Anyone travel with a guitar?

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Interested in bringing a guitar with me in the van. I've found good sound makes me play more often and for longer. Ease of play as well. I have a Martin D-16 I'm thinking of bringing with me. Sold wood, mohogany with a spruce top. It had a bridge that was pulling up when I bought it. That brought the price down considerably and I had a quality luthier re-set, re-glue the bridge.

I built a slot in a cabinet just for carrying the guitar. Extra insulation all around it. Snug padded fit to keep it from banging around. I love playing around a campfire with others at night. I'm hoping this works out okay. I realize the changes in temperatures and humidity might put some stress on it.

Does anyone else here travel with a solid wood acoustic guitar and find they are able to maintain the condition of the guitar reasonably well?

If not what issues came up? Did you go to one made of different materials, etc. as a solution?

(looking for comments from direct experience as opposed to "I heard" or "I read somewhere")
 
I saw an interview with Steve Earl regarding the instruments and gear he brings on the road with him. He brought along a Martin acoustic guitar finished in black, made entirely of mahogany, the way their models were made during WW2 due to wood shortages and also the modern 15 series guitars. His theory was that using all the same wood, changes due to temperature and humidity would be more uniform with fewer problems from woods contracting or expanding at different rates in most guitars that are made from 2-3 different types of wood.
 
The past few months I've been staying with an ailing friend who is also a guitarist. I got the guitar bug again from him. And he has a pretty good shop set up. So I bought a $50 pawn shop electric guitar and rebuilt it into sort of a travel guitar. New shape, new color, new hardware and electronics, fret job... I use a soft rifle case as a gig bag.

Before:
<a href="https://imgbb.com/"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/7rrrVRx/guitarw1.png" alt="guitarw1" border="0"></a>

After:
<a href="https://imgbb.com/"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/tc97wvJ/guitar2w.jpg" alt="guitar2w" border="0"></a>

I'm a horrible player, but I like building things.
 
MrNoodly said:
The past few months I've been staying with an ailing friend who is also a guitarist. I got the guitar bug again from him. And he has a pretty good shop set up. So I bought a $50 pawn shop electric guitar and rebuilt it into sort of a travel guitar. New shape, new color, new hardware and electronics, fret job... I use a soft rifle case as a gig bag.

Before:
<a href="https://imgbb.com/"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/7rrrVRx/guitarw1.png" alt="guitarw1" border="0"></a>

After:
<a href="https://imgbb.com/"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/tc97wvJ/guitar2w.jpg" alt="guitar2w" border="0"></a>

I'm a horrible player, but I like building things.
Click to expand...

What do you plug it into and how is it powered?
 
Line 6 Variax Standard into a Helix LT. It's made by Yamaha based on their Strat copy, the Pacifica. I worked on the frets to make the neck feel like a well made guitar. It has five nice acoustic guitars, my favorite being the Gibson J-200 and a nice Guild 12 string. It has two steel top resonator guitars and a sitar. It does a great job of a 59 Les Paul, Fender Strat & Tele, Gretch, Gibson 335's, Rickenbacker 6 & 12 strings,

I also lied to the guitar using a computer and simulated placing Rickenbacker pickups over the 12th fret on a Gibson 335. It sounds strangely hollow. I took a strat model and made it drop a full octave and use three versions of that for bass.

Hearing makes the point much better:

 
I have an Applause acoustic guitar. It's an odd duck.
Made by or under contract from Ovation, it has that infamous Ovation roundback thing with the black plastic composite bowl.
But it gets stranger, the only piece of wood is the top and the bridge.
The neck is plastic with metal binding, or maybe the metal goes clear through? Fretboard is not wood. I assume it's phenolic or some other plastic.
Sounds kind of good, lots of sustain. A little strange tonality.
Stays in tune really well so long as it isn't bumped around. Never noticed any problem with temp.
After I get the electrical system finished I'm going to keep a bass in the van. I'm really more of a bassist.
But I like to be able to plug in, if only with headphones.
 
I had fun making the guitar I showed earlier so I did another project. I saw this odd old 7/8-scale student guitar with a built in speaker on eBay. I got it for $35 — then put a couple of hundred bucks into new hardware and stuff. I left the body as it was, with scratches and dings, but did a job on the neck. Leveled and crowned the frets and slightly reshaped the headstock. The existing built in amp board was a mystery, so I got a replacement. I changed to a 2-pickup configuration with a hot rodded Tele pickup at the neck and a mini humbucker disguised as a FilterTron at the bridge. And, of course a different pickguard. Now, what am I going to do with two guitars in the van?

<a href="https://ibb.co/dB15Vs5"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/4W9VXwV/LATEST-PROJECT.png" alt="LATEST-PROJECT" border="0" /></a>
 
I've been traveling with my Goding XTSA and using a Mac with Logic and getting some great demo sounds out in the woods.  :)
 

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Nice I still regret passing up a deal on a Godin bass years ago.
I thought it was 'too jazz'.
 
That's fair. I looked at some of their basses too and agree. I went with a Spector instead. Much more biting  :D Not bringing that out the Taylor on the road though lol
 
I didn't take my 1965 Gibson J-45 on the road this time.

We were twins. I bought her with the money I got for cashing out every single instrument I had ever played and loved during my entire childhood. I was sixteen. I named her after Joni Mitchell and busked with her well enough to support my husband and my husband's other wife and pay for enough gas, food, and campground fees to bounce across North America a few times.

She put me through a semester and a half of Community College as a music Major. I don't remember why I sold out, changed my major, and let my parents put me in a cage....er.... apartment.....but it didn't make me or them particularly happy.

The next husband was into cocaine, or so I thought at the time, knowing nothing about United States politics, the Drug Wars, or the basic scientific facts about substance abuse and mental health disorders. The babies came fast and Joni helped them sleep. Mom showed me how newborn babies like sad songs, so their favorite lullabye was always All My Trials.

The public liked Christmas Carols when. I busked and somehow the kids always wound up with Christmas presents. Maybe they would have turned out better if they hadn't. All I ever got out of motherhood was a pocket full of regrets.

That husband died, as husbands always do.

That landlord evicted me, as landlords always do.

The internet said that Joni was worth three thousand dollars. No way did I feel safe taking her on the road. She is safe now.

So I carry around this guitar my friend gave me. It's a Sawtooth and it sounds pretty darned nice for a hundred dollar Amazon special. I named it Charity Beginsathome and even made a few dollars busking before I realized that those people needed their quarters more than I did.

The sad thing is that I hardly ever play her. There doesn't seem to be much music in me these days.

It's kind of like writer's block in that I want to, but I can't.

I'm happy that the Gibson is safe and with someone who can take care of it. There is nothing wrong with the Sawtooth.

Any ideas on moving past this? I just want to enjoy playing music again.
 
I travel with a 6-string Sigma guitar and a banjo and a baritone ukelele. When I lived in a motorhome I also carried a Martin 12 string, but since my van is smaller, that's now at my daughter's house. I'm in the humid east, so I don't have desert dryness to contend with. So far the instruments have survived my mistreatment. I believe they're meant to be played, so they have to go where I go.
 
I have traveled many years with various guitars, first in our converted bus then on to campers, travel trailers, pickup campers, Trek motorhome and now we are planning on something small we can tow with our CRV. We have found any decent quality guitar travels well, keep an Oasis in the case or between the strings in any sort of dry climate and if its humid outside no problems. Yamaha fg's do very well, Cordoba's in my experience are slightly fussier but still no prob, Ovations don't like dry climates so a bit of care for humidifiers is called for. Martins travel very well and my friends with Taylors say they are fine as long as you watch the humidity. Again, in dry places get and use a good humidifier either on the guitar or in the case, my experience has been with the Oasis working really well, simple and cheap.
 
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