Traveler Guitar Speedster Travel Electric Guitar  

I live traveling.  I'm on the road sometimes one week per month, sometimes more or less, and I just bought this guitar about 2 months ago. It's a great guitar for what it is, but what is really frustrating is: THE GIG BAG SUCKS!!!!!  Come on, guys...does anybody who built this thing actually travel?  The shoulder strap always loosens as you're walking, and wants to fall off your shoulder all the time.  It's unusable. Also, the bag doesn't have protection in the key areas (like at the ends, or along the neck) and the guitar takes a lot of dings that it shouldn't. The bag should be more rigid, and able to stand on its end, and have plastic shin-guard-like protectors along the neck.  The bag strap should have some rubber and padding and not slip off your body.  Oh yeah: AND I don't want to pay a huge amount extra for that.  If you have any pride at all in your product, you'll call the REI guys and figure out how to make a bag that someone who travels a lot can actually use.

I travel for a living. I did alot of research to find the speedster. I have a black one. This is a great headless electric. I carry-on the speedster in it's case inside a tennis racket bag along with my briefcase. Goes right through security and under my seat. They never ask me to check it. Was a little concerned about the Chinese name but was very happy with it when it arrived. Use a Korg Pandora PX4D with hdphones. Very quiet in a hotel room. TSA doesn't bat an eye at security and it's very light to carry. Fast action. I never leave home without it.

I bought mine from here a little over a year ago, and I have to say this is one very well built guitar. It's solid maple neck through body design makes it very solid. The first night I got it, it slipped off the strap and fell on a concrete floor. After I finished freaking out, I picked it up and it was still in perfect tune, honestly. It did leave a scuff mark on the back of the metal string retainer at the nut end of the neck and on the removable arm rest but that's it. I love this guitar. Plays way better than expected, and I love the sound. The pickup is pretty hot but focused, it's quiet even with a lot of distortion, and it cleanes up nicely. I take it everywhere, leave it in the hot car, no problem. I keep a Korg Pandora PX4, headphones, strap and cable in the gig bag so I'm set. If I can, I bring my Vox DA5 or Roland Micro Cube too. Even at home I find myself playing this guitar more than my other guitars. If you need a really good playing and sounding guitar that is built tough enough to travel with, this is the one to get.

2 things: (1) when changing strings it's best not to remove the old strings at once or else the little roller tailpiece falls out.  It's a bear trying to negotiate that tailpiece while putting on all new strings.  Better to remove and replace strings one at a time.  I'm not being critical of the tailpiece... it definitely improves responsiveness to tuning adjustments.  But if it falls off the guitar all the little rollers scatter across the floor. Not a fun scenario. (2) Traveler's customer service was excellent when I had a problem with the adjustable bridge.  I sent the guitar to Traveler on a Tuesday and had it back - with a new bridge - on Friday.  That's fast.  True, I'm in San Diego and they're only up in Redlands (about 150 miles) but still, that was fast!  And Derrick at Traveler is a prince of guy who was a pleasure to deal with.  Great company, great little guitar!