Traveler Speedster - Review

Type of Gear: Electric Guitars

Brand Name: Traveler

Model: Traveler Speedster

Price: ?220

Review - Please try to include as many specific details as you can: This originally sat in the window of a local instrument supplier and was priced at ?340. It then found its way onto a wall display deeper in the same shop that collapsed overnight and it sustained some cosmetic damage, hence the lowered price.

This is the black electric version and should not be confused with any acoustic traveler guitars.

The guitar comes in its own carry bag (not built to take any external impacts though), which is a nice touch making the whole package very portable. Put iton your shoulder and you don't know it is there.

The model I have is black with silver furniture, comes in two pieces - the teardrop armrest simply comes off with the few twists of a thumb screw and has a high output single coil. Later models have a humbucker instead.

I bought this originally for the novelty value and to take away with me on holidays - however it has become my main weapon of choice and I would not swap it for any amount of money. I used it sparingly at first, the action is quite high for an electric guitar, but this gives it quite a hybrid feel and I found the lack of headstock a bit disconcernting as I often found myself having to suddenly re-orientate myself as this makes the fretboard uncharacteristically quite short.

For a single coil, there is virtually no nasty hum or background noise and it gives a very pleasing kick for such a tiny guitar. It is light and quite exquisite to play, the only real downside is it can be difficult to tune as the tuners are built into two very fiddly recesses down by the pickup making the guitar 'reverse-strung' - hence the lack of headstock. It is a real headache to restring as my string winder bangs the recesses, plus the pegs are quite awkward to feed the strings into and then wind on.

The neck is smooth and feels much more 'expensive' - there are just two controls - volume and tone.

I took it on holiday to Cornwall together with a Pandora PX4 and sat on thebeach with headphones - quite fabulous.

Rating (On a Scale of 1-10): 9

Additional Comments/Final Verdict: I have to day that apart from a few niggles like the restringing aspect (a custom string winder would have been a nice addition to have found in the bag) and it does goes out of tune quite quickly -I would recommend this to any guitarist. It took me a while - but it is the most versatile and appealing guitar I have ever used.

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