air travel friendly guitar

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mdc1mdc11

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Probably been asked repeatedly before but looking at some small footprint guitars that can be more easily stuffed in overhead bin while on business travel so I do not need to take my nice guitars and risk forced baggage check. Anyone have experience with these cheap Steinbergers, or Kiesel/Carvin HH2 (Holdsworth) type guitars....and can comment?
 
I have a shit-ton of experience taking the cheap steinberger spirit guitars all over the world, what are your questions?
 
grooveHT":3ljdz60e said:
I have a shit-ton of experience taking the cheap steinberger spirit guitars all over the world, what are your questions?

will it layer above and across multiple roller-bags or do you debate with the other passengers?

is the playability good for practice or just wait till you get back home?

how is the toughness of the case?

I guess it would never fit under the seat?


What would you consider your biggest problems and issues?
 
I travel with the Baby Taylor all the time.

HUGE tone. Super solid build. Tough case. Fits in all overhead bins. Plays really well & a great price.

taylor-big-baby-taylor-240557.jpg
 
mdc1mdc11":1ouepx9v said:
grooveHT":1ouepx9v said:
I have a shit-ton of experience taking the cheap steinberger spirit guitars all over the world, what are your questions?

will it layer above and across multiple roller-bags or do you debate with the other passengers?

is the playability good for practice or just wait till you get back home?

how is the toughness of the case?

I guess it would never fit under the seat?


What would you consider your biggest problems and issues?

First, a little about myself; I'm in the Army and I've been dragging Steinberger Spirit guitars with me for the past 16 years in one way, shape or form. They're fairly resistant to climate changes, and they take a fair amount of beating. I have three, all GU (strat body style), one in HSS, and two in HSH - one of which has the photo-flame top), and all of them are multi-piece bodies. All three have R-trems upgraded with trem posts by Be.em on TGP (website here http://www.headless-europe.eu/Bernds_Gu ... grade.html ), which I recommend for anyone that uses an R-trem; tuning stability while using the trem was bad and got worse as the trem posts bent progressively worse, and now with the replacement posts it's solid! If you are just going to lock down the trem and not use it, tuning was good from the get-go. Pickups were ok - not horrible - but I switched to Duncans in the HSS and Dimarzios in the HSH models, with big improvements to both. The wiring works, but the switches and pots are kind of crappy. Why have three steinbergers if they're cheap guitars? Because I'm gone from home enough that I like having a few guitars with different pickup setups for variety; I grab which ever one I want to hear for months at a time!

To address some of your questions: I've only had soft cases, either the stock ones that came with the guitar new or aftermarket ones. The stock ones are somewhat thin, but for just banging around in an overhead bin or trunk, perfectly serviceable. If you want to load it in the back of a helicopter or in a shipping container, spring for an aftermarket soft case or hard case! That said, the stock case is thinner, and definitely better for loading in an overhead bin. I have never had a steinberger not fit in either the overhead bin directly over my head or one of the other five surrounding my seat. Either it sits on top of everyone elses' stuff, or behind it at the back of the compartment. For REALLY tiny, you can go for the smaller broom-stick body 'Bergers, but those are a little too tiny for me. Even with the broom-stick, I think you'd be hard-pressed to get it under a seat.

With regards to playability, it still surprises me how good they actually are. They sustain a good amount, and the action is pretty damn uniformly low. Also, they're all 24-fret guitars, so you get two extra for the low, low price of having to move your neck and middle pickups closer to the bridge and losing that characteristic neck-pickup tone. On the HSH models I have, I actually removed the middle pickup completely and went with Dimarzio/EBMM type super switch layout of Neck/Inner Coils/Neck+Bridge/Outer Coils/Bridge; sounds great!

What else?
 
Hardtail Strat/Tele would work, too. Take off the neck and throw them in a book bag with a screw driver in the pocket. Should have it up and running pretty quick. If you wrap it up carefully and use a few capos or wraps to hold the strings over the nut and to the fretboard, you may not even have to take off or replace strings.
 
I have an Ibanez Mikro. Goes in overhead storage very easily.
 
cardinal":2oemqoxs said:
Hardtail Strat/Tele would work, too. Take off the neck and throw them in a book bag with a screw driver in the pocket. Should have it up and running pretty quick. If you wrap it up carefully and use a few capos or wraps to hold the strings over the nut and to the fretboard, you may not even have to take off or replace strings.

You could do this even easier if you install threaded inserts on the neck and use bolts to attach the neck; then you don't need to worry about the screw holes stripping out.
 
thanks guys...that Erlewine guitar looks really cool (Lazer)..Had forgotten that Johnny Winter played one but thought it was special built for him only.
 

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