to play/strum with a little authority and then you get that boxy tone coming though, bit I play pretty quit

Gru

Part 2
The strings are a little tighter than I thought they would be and I think I remember them being mediums, so I will changes these out for lighter versions when I can be bothered (finger tips are taking a little battering)

Where the faith would have been a lot better, is if I had wanted more projection and sound quality outside, but then I wouldn't have sat with the faith in the wind courtyard yesterday, having only just got back from the beach, probably with the remainder of some sun cream on my hands somewhere.

Different horses for different courses I guess.

In the long term I can definately see a faith mercury in the fold, but this LXM is perfect for what I needed at this point in my life

Gru

Well the week is already over and the LXM held its own. I came back tonight and picked up the dreadnought again for a quick strum and two things were quickly obvious: 1. It felt easier to play as the string tension was less (diadario extra lights .10 - .47), although I really thought after a week of the LXM I would struggle to switch back. 2. After a couple of minutes strumming/picking, it felt uncomfortable with my arm slung over it. So tonight I switched the standard martin sp .13 - .56 for some diadario lights .12 - 0.53. Bloody fantastic. It feels, just like the full scale dread now. If I am honest I didn't think small change would be noticeable but it just takes enough off the tension. Can't wait to pick it up again in the morning. Just need an excuse to take it somewhere else now.