A travel guitar can simply be a backpack-friendly mini-guitar or a model that can be easily taken apart and put back together. Either way, a travel guitar makes the life of any intrepid guitarist that much easier.
Picking Our Your Travel Guitar at Bax Music
On our site, you'll find a more-than-healthy array of different travel guitars to browse through. Besides smaller electric guitars, we also have some mini steel-string acoustic guitars and classical guitars, and besides travel guitars with standard tuning, you'll also find some guitarleles in our ukulele department, which have a shorter neck, a smaller body, and are tuned in a higher pitch. And, if you've picked out your dream travel guitar but it doesn't come with a gig bag or a case, then have a look through our full range of guitar cases and gig bags to find the right size for your model.
Compact Dimensions and a Shorter Neck
While most travel guitars have a standard tuning, there are a few things that make them very different from standard guitars. The bodies are not only much more shallow, but often much slimmer. The neck of these mini-guitars is also a little shorter, which lowers the string tension and actually makes the playing feel and action a little easier on your fret-hand. In our range, you'll find some models with a flatter and/or thinner neck - all in the name of making these guitars easier to travel with. Even if you're not always on the road, these guitars also make great instruments for younger children or fully-grown guitarists who just find smaller-bodied guitars more comfortable.
A Mini Electric or Acoustic Guitar
When picking out your more-compact playing buddy, the first thing you'll need to decide is if you want an electric or an acoustic guitar, which will depend on the kind of sound you want. An electric model will, of course, need to be hooked up to an amplifier, but you can still keep things compact and low-key with a headphone amplifier. While you could do the same with an electro-acoustic guitar, it's not all that necessary, since the hollow body of an acoustic guitar will give you more than enough volume.
Acoustic & Classical Guitars
Just like full-sized acoustic guitars, you can get steel-string acoustic travel guitars and nylon-string classical travel guitars. If you love the lush, bright sound of a steel-strung acoustic, then that'll probably be the best choice for you. If the sweet and warm sound of a classical or traditional Spanish guitar is more your thing, and you prefer the softer playing feel of a set of nylon strings, then a classical travel guitar is likely to be a better fit. You can also have a look through our entire range of classical guitars and acoustic guitars.
Guitarleles: Mini-Guitars or Mega-Ukuleles?
Here, you'll also find some guitarleles. These are six-string ukuleles that have the same setup as a guitar but have a much shorter neck and are tuned a fourth higher - in A, D, G, C, E and A. You could also describe a guitarlele as a ukulele with a lower tuning and thicker strings. The beauty of a guitarlele is that, if you're used to playing a guitar, you can play all the same chords and scales, they'll just sound higher pitched.
Frequently Asked Questions About Travel Guitars
What's the best guitar if you have smaller hands?
It actually depends if you just have small hands or have short fingers as well. When your hands are smaller than average, then a flatter neck or fretboard can often feel more comfortable. If your fingers are shorter, then a shorter neck is also a good idea. Luckily, you can get short-scale guitars that have a shorter neck and a flatter fretboard.
What are smaller guitars called?
More compact guitars can differ. While 4/4-sized guitars are standard, full-sized guitars, smaller guitars can be 7/8, 3/4, 1/2, or 1/4-sized. These smaller models are either called children's guitars because they've been specifically designed for children, or travel guitars, because they've literally been designed for travel.
What's a 3/4 guitar?
A 3/4 guitar is a touch smaller than a full-sized 4/4 guitar - so it's not actually three-quarters of the size of a standard guitar. The difference is actually smaller. If a standard-sized guitar feels too big for you, then a 3/4 guitar is likely to feel more comfortable. The body is a bit smaller and the neck is usually shorter, which reduces the string tension and makes the playing-feel much lighter.
What's the best travel guitar?
The most important feature of any travel guitar is its size. It needs to be small enough to be easy to carry in any situation. Of course, it also needs to sound good and play well, so too small isn't necessarily good.
What's easier: playing the guitar or the ukulele?
Ukulele chords are easier to learn than guitar chords, simply because the ukulele only has four strings while a standard guitar has six. On the other hand, the neck of any ukulele is pretty slim, so there's less room for your fingers to move, but if you happen to have smaller, nimble fingers you'll be fine. Or you could just pick out a larger model like a tenor ukulele
