I love to travel… but I hate to be away from my guitar(s).

Three years ago my wife and I were making plans to visit Australia for 2 weeks. While I was excited to see the land down under, I was depressed thinking about spending 2 weeks without a guitar…

I had heard the horror stories of people who trusted their guitars to the airline baggage handlers only to arrive at their destination and recover their beloved axe with a broken neck.

I vowed to myself — that would never happen to me.

As for me, (and most guitar players who are honest with themselves), airline travel presents a dichotomy that must be resolved before the trip can be enjoyed.

Just how do you keep up with your guitar playing when a trip requires airline travel?

Everything changed when I discovered the Traveler Escape EG-1.

The Escape EG-1 is the most sophisticated travel guitar you’ve ever played!  It includes an onboard Pocket RockIt headphone amp with distortion & clean tones so you can plug your headphones directly into the guitar and rock out anytime, anywhere.

The Escape EG-1 has traditional guitar features like an American Hard Maple neck with an ebonized rosewood fretboard. With a full-size humbucker pickup, full 25-1/2 inch scale, and 22 jumbo frets, you almost forget that you are playing a travel guitar.  It’s sounds (and feels) that good.

The guitar comes with a very cool-looking padded gig bag that will fit in any overhead compartment.

Traveler Escape EG-1 Travel Electric Guitar Features:

* Full 25-1/2″ scale
* 5 pounds light and only 29-1/4″ long
* Built-in Pocket RockIt headphone amp with distortion and clean tones
* Fits in airline overhead compartments
* Alder body
* American hard maple neck
* Fretboard: Ebonized rosewood
* 22 jumbo frets

I will be taking another trip this week and my trusty EG-1 will be slung over my shoulder as I board the plane.  My EG-1 has been all over the United States, Mexico, France, Germany, Austria and Australia.  Next to my wife, it is my favorite travel companion.  No worries!

A new version of the Traveler Escape Guitar, the EG-2, will be released soon.  It sports a double-cutaway strat-like design with an input jack for your music file player so you can jam along to your favorite tracks through the guitar’s headphones!

(One last thing… I will be traveling this week and the posting to the blog will be minimal)

OK, I realize this title may be offensive to some of you. Please forgive me, I just wanted to get your attention!  There is a new web site service for guitar “lovers” that is totally cool.

The site is called GuitarAffair.

This new site will offer you the ability to enjoy a wide variety of high-end, professional quality guitars, delivered right to your door. At home, on a business trip, or on a vacation, you will have the chance to treat yourself to a truly luxurious guitar, if only for a short time.

From the Guitar Affair web site:

We call our rental experiences “Affairs” because we want each rental to be a positive emotional experience for you. Whether you are on a business trip, a family vacation, or just want an escape at home, we stock a variety of superb guitars that we can deliver to your location for you to enjoy. If you’re on a trip, our Road Trip™ option will deliver a guitar, headphone amp, headphones, cord, strap, and your choice of a variety of instructional items or backing tracks, all in a single road case. When you’re done, just slap on the return shipping label and send it back. What could be easier? All of our guitars are professionally maintained to give you the best experience possible.

How does it work? Enjoying a guitar from Guitar Affair is a simple process:

1. Join – You must be a member in order to rent guitars from Guitar Affair. Because a rental is essentially a credit transaction, they run a credit and background check on all members. There is a $50, one-time membership application fee. You can apply for membership by completing the registration form.
2. Select and reserve a guitar – Simply search their inventory to find an instrument that is available during the desired time frame. You can search the inventory by date, by manufacturer, or by genre.
3. Receive your instrument – Your instrument will be shipped via UPS to your destination, be it a home, hotel, or vacation home. Their guitars ship in custom made Guitar Affair Gig Bags inside a custom made CaseXtreme shipping container.
4. Have fun – Enjoy the guitar for as long as you have it reserved.
5. Return it – On the return ship date, simply put everything back in the shipping container and ship it back. A return UPS label will be provided to you inside the case.

It’s that easy!

So go ahead… have an affair… A GUITAR AFFAIR!