A New Look for a Minimalist Acoustic Guitar

Today's post is a quick run-down of my experiment in refurbishing a cheap travel guitar found on an online auction. The end result will be a better looking and playing instrument. Travel guitars are scaled down versions of standard guitars but minimized for compactness. As the the name indicates these are guitars that are made to leave home with you. Great for a day in the park, the beach, hiking, camping etc. I named mine "Roadie". I like the design challenge that a travel guitar presents: How does one get the most guitar in the smallest possible package while still maintaining playability and a decent tone? The answer to that challenge results in some interesting designs. Prices range from $30-$300 depending upon the materials and quality of the build. My guitar is much closer to the $30 end of the spectrum and sounds like a guitar-meets-a banjo-meets-a-ukulele.

This particular travel guitar has high mileage on it. The frets are pretty worn down but I won't worry about that now. The original black paint was worn thin and had faded to a charcoal gray. Cheap guitars are often painted in order to cover up the lack of a nice wood grain. My goal was to do a re-finish and some small upgrades so I can have a knock-around guitar that won't take up much space in the house. Something that I don't have to handle carefully and is on hand and ready to play when the mood strikes me.

The hours upon hours of sanding required was made more bearable by watching good movies, listening to music and generally zoning out. Ultimately all of the featureless wood grain was revealed. No surprise there.

I did a bit of experimental staining using a coffee and tea mixture on the back. It took multiple coats and did not give me the results I was hoping for, but still better than the tired, old, black paint. In the end the only staining that remained was on the guitar top and head-stock. The rest was spray painted a dark burgundy.

All new tuners and a natural bone nut were installed. Roadie now stays in tune much better than before and the bone nut has tightened up and improved the sound a bit.

Nylon strings replaced the original steel strings, because I like the warm sound and comfortable feel. Also, less tension is required by nylon strings, and less tension is easier on the structure of this old guitar.

Total investment for materials and upgraded parts about $20. Roadie will be a good platform for future upgrades like a string tree, a piezo pick up and what will be my first attempt at a re-fretting job. More about that later.

 

Fine Art

This semester I have been taking an Art History class that has helped me to have a greater understanding of fine art. It has also revealed some oddities. Such as painters in certain eras, giving a title to their works that is blatantly obvious to the viewer. This week's cartoon "Nude Woman on Couch with Guitar” is an example of that. A more interesting title might be, “My Mistress with Her Favorite Guitar”. Now isn't that better? We are given a little more information, and it seems less condescending. But then there is the opposite approach which is to not name a painting at all by using “Untitled”.  I realize that titles imply meanings, and some artists may not want to put  preconceived ideas into the viewer's mind. But I think "Untitled" gets over used, and I find that a bit lazy.  Do not worry art world, I'm quite capable of deriving my own meanings from art works regardless of the given title. How about this; an artist gets to name just one of their works “Untitled”,  and they can do this one time in every media that they work in. After that, they have to commit to actually naming what they create.

However, beyond an obvious title or no title at all, there is then supposedly all sorts of symbolic imagery loaded into a painting. Perhaps so much so that only an art historian can decipher it for you--yikes! To loosely paraphrase Freud, can't a painting, be just a painting? Are there some people in the art world who want to over complicate things in order to seem smart, and important? That would not be surprizing as it is human nature to do so. But perhaps I'm still a Neanderthal when it comes to all this, and I may develop a different opinion as I go further down the art history road....next semester.

I encourage people to read Tom Wolfe’s, The Painted Word.  It’s a fast, and fun read that gives valuable insight into the peculiar world of modern art.