Re: OT: Traveler Guitars?

[Daryl Shawn <highhorse@mhorse.com>]

hey, thanks for the personal review, Mech. That's a good note on the 
action, I do prefer the classical height but it's pretty crucial that it 
feels right, I'll schedule a setup right away (after explaining what the 
hell it is). Glad to hear you're pretty happy with the sound.

What I'd really like someday is a solidbody headless nylon-string with a 
whammy bar and a bunch of body contact piezo's, but I have to wait until 
I can afford to have a custom one made.

Somebody I also need a personal review of that two-month Japanese 
walking pilgrimage...

cheers-

Daryl Shawn
www.swanwelder.com
www.chinapaintingmusic.com

> At 10:28 AM -0500 4/7/08, Daryl Shawn wrote:
>> Well, this is timely, I just ordered a Traveler Escape nylon-string.
>
> Daryl,
>
> I've got one of the Traveler Escape nylon-strings (one of the Mark 
> I's, now discontinued).  I've had it since ~2005, although I've got 
> amazingly few hours on it.  I originally bought it as the one personal 
> item that I was to bring on a 60-day walking pilgrimage in rural 
> Japan.  However, in the end, not even that much made the final weight 
> cut, so it's spent much of its life in the closet.
>
> Sound wise, I've had no real complaints whatsoever.  It sounds good. 
> Maybe a tiny bit of piezo quack and certainly not as good as a 
> top-class classical guitar, but good enough for any applications I had 
> that might call for a nylon-string.  The thing that always detracted 
> from it for me though, was the action.  From the factory, it came with 
> an extremely high action -- even for a classical guitar -- which made 
> it difficult for me to really enjoy playing it.  I kept meaning to 
> spend a few days working on it and correcting that, but it's been such 
> a side-instrument that those concerns have always fallen into the 
> "I'll get around to it" category.
>
> At one point, I even played around with the possibility of mounting a 
> GK to it (yes, you can track nylon strings, if they're a brand 
> fabricated with a bronze core), but again: "I'll get around to it". ;)
>
> I think you should spend a good deal of time right at the very 
> beginning adjusting the truss and action, as well as possibly having a 
> good luthier do a setup on it (assuming he's not a jerk and laughs at 
> you for bringing him a little backpacker guitar).  If you can get it 
> so it plays comfortably for you, then I think you'll have a fine 
> little guitar on your hands.
>
>     --m.