Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

Last friday I featured Emerald Guitars’ new creation. Well aside from Emerald Guitars’ Custom Shop creations they also make a travel guitar that was “...born out of a need for a guitar that was small enough to take anywhere, Strong enough to endure anything and with a sound that would make you want to play it all the time rather than just when you are travelling.“ The result of this desire is the X5, an acoustic guitar made from a one piece carbon composite body and neck and carbon fibre fretboard. The neck is apparently so stiff and strong that it doesn’t even need a truss rod. The nut and saddle are by Graphtech as are the bridge pins.

To see just how robust this guitar is check out what the Emerald crew put the poor X5 Life through! It survived being submersed in the Atlantic, climbing a mountain and being used as a canoe paddle!

“...a neat wah wah effect could be created by swishing the water around the inside of the guitar.“

YIKES! Don’t worry apparently it was still in tune after its ordeal. Check out the guitar specs page to hear some samples of the guitar in action. And if you fancy owning one of these robust guitars, you can buy one through their online shop for £545 with a pickup or knock off 80 quid without.

How about this for one of the most unique solutions to travel guitar design? The Stow-Away™ looks like a cross between a Fender Stratocaster and a Steinberger when not packed in a suitcase with a few classic Strat finish variations available, red, black, sunburst and the Deluxe model which has an Amber finish with Figured Maple over an Alder body, a Maple neck with a 22 fret Rosewood fingerboard and 2 Seymour Duncan Humbuckers as opposed to the standard version which has 3 Alnico Pole Single Coil pickups but these can be upgraded before the guitar is shipped should you wish. Both versions have Graph-Tech Saddles.

The key design element of this guitar stems from Stewart Guitars’ trademark ‘Clip Joint Neck Connector‘ which allows the neck to be quickly removed (without tools) for easy travel or compact storage. When disassembled, the neck of the Stow-Away™ can be stored in a diagonal storage cavity in the back of the guitar body.  (See photo above.)  The Stow-Away™ can then be discretely stored and in a well padded carrying case (included).

Check out this video to see just how quickly and easily the Stow-Away can be disassembled! This guitar is available from $400 via the Stewart Guitars’ website and they also run a “Loaner Program” so that you can try before you buy.