Now that I have a motorcycle that I can do some travelling on, I was wondering what sort of options I'd have for bringing a guitar with me. I've been playing daily again and it would be a real shame to not be able to play when I feel like doing some traveling!
I did a Presearch on "travel guitar" and then refined my search to "backpacker guitar" when I discovered the Martin Backpacker Travel Guitar. I found a couple choices on Amazon. Guitar Center had a couple different choices too. Just about every option was above the $200 range. That was a little more than I wanted to spend. Finally, I did an Ebay search and discovered this gem for under $50 made by Omni! 🤣 At least that's what the seller said. Omni isn't written anywhere on the guitar and there is no name found anywhere. It is a nameless guitar! Generic 🙃
It came in several color choices. I chose the purple. I've always wanted a purple guitar. In person it seems to be more of deep mauve though. My tribute to Prince I guess!
Honestly, I wasn't expecting much in this price range. However, this was the perfect price for what I'd be using it for. Remember, this thing is going to get strapped to the back of a dual sport and probably be driven through some pretty rough terrain. If I lay the bike down, or it comes loose and falls out of my pack, I'd be pretty upset smashing a $200 - $400 dollar guitar. At $50, I can take the loss of a cheap guitar and not feel ashamed of myself ordering another one if this one breaks.
In this price range my main concern was would it be playable. Again, I wasn't expecting much. I set my expectations REALLY LOW. I'm going to do a full 3Speak review on this towards the end of the week and play a little too so you can hear the sound. For now, I'll simply say it's playable and it stays in tune fairly well. My biggest concern was that it would fall out of tune as soon as you started playing. So far, that hasn't been the case!
With that said, it is a $50 guitar. I pretty much got exactly what I paid for. The paint is runny. There were a couple deep nicks on the neck. The factory strings were "OK" I guess. The fret work is pretty rough. The shape is really awkward to play without a guitar strap. The quality and craftsmanship is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a guitar priced in the under $50 range. 🤣
With everything there is to hate about this guitar, and there's A LOT to hate, I'm absolutely in love with this thing! I've talked about cigar box guitars in the past. This guitar has that cigar box sound and feel to it! IMHO, that alone is worth the price of admission. I love that twangy, hillbilly sound and it fits perfect with my style of playing.
The plan was to upgrade the tuning knobs and make several setup adjustments. So far I haven't changed a thing. I probably will though, once I get a feel for the guitar. I'd like to lower the action a bit and make a few other slight changes to it that will hopefully improve the playability of it!
Well, it's #MusicMonday and I thought this would be a fun post to share with the guitar community. I'm working on some 3speak stuff with the motorcycle over the next couple days but promise I'll do a full 3Speak review and play a little too by the end of the week. I'm actually pretty excited about doing this review on 3speak.
If you have any questions you'd like me to address in the video feel free to leave them in the comments. I'll post a reply here and also include them in the video.
Rock on!
Hive on!