VoxVibe

Best for: quiet writing and practicing

Traveler Guitars have been pioneering travel-friendly instruments for 30 years, and in so doing have built an impressive array of genuinely practicable products for musicians both serious and casual.

Traveler have made music industry headlines with fun travel-conscious iterations of popular instruments, such as its Stratocaster ‘copy’ that reduces its body to the size and shape of the pickguard. The Pro Series, though, is Traveler’s flagship series, where its innovation began – and it’s an intriguing specimen.

For want of a better word, the Traveler Pro Series is something of a... stick. Body and neck are a single piece of wood, with the body only wider than the neck to account for the width of the bridge. There is no extraneous material here. The Pro Series is able to retain a full 24 ¾“ scale length by eliminating the headstock altogether, niftily placing the tuning pegs in the body and either side of the strings.

The Pro Series is a box of tricks, beyond its unique minimal approach. It is an electric guitar, with single-coil pickup and accompanying tone and volume control; as well, it features a piezo pick-up for a more natural resonant sound. But for the private practicers who don’t have the facilities to plug in, there is a novel feature in the ‘stethophone’: stethoscope earpieces attached to the body, that conduct the resonance of the body without the need for amplification.

The Pro Series plays well, and is ergonomic too on account of a well-sized foot attachment for the body. The sounds it produces are not world-shattering, but it is a highly useful utility for the recording or writing guitarist on the move – and could even sit in on a session or two in a pinch.

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