Smallest possible acoustic/guitarlele

olafgarten

Hi all,

When covid calms down I'm likely going to have to spend a lot of time travelling around the UK and am looking for a small acoustic to leave in my car.

It doesn't really need to sound that great, but I would prefer if I could get something in Standard turning and I want to get one as cheap as possible so I don't have to worry about damaging it or it getting lost/stolen.

I looked into some travel guitars, but they aren't really that small, does anyone have experience with guitarleles, especially with the Aquila strings that let you tune to E? 

DavidR

Olaf, being in cars for long periods ain't good for acoustics mate. Unless you can guarantee they're always in shade I suppose but even then. The extremes of temp do truly knackering things to them. Worse depending on type as regards all types of guitars. Classicals - definite no no. Acoustics - similar although build a little more solid. Electrics - way more solid but not ideal. Solid bodies least at risk I guess. Doubt if a Tele would come to that much harm short term.

The extremes of temperature and humidity are the problem. I once had to drive a new Martin across England on a summer's day with temps up in the high 30's and no aircon in the car. I was relieved when no harm done. I remember trying to stay in the shade of lorries during traffic jams!

guitarjack66

DavidR said:

Olaf, being in cars for long periods ain't good for acoustics mate. Unless you can guarantee they're always in shade I suppose but even then. The extremes of temp do truly knackering things to them. Worse depending on type as regards all types of guitars. Classicals - definite no no. Acoustics - similar although build a little more solid. Electrics - way more solid but not ideal. Solid bodies least at risk I guess. Doubt if a Tele would come to that much harm short term.

The extremes of temperature and humidity are the problem. I once had to drive a new Martin across England on a summer's day with temps up in the high 30's and no aircon in the car. I was relieved when no harm done. I remember trying to stay in the shade of lorries during traffic jams!

I assume you mean 'the thirties' Fahrenheit rather than Celsius? lol

DavidR

Just had a thought. A Yamaha Silent Guitar would be one of the few guitars I might be happy to leave in a car for any length of time.

https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/silent_guitar/slg200_series/index.html

Probably no good for you though in that it's not small and not an acoustic! Also, you'd have to take some some sort of electronics along with you and they wouldn't be particularly happy about being left in a car either.

Iv'e thought it would be fun to play a silent guitar with a wireless transmitter/receiver system and some sort of bluetooth speaker as an amp. Or even a little practice amp like a Roland Cube or something. But Iv'e never tried it.

 Would certainly be less fragile set up than a nice acoustic though!

This idea probably not much help. Hope you find a solution.

olafgarten

I guess I don't need to leave it in a car all the time, I can bring it inside when I'm not in the car so temps shouldn't really be too much of an issue. 

JerkMoans

Baby Taylor.  You can even unscrew the neck for packing in bag purposes.

Snags

Furch "Little Jane"?

Small-bodied acoustic travel guitar, and the neck is on a latch. It undoes, then tucks into the body through a sound port in the top shoulder. Whole thing packs into a bag the size of the body. Not cheap, but not outrageous, and based on various demos it sounds good (which fits with my experience of full-size Furch guitars).

ICBM

Martin Backpacker

GTC

You could try a 1/4 size classical guitar. Some very good ones can be found second-hand on eBay very cheaply. Extra hard tension strings for E to e tuning, standard for A to a. The scale length will be about the same as a Baritone Guilele.

Another alternative is the Cordoba Mini.

A more expensive option is the Pepe Romero Jr. Daniel Ho DH6 Baritone Guilele. It is a beautifully built instrument that sounds fantastic. I bought one new from the Southern Ukulele Store last year (£850). It uses the Pepe Romero Baritone Guilele  fluorocarbon  string set (E to e) which are far superior and more reliable than anything I've found from Aquila.