For a great many people, playing an instrument is the purest form of ‘happy place’.
Committing time and energy to the development of a craft, the generation of a new creative thought, or the performance of a lifetime is a profound pleasure - whether you’re doing so alone in your bedroom, out on the street, or up in front of thousands.
If you’re a guitarist – newcomer or old hand – who has experienced some form of the above, then you’ll know all too well the pains of attempting to bring that ‘happy place’ on the road with you.
Guitars are cumbersome things, and difficult to transport without facing some form of existential difficulty. Weighty and unwieldy guitars practically invite injury on the move, from dings and scratches accrued on the bus to fatal breakages at the mercy of airline baggage handlers.
The travel guitar, then, is the potential answer to numerous issues brought on by travelling with an instrument. Travel guitars are smaller, lighter and otherwise less awkward than their dreadnought-sized or pointy counterparts. There is no formal definition for the ‘travel guitar’, but guitar manufacturers have divined a number of different forms for such a thing; half-sized mini guitars rub shoulders with nifty narrow-bodied designs and unique mechanical marvels.
But what should you be looking out for?
Anatomy of a travel guitar
There are no strict rules behind what constitutes a travel guitar. Quite simply, if it is easier to travel with, it’s a travel instrument! That said, there are some specific things that the savvy consumer might be on the look-out for, with regard to their own wants and needs.
Bringing a guitar down to travel size might involve reducing its scale length. This is the distance between the nut (at the top of the guitar’s neck) and the bridge (where the strings are anchored to the body). Short scale lengths are not unusual even in full-sized guitars, but guitars that sneak below 22-inch scale lengths can get a bit flabby to play in standard tunings.
Travel acoustic guitars, whether smaller in scale or sacrificing body in some other way, also run the risk of losing volume and clarity. There are many fun ways to circumvent this, as some of today’s reviewed brands reflect.
Electric guitars have less to worry about in terms of raw sound, but new challenges are presented in weight balance and string hardware. With such a wide playing field for travel instruments, there are a wide variety of options for consumers on the hunt for a travel guitar.
Best travel guitars at a glance
- Best overall: Vintage Mahogany Series ‘Travel’ - £139, PMT Online
- Best for songwriters on the move: Martin LX1 ‘Little Martin’ - £529, Gear4Music
- Best for backpacking travellers: Martin Backpacker GBPC Travel Acoustic - £320, PMT Online
- Best for comfortable noodling: Vintage Paul Brett Series ‘Viator’ Nylon - £149, Gear4Music
- Best for younger learners: Fender California Redondo Mini - £165, Fender
- Best for quiet writing and practicing: Traveler Pro Series Antique Brown - £409, Amazon
- Best for old-school folksters: Vintage Paul Brett Series ‘Viaten’ Tenor - £249, Gear4Music
- Best for overhead luggage: Journey Instruments PJ 410N Puddle Jumper - £498, Thomann
- Best for the learner that has everything: Yamaha SLG200S Steel String Silent Guitar - £725, Gear4Music
- Best for widdly-wah virtuosos on tour: Steinberger Spirit GT-Pro Deluxe - £345, Thomann
From stage-ready axes to capable busking guitars, here are ten of the best travel guitars on the market today.
Shop now
Best electro acoustic guitars under £500 from Gretsch, Fender and more
Best waterproof Bluetooth speakers to sing your heart out in the shower
Best budget soundbars for crystal clear TV sound at an affordable price
Best camping gear: from tents to cooking, the essential gear you need
Best bags for wild swimming: duffel bags and backpacks for all your trips
Best electric guitars for beginners to start playing whatever your budget
Best AirPod alternatives: Top wireless earbuds to suit your budget tried and tested
Best camping gear: from tents to cooking, the essential gear you need
Vintage Mahogany Series ‘Travel’ Electro Acoustic
Best: overall
The Vintage brand is one of the best regarded when it comes to low- and mid-budget instruments. The range of acoustic and electric instruments has fostered many a beginner’s early practice, while being dependable enough for gigging musicians and session professionals. Their acoustic guitars, designed in the UK, are impeccable examples of value for money – and the Mahogany Series ‘Travel’ is no different.
The Mahogany Series is as it sounds – a series of acoustic instruments with beautifully-finished mahogany construction. Mahogany is a fantastic tonewood, bringing real depth in the lower end of the frequency spectrum and a bell-like resonance to the high-end. This is extremely welcome in the Mahogany Series’ ‘Travel’ entry, diminutively sized as it is with a 22.6” scale length. Vintage guitars always find a way to surprise this reviewer, and the Travel does just that – with a pleasing in-the-room sound, a comfortable C-shaped neck and ergonomic playability despite its size.
It also boasts the same on-board pre-amp and tuner that its larger siblings do, making it extremely versatile – and levelling the playing field where live performance through an amplifier or PA system is concerned. Indeed, the shorter scale length does the ‘Travel’ a huge favour here, with looser strings granting a much deeper warmth to plugged-in play.
This guitar is already a fantastic all-rounder, but to do it at below £150 is astonishing.
Buy now £139.00, PMT
Martin LX1 ‘Little Martin’
Best for: songwriters on the move
Martin has fostered a strong reputation as a prestige maker of acoustic guitars over its near-200-year history; Martin guitars are the sole choice for many of the world’s most successful singer-songwriters, and most hard-working session musicians. This reputation commands a high price – at least usually. But Martin’s X Series bucks the trend, bringing their signature sound and quality to an affordable price-point.
The LX1, or ‘Little Martin’, is Martin’s pint-sized offering from this range, and one of the more surprising acoustic guitars this reviewer has played. Despite its ¾ size, the Little Martin is an exceedingly powerful thing. Where other short-scale instruments give way to indistinct low-end muddiness, the LX1 retains clarity – even in drop or open tunings. It is a perfect guitar for writing music with.
There is an electro-acoustic model on the market too, in the form of the LX1E, which offers a little more flexibility for the gigging performer – but for the beginner, the traveller or the performing musician on the hunt for great tone, the LX1 fits the bill just fine.
Buy now £529.00, Gear4Music
Martin Backpacker GBPC Travel Acoustic
Best for: backpacking travellers
As well as offering a 3/4 guitar in the form of the LX1, Martin also has a unique acoustic guitar design expressly built for travel purposes: the Backpacker.
This travel acoustic dispenses with the wide, deep bodies of conventional acoustics – designed for both projection and articulation of sound - in favour of a narrow, scalloped wedge shape that reduces its profile significantly.
The Backpacker retains a scale length of 24”, despite its slightness in other areas. Trade-offs are made, though, to retain the structural integrity of the body; the Backpacker’s fretboard only extends to 14 frets, somewhat limiting the player’s options even if higher frets are rarely used. Still, the thing is responsive and rewarding in most player situations. It can sound a tad boxy when strummed, and a little brittle when fingerpicked, but is otherwise a sturdy play.
In all, the Backpacker is a perfectly serviceable instrument. It gets the job done sonically, feels comfortable in-hand, and slots nicely alongside clothes and camping gear. A travel guitar, but also very much a traveller’s guitar.
Buy now £320.00, PMT Online
Vintage Paul Brett Series ‘Viator’ Nylon
Best for: comfortable noodling
The brand Vintage collaborates with other artists and designers to bring a wide range of quality instruments to the fore. One such musician is Paul Brett, who has enjoyed multiplicitous success as a lead guitarist, 12-string composer, music writer and now, guitar designer.
One of the most popular, and indeed most accessible, of the Paul Brett series is the ‘Viator’ Nylon: a travel acoustic with nylon strings and a few sonic tricks up its sleeve. The ‘Viator’ Nylon is a slight instrument that sits extremely comfortably in the hands and on the lap. It resembles 19th-century guitarras more than it does modern-day parlours, both in shape and size. It’s a welcome departure, and a rewarding one to boot.
The Viator Nylon is a delight to fingerpick with, offering tight articulation and a well-rounded sound. As we’ve come to expect from these smaller-scale instruments, the Viator Nylon isn’t the most boisterous when it comes to projection. However, what it might lack in volume, it makes up for in spades in other areas. It’s exceedingly comfortable to sit down with, and plays nimbly up and down the neck. Its nylon strings complement the warm sound of its body, and attain a beautiful sonorous quality via the 21.5” scale length. The Viator Nylon is a joy to pick up and play, and all the easier to pick up for its size and weight. It lacks little, regardless of its stature, and invites you to wrap yourself around it.
Buy now £149.00, Gear4Music
Fender California Redondo Mini with bag
Best for: younger learners
Fender is perhaps the most famous guitar brand on the planet, having presided over some of the most iconic designs ever – from Stratocasters and Telecasters to Jaguars, Mustangs and Kurt Cobain’s Jag-Stang. Fender is less well-renowned for its acoustic offerings, but they are nonetheless representative of Fender’s stature and quality in the guitar world.
The California Series is Fender’s gainful attempt at revitalising traditional acoustic guitar design, with striking body shapes and colour palettes on instruments that still deliver quintessential tone. The Redondo Mini is the smallest in this range, and also the cheapest, coming in under £150.
It’s a ½-size instrument with a 22 ¾” scale length, a size and scale length typically marketed to younger learners. But the size makes it a perfect travel instrument, and it is eminently playable for guitarists of all sizes. The Redondo Mini reflects the idiosyncratic tonal characteristics of Fender’s mainstay acoustics, boasting well-developed mids and a tight high end – if at the expense of any gripping low-end response. The mids do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the player is not left wanting too much. Its pleasing sound and classic looks pitch it perfectly to the younger musician, either as a learner instrument or a new instrument to sling in the boot before heading off to uni.
Buy now £165.00, Fender
Traveler Pro Series Antique Brown
Best for: quiet writing and practicing
Traveler Guitars have been pioneering travel-friendly instruments for 30 years, and in so doing have built an impressive array of genuinely practicable products for musicians both serious and casual.
Traveler have made music industry headlines with fun travel-conscious iterations of popular instruments, such as its Stratocaster ‘copy’ that reduces its body to the size and shape of the pickguard. The Pro Series, though, is Traveler’s flagship series, where its innovation began – and it’s an intriguing specimen.
For want of a better word, the Traveler Pro Series is something of a... stick. Body and neck are a single piece of wood, with the body only wider than the neck to account for the width of the bridge. There is no extraneous material here. The Pro Series is able to retain a full 24 ¾“ scale length by eliminating the headstock altogether, niftily placing the tuning pegs in the body and either side of the strings.
The Pro Series is a box of tricks, beyond its unique minimal approach. It is an electric guitar, with single-coil pickup and accompanying tone and volume control; as well, it features a piezo pick-up for a more natural resonant sound. But for the private practicers who don’t have the facilities to plug in, there is a novel feature in the ‘stethophone’: stethoscope earpieces attached to the body, that conduct the resonance of the body without the need for amplification.
The Pro Series plays well, and is ergonomic too on account of a well-sized foot attachment for the body. The sounds it produces are not world-shattering, but it is a highly useful utility for the recording or writing guitarist on the move – and could even sit in on a session or two in a pinch.
Buy now £409.00, Amazon
Vintage Paul Brett Series ‘Viaten’ - Tenor
Best for: bards and old-school folksters
We return to Vintage, and its Paul Brett signature series, for an alternative take on an instrument we’ve already met. The ‘Viaten’ Tenor is a four-string tenor guitar variant of the Viator, with a similar shape and slightly longer scale length of 22”.
Tenor guitars are folk instruments through and through, and often the next step in the learning journey for folk-inclined ukulele players. Of course, the tenor is a viable mode of expression in its own right, and stands apart as a tonally beautiful way to approach playing.
There are no surprises here with the Viaten; it displays the same warmth and responsiveness of the ‘Viator’ Nylon, but the steel strings add some chime and bit to proceedings. The sonokeling fingerboard has a practical and pretty flourish to it, with half of it extending down over the fingerboard to enable higher runs.
The Viaten is a well-built, warm-sounding and enjoyable alternative to travelling with a six-string, and naturally lends itself to bard-like travels through the green.
Buy now £249.00, Gear4Music
Journey Instruments PJ 410N Puddle Jumper
Best for: overhead luggage
Journey Instruments have built their brand around creating unique and practical designs for travel instruments and instrument travel, fostering a wide range of guitars and purpose-built cases to make life easier for the player on the move. The mechanism behind their range is the ‘Overhead’ system, a feat of engineering that enables detachment and reattachment of the instrument’s neck without removing strings or hardware.
The PJ 410N Puddle Jumper is one of Journey’s newer instruments, being a 00-bodied travel acoustic that can be disassembled to fit in an aeroplane’s overhead luggage rack with no drama at all. This detachable-neck functionality might seem gimmicky, but is a genuinely practical gimmick that promises to greatly mitigate risk of breakage for regular flyers. It is also surprisingly easy to do, and sturdy to boot.
The Puddle Jumper’s body is a little deeper to compensate for its shorter scale length, as a result retaining some of the sonority that larger dreadnought acoustics possess. The Sitka spruce soundboard provides a balanced output for that sonority, creating a good all-round acoustic sound.
It sounds great for a travel instrument, but by no means sets any records; its value comes from its unparalleled portability, making it the best for international travel.
Buy now £348.00, Thomann
Yamaha SLG200S Steel String Silent Guitar
Best for: the learner that has everything
Yamaha’s contributions to music are well-documented at this point, with the Japanese brand having pioneered in the field of music for over 50 years. From portable keyboards to portable electric drums, Yamaha hasn’t missed a step, and its portable guitar offerings are not to be sniffed at, either.
The SLG200S is a full-scale, steel-stringed pseudo-acoustic guitar. Its form is unusual, with a central ‘staff’ adorned with a removable bout – or outline of one, at least. The SLG200S is geared towards private, personal and quiet practice, with a headphone out and a line-in function to enable play along with a music source like a smartphone. The onboard system includes an SRT Powered pre-amp, which utilises DSP to imbue your playing with the sound of a real, recorded acoustic guitar, whether in your ears or through a PA system. Other effects like reverb and chorus can also be dialled in right on the body. Even with the effects and clever pickups, though, it is a little lacking in low-to-mid performance.
There are features galore here, which can make playing and learning while out and about much easier. None of these features are particularly necessary in a travel guitar, but different users will find different aspects of this tech highly convenient. This is a travel guitar for the musician who has everything else.
Buy now £725.00, Gear4Music
Steinberger GT-Pro Deluxe
Best for: widdly-wah virtuosos on tour
Steinberger is something of an obscure name in the guitar world, but Steinberger’s impact has been nonetheless indelible. Steinberger is responsible for a famous – or infamous, by some estimations – electric guitar body that combines practical utility with unique minimalist style. The Steinberger has since fostered a reputation as a real player’s instrument, dispensing with aesthetic fripperies in favour of sheer performance.
The Steinberger GT-Pro Deluxe is a revitalisation of this signature style, brought on by guitar behemoth Gibson’s buy-out of the Steinberger brand. As a result, this idiosyncratic electric guitar is, thankfully, back on the market. The GT-Pro is a trapezoidal thing, with a miniscule body that houses almost all of the guitar’s hardware. The GT-Pro is another ‘headless’ guitar, and one of the first to innovate here; tuning is done at the bottom of the instrument, with a locking nut at the top of the headstock holding the strings in place.
This guitar stands apart from the rest on account of being fully, unapologetically electric. This is not designed to stand in for an acoustic instrument, and is instead a fundamental distillation of the electric guitar’s function. Not only this, but it lends itself to more extreme forms of musical expression, with three versatile pickups capable of breaking up the most obstinate of Marshall stacks, and a locking tremolo for those irresistible Eddie Van Halen divebombs. A handy ‘kick-stand’ folds out from the body to enable play while sitting, but really this is a guitar to stand with. Session musicians and touring rockers on a budget need look no further for the ideal musical travel companion.
Buy now £345.00, Thomann
Verdict
We’ve seen smart and downright magical innovations across the world of travel guitars, and narrowing down to one best-in-class option is difficult as a result. These instruments differ widely in form and purpose, making any evaluations here purely subjective.
With this in mind, the Vintage Paul Brett ‘Viator’ Nylon is a strong contender, on account of its nimble feel and rich sound. However, the Vintage Mahogany Series ‘Travel’ Electro Acoustic wins out on a technicality; it is more versatile, and unbelievably inexpensive for both its features and its sound.
