Iām new to learning the guitar. I have to spend a lot of time sitting in my car or on the couch as I care for or wait for my autistic nephew (heās in my care as his mom has passed away).
For this reason, Iād like a tiny guitar for practicing. Iāve been researching and researching, and Iām beginning to wonder if what Iād like does not exist. It may not be possible or make sense. Lol.
Iād like:
the neck size to be close to that of a normal-sized acoustic guitar so that as a newbie learner, the muscle memory that my fingers/hands learn is good. Iām fine with a reduction in the NUMBER of frets.
the body of the guitar to be really tiny ā 1/4 size would be great ā such that I could practice while Iām sitting in my carās front seat
ā standard acoustic tuning from E to E
I thought the Cordoba mini with special strings for E to E tuning might work . . . but the frets in all the videos Iām seeing look very, very narrow. It doesnāt even look the āAā chord could be fingered/fretted on it in the normal acoustic way/shaping.
I donāt want the ukulele sound, but of course I am willing to sacrifice fullness of sound. I do need good playability, as a newbie learner. Iām willing to take it to a luthier to be adjusted.
Does anyone know of anything that might work? Thanks in advance! Many blessings!
It does not have a full size neck. Dont remember the size right now.
It is the smallest guitar i have tried with somewhat decent sound and playabillity.
I did not fancy it too much i have to say, but that is more to do with me that finds it difficult to play such small guitarsā¦
(if it works for Ed Sheeran it probably works for everyone else to )
But it should fit your purposeā¦
I did test it a bit at my local Guitar Center. I agree: The sound was totally acceptable.
I wish I could find something even smaller, but Iām only seeing things such as guitarleles/guitaleles. I donāt think the necks on those would work.
No problem.
I have owned a taylor gs mini and a Yamaha CSF1
These are small guitars. But the mini Martin is a little bit smaller than those two.
So out of those three small guitars. I liked the Yamaha best by far. It had the nicest sound, and it was the nicest to play on.
I dont think you can go smaller than this and still have an ok sound and playabillity.
So if you consider Little Martin, have a look on the Yamaha CSF1M as wellā¦
I also have to add in that none of those options i have given you are by no means cheap guitars. Dont know what budget you have, but these options might go overā¦ there are tons og other small guitars out there that is much cheaperā¦ just as a heads up
Actually the Codoba would be OK, but you would have to make sure you get the right one. Take a look at this review:
Also a Baby Taylor or the Martin LX1(like the Ed Sheeran model but without his name on it) already pointed out would probably be ok but both are more expensive.
And here:
That should help (or make you more confused ) if in any doubt please ask!
The Traveler Guitars models have full-sized necks with reduced body sizes and, in some cases, no headstocks to reduce the overall size.
I have a Travelcaster and itās pretty good. However, there are some compromises with a reduced size of guitar.
The main ones for me (with the Travelcaster) were:
The reduced body means that strumming arm/hand placement were awkward, as thereās no body to rest them on, and reduced anchor points.
The whole thing is quite head-stock heavy, meaning loads of āneck diveā. This isnāt such a problem sitting down, but it is still a small problem.
On the Travelcaster, the instrument cable connects at the rear of the body. This is a clever space-saving design, but it can be awkward both for trying to connect the cable, and whilst playing.
Obviously some of these are specific to the Travelcaster, and may not apply to other models.
I did try some of the other models in the Traveler range and they didnāt really suit me, but they may be better for your use.
I had NO IDEA that Traveler Guitar made a travel guitar with a more normal-shaped body. Iād only seen the weird(er) ones.
I ended up calling a Guitar Center near me and asking about it. They had one in stock, so I drove by and tried it out.
I loved EVERYTHING about it . . . except . . . I didnāt love the sound and I really didnāt like the price. LOL. The Guitar Center clerk told me that he feels like Traveler will be dropping the NEXT VERSION of this soon. He feels that way because itās very hard to find the Mark III . . . and Traveler is not shipping any out (he said).
I feel like the sound issue might have been that particular guitar . . . like . . . maybe it was defective or something. Iām not sure.
Iām going to see what Traveler does in the next 6 months. Maybe they will release the next model and Iāll really like it. Or maybe they will release the next model, and the cost of the Mark III will fall to a more reasonable price for my pockets.
I will note that, on an electric guitar the sound/tone comes from the action of the strings vibrating relative to the pickups, and the body of the guitar is, primarily, structural and has far less impact on the sound (some would say a negligible effect).
As such, thereās no reason why a a reduced-size electric guitar like my Travelcaster shouldnāt sound as good as (or nearly as good as) an equivalent full-sized electric. And, in practice, Iāve found this to be the case.
But thatās completely different from an acoustic guitar where most of the tone comes from the body of the guitar. In this case, the strings vibrate the bridge, which vibrates the soundboard, which is enhanced by the body cavity resonance.
Small differences in the body size, shape, material, or construction of an acoustic guitar can have significant audible impacts.
Reducing the body of an acoustic down to a traveler-size will have detrimental effects on the volume and tone of the guitar. Thereās not much you can do about that.
If the tone is really important to you, then you may have to compromise and get a larger-bodied guitar, such as the Taylor GS Mini, or similar.
Of course, if you are happy to wait, then it may be worth seeing what the next iteration of the Traveler range brings.
However, Iām wondering if the Traveler Escape III is an acoustic at all. It seems to be an electric guitar that creates an acoustic sound. Like . . . it doesnāt have a body CAVITY at all. I canāt see how itās an acoustic.
When I tried it with earphones, it sounded bad . . . not just ānot great.ā It sounded unlike any of the demos I watched on YouTube, which of course could only share how it sounded amplified versus via earphones.
Thatās why Iām thinking I need to test drive another copy: Iām just really thinking something was defective about that one, and that may be the reason itās still sitting there. (No other stores around me still had a single one in stock.) I could be wrong about all of this, though. That may just be how it sounds through earphones.
Ah, yes. I just took a closer look at the Traveler Escape III. Yes, itās a weird one alright. Although they call it an āacousticā guitar, I wouldnāt have called it that at all. To me it looks like an electric guitar with a piezo pickup.
I donāt know if youāve played an acoustic guitar with a piezo before, but they do have a thin, āquackyā quality that a lot of people donāt like. It might be that.
Of course, on an electro-acoustic with a piezo pickup, you also still have the sound-board and body cavity which will influence the vibration of the piezo pickup. Iām not sure how different the Traveler Escape sound will be by not having this.
I had a quick look at the Youtube videos, and all of those seemed to show the guitar plugged into an amp. This will also change how it sounds. But a lot of the reviews I read suggested it sounded good through headphones, so it may just be a defective one in the store.
)
) if in any doubt please ask!