Ideas for small travel guitar
 

Well, seeing as how travelling is about to become a much more frequent part of my life I'm thinking about buying a more suitable guitar for my small vw golf. This means I need a guitar that is no longer than 40" in a case (padded gigbag is also an option). Also I'm not looking to spend more than 200 bucks so the Taylor gs mini is out. I play mostly country blues, older country music, and some folk stuff. The gretsch Jim Dandy is high on my list depending on what answer I get back from gretsch concerning total length.

I absolutely love my Eastman travel guitar. So much that I keep it next to my desk as my daily player. It's 37" long and probably slightly smaller than the mini.
It's like a 12 fret 00. There was one in the buy and sell for $200 a while back. I posted some comments on his posting.

I went through the same thing and narrowed it down to the Jim Dandy, the Yamaha APXt2 and the Yamaha Jr1.

I ended up finding a late 60s Stella for 50 bucks. :)

That would be perfect if I could snag one in my price range.

If you really want a small one, you might want to look at a Go Guitar. I think the least expensive start around $215 or so. They're very small, but well-built, nice necks and fun to play.

I have the Voyage Air and had the Martin LX1 and I would pick the Eastman over them for my travel instrument. Gave the Martin to my grandson when I got the Eastman. The used one was listed for a while and might still be available. New they are $300.

A used Art & Lutherie Ami may fit your needs, if you can find one.

All the ami's I've seen were out of the price range. Just got a call that my dealer was able to snag the electric I want so I have to wait a bit longer on this but I should be able to push the budget closer to 3 although I'm still really digging the gretsch idea at this point. The Eastman and Alvarez travel guitars are also interesting.

Check out the Walden T550. I've heard good things about it and they can be found used for under $200.

Why not just get a parlor? Recording King RP-06 can be had used for around $200.

Go Guitar. Made in San Diego,CA. I love mine. Very affordable hand built solid wood guitar.

http://www.go-guitars.com/

The rp-06 would be cool if it was under 40in long but I believe it's to large unfortunately. I could be wrong though guess I'll fire off an email to rk.

After a lot of searching for a travel guitar I've just bought a Sigma Travel guitar which is a little Martin copy. Comes with a good quality gig bag too.

What kind of traveling are you doing and where are you playing? if it's airplane and car travel for work and playing for yourself in a hotel room, then maybe an unplugged electric will do for you. If you're camping and playing songs for people around a campfire, you want something rugged and can project. Maybe a backpacker type guitar.

Still there's not a lot of attractive options for a $200 limit.

I'll be mostly travelling by car and my trusty Yamaha apx500ii doesn't fit well in the small hatch area of my golf much less my rk rd-10. I play mostly fingerstyle old country blues, country, and old folk music.