Re: OT: Traveler Guitars?

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

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.
-- 
_____
"bye-bye empire; empire, bye-bye"