I'm toying with the idea of buying a really cheap acoustic. Yes, me. Really.
I'm going to spend two or three weeks in Sri Lanka shortly (as is my habit every few years, I love the place) and face the following options:
* 1: Take a guitar with me. (No way. Not in that climate. Anyway, I'd have to pay a fortune in excess baggage or book a seat for it.)
* 2: Go three weeks without playing. (Not sure I want to do that. And I dread to think how far back my skills will have gone when I get back.)
* 3: Buy something when I get there. Give it to someone when I fly home.
So how much do I need to spend to get something playable? Is a £100 guitar worth having? Would it frustrate the hell out of me? Or be good enough to do the job? What is the collective wisdom re £100 and £200 guitars?
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Looking on-line, the music shops there mostly seem to stock cheapies from Yamaha, Aston, and a few others. I did love the High Street music shop I saw offering a "Martin D-28 Dreadnought (replica)" for Rs. 57,500 (£140) complete with Martin badging! The funny thing is, the manufacturer (doubtless in China) has copied the shape and look very closely, even down to the shape of the headstock and the badging, but made it with a most un-Martin-like 43mm nut to suit smaller hands.
Anyway, I'l have a very limited range to choose from, particularly given the economic upheaval they are only just starting to recover from. I'm mainly looking to see what people think of very cheap guitars these days.
(I don't want to go into a local music shop here in Oz and try stuff out when I have no intention of buying it here. I don't feel right doing that.)
Mate, that's commendable and confirms what I already knew. Have a wis.
https://shreesaimusical.com/product-category/sitar-veena/sitar/
Yamahas are the best but pricey. I have an Aria Sinsonido steel strung and used to have the nylon version when my focus was classical/flamenco. I used to take it all over the place - travelling, to work etc. Last month one went for £122 on Ebay.
Agree with earlier point that -especially with budget range acoustics - you are going to need a setup so factor in that cost if you go down that route or you will be put off playing an acoustic.. Most shop cheapo acoustics have the nut and bridge way too high. Note - the Sinsonido has a height adjustable bridge :-)
@JonnyBgoode you are making sense. Two factor prevent that. One is that a Yamaha Silent Guitar won't fit in my luggage. (I looked at one in Hobart last week.) I am restricted there because the purpose of my trip is wildlife photography. I essentially take a two shirts, a pair of undies, and a whole stack of photographic equipment on the flight, and that maxes out the 30kg limit. Are there ways around that? Probably. The second is that I'm limited to what I can buy here in Tasmania (a very small state, about 2% of Australia's population). I sometimes shop in Melbourne (Australia's largest city, about the same size as Birmingham or Manchester) but won't have time to do that this time.
Longer-term, I'm thinking I want a travel guitar for the outback trips I do, where space isn't really an issue (within reason), nor weight, but durability is. (Heat, humidity, vibration.) For that, an orthodox non-folding acoustic would make sense, but in carbon fibre. Sometimes I toy with the idea of an Emerald, though there are many others. (Obviously, that wouldn't help with a Sri Lanka trip.)
@BillDL - you are a funny man. It's a three week trip. I don't think I've got time to learn the sitar. Hey - I've been playing guitar for 50 years and haven't mastered it yet, you reckon I can get up to speed on sitar in three weeks?
@Mellish and @Jaycee - It's not so altruistic. It's probably the cheapest way to have a guitar for three weeks. But yes, I'll try to give it to someone who will benefit from it. I mean for you or me, £150 is something we can spend on a night out or a new jumper or a car service and not even blink. No big deal.
Finally, the thing I really want to know is how satisfying is a £150 guitar going to be? Is it even worth doing? (The setup I can deal with. I'm not going to worry about that.)
Finally, the thing I really want to know is how satisfying is a £150 guitar going to be? Is it even worth doing? (The setup I can deal with. I'm not going to worry about that.)
My second hand classical was excellent but I can't imagine a $150 new guitar being very good.
I once owned a quite expensive Brunner travel guitar, thinking it would be a good idea to bring it as hand luggage, but the sound just wasn't there and it felt fiddly and small. Based on my experience, I would avoid travel guitars.
I can see why a small folding truly acoustic guitar would be unsatisfying though, too much of a compromise.
Ive had two "enforced breaks" of 4 and 6 months through injury/surgery.
The single biggest issue was - callouses, or lack of - took me a couple of weeks the first time, but I did some "prep" the second time - just very firmly rubbing fingers up and down strings -
the muscle memory soon returned
just because you do, doesn't mean you should.
I bought one of these babies via eBay for £70, in June this year. It's a great little guitar and perfect for my campervan travels and just kicking around. It sounds way better than it should.
https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_gs_travel_e_spruce.htm
The issue you'd have is shipping. I'm not sure Thomann ship to Sri Lanka as a matter of course but as they have very approachable and helpful customer service folk you could drop them a line and explain your travel plan and subsequent charitable intention.
It's such an unusual request they might see the marketing potential ... "nature photographer takes HB into Asian wilderness and gifts it to the needy" ... ambitious marketeers would bite yer arm off.
It's poss that they'd ship to your hotel and you could offer them a write-up about the guitar's adventures and playability in remote, challenging climes ... really big them up. Quid pro quo!
Shy bairns get nowt.
Good luck
Besides, if it's a photo break, much of your non- shoot time is going to be reviewing the day's efforts is it not?
Best of luck & have a great trip anyway.
.........
....... Sorry about that. Big rabbit hole! I've looked at Thomann shipping before, for strings, and it is very expensive. Also, they only use UPS couriers, which is sensible for a fancy new guitar but ridiculous for a set of strings. So anyway I plugged my home address for that same guitar into their website and Hey Presto! they were asking an insane £223 to ship to me here at home. Australia isn't so terribly different to (e.g.) California or Japan for actual freight costs (as opposed to the insane amount Thomann are asking) - say 30% to 50% more as a rough guide. (Nothing like the 330% they want!) But hang on a mo, what if I plug in an address in mainland Australia (it does cost a little more - and I do mean a little more) to put the usual interstate delivery truck on the roll-on roll-off ferry overnight. So I put a Victorian address in and suddenly Thomann only wanted £101, which is a bit steep but not completely unreasonable in these post-pandemic times.
Anyway, valuable lesson learned. When I order strings from Thomann (which I plan to do because they have a few interesting ones I can't get in the USA, and also they have much better prices on Pyramid than the Americans or Australians) send them to a friend on the mainland, who can post them over to me for $10 extra instead of Thomann's insane $212 extra (£122).
Apologies for the interruption. We now return you to our normal programming.
That is broadly the sort of thing I'll be looking at. But in the end, if I go to a music shop in Negombo or Colombo I can actually try guitars out and buy one that sounds OK and is playable. (Or not buy one if I don't like any of them.)
Or, as @LastMantra and @bertie very sensibly point out, three weeks isn't a very long time to not play for. @Soupman I tend not to spend long reviewing pictures in the field. I mostly just upload, make nightly backups, and have a quick squiz at a few random samples. Proper reviewing I do at home where I have proper photographic monitor. (Even the best laptop screens are pretty sad little things compared to the real thing. A bit like travel guitars maybe?)
Anyway, I think I'll just make a short detour to the music shops on my first day in-country (I'll be well away from the big cities the rest of the time, so it's first day or nothing), try a few guitars, and if I like one and find it reasonably playable, buy it.
Below: view from my hotel balcony near Sinharaja, November 2018. I'll ask for the same room this year. Now is that a nice place to sit and play or is that a nice place to sit and play?
When you do your quick squiz reviews it'd be good if you posted a few on tFB ... just so we know that you're alive and well ... and to curse and swear, green with envy of course
Hope all goes to plan and you have a wonderful adventure.
Best,
Stu
Enjoy your break