Traveler Speedster Travel Guitar Review

August 27, 2009 by Best Travel Guitars
Filed under Electric Travel Guitar Reviews

traveler_speedster Perhaps one of the newest innovations to hit the market concerning travel guitars is the Traveler Speedster guitar. It possess the ability to emulate the sound, feel, and look of a solid-body, full-size guitar; and, it's perfect for any frequent traveler who would like to keep their chops up while on the road and/or concerned about damage to more conventional, valuable models.

Although the Traveler Speedster looks deceiving, the neck has the normal scale of 22 frets, with its width being narrower than a Gibson guitar, and closer to a Fender Stratocaster. It has a comfortable, detachable arm rest which helps it feel like a conventional guitar. The entire package comes with an attractive soft case(can be used as a carry-on), a pick, and a manual you will need regards to tuning and assembly.

This is not a guitar that I would use on a recording session or any gig situation, simply because of the single coil pickup which makes the tone sound deficient, if not a bit weak. Overall, the sound quality is not that bad for a travel guitar, and as mentioned before, the neck is regular size, so players who have larger hands need not be concerned with any complications. [UPDATE: All New Traveler Speedster's come with a dual-rail Humbucker. In no way is the sound or tone deficient but instead quite amazing.]

Although the action of the guitar was just fine as set by the factory, you can easily adjust the string action by raising the height and/or lowering the roller bridge. The tuning pegs are cumbersome, so extra care will be needed while tuning the guitar. The only disadvantage to the aforementioned roller bridge is the way the strings wrap around it provide an inconsistent tension distributed to the strings. This can make tuning this guitar a nightmare, but still easier to tune than any guitar with a floating tremolo bar.

Overall, I do recommend the Traveler Speedster, despite what I consider to be minor flaws in design. While the tuning system will take you some time to get used to, you will be able to adjust your tuning fairly easily within 2-3 weeks of practicing it. Even more encouraging is the fact that it can withstand knocks, bumps, etc. and still keep its tuning – thus reducing the fear of the tedious process of tuning this guitar. The easy portability of the Traveler Speedster, and full-size feel, make this an excellent choice.

Brian's Input- there is several things im doing to make it a awesome guitar. I put in two micro switches, parrallel serial, cut out coil. Seymour Duncan pickup will be installed , I hope this isn't a 95 dollar mistake. The original pickup does sound pretty good. The soider joints should be checked on anything from china, they put stuff together to fast, I used to soider for a living, yea i spelled it wrong. Not quite sure how I'm going to address the peg mounting for the armrest, you need the armrest and it works well. butt mine in on there kind of wobbly and will ruin the guitar in the long run. It needs two screw downs.... you cant put weight on something with a cheesy peg that doesn't go all the way through the hole. I hope I don't mess it up taking the peg out and making a secure screw down like with the strap screw. which was done nicely. It would be great if the company would just send me another one to replace the peg. I sent in the warranty but of course it isn't useful now anyway. I don't want this guitar gone for a day anyway. The ernie ball slinky 11 to 48 strings were a big improvement for me, and the guy who said tuning this guitar is hard .... I have to laugh. This is the easiest guitar to tune, plus it stays in tune. I love it.
Feel free to take any positives out of this and compile a shining review if you like , I have
no problem with that. For anyone stuck in a reclined chair or wheel chair etc. girl etc. this guitar is your only low cost and big bang for the buck you can get. I could find no other guitar to suite my needs at all.
Plus its really a beautiful guitar.
Have a great day
-Lizard

Traveler Speedster Features: