Guitars and RVs ?

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I have not ever carried any of my guitars yet but I have a full length bay that I have plans to build a pull out for my Moffet electric Baby Grand If I ever get to go full time. I hardly play the guitar anymore but still have 2 hand made guitars in the bedroom. I gave 13 guitars to me grand-kids about a year ago. Of the 13. 7 were hand made.  The 2 I still have , one is a true Hollow body Strat and the other is not completed yet but it is a PRS
 
BadjerJim said:
The backpack case is perfect. I mean, seriously, who wants to take a big guitar case, and haul it down to a campfire a few hundred yards away?
I do!
 
I don't think I've ever seen a hollow-body Strat.  A Stratocoustic?

mike eddleman said:
I have not ever carried any of my guitars yet but I have a full length bay that I have plans to build a pull out for my Moffet electric Baby Grand If I ever get to go full time. I hardly play the guitar anymore but still have 2 hand made guitars in the bedroom. I gave 13 guitars to me grand-kids about a year ago. Of the 13. 7 were hand made.  The 2 I still have , one is a true Hollow body Strat and the other is not completed yet but it is a PRS
 
Wroth makes a hollow body but they run a rougther about 10 times and leave about the wood I built this one and hollow about 90 percent of the body out and cut the F hole in it. The guy that wanted one wanted the warm, mellow 70's sound. I made this one out of popular with a maple neck just to see if it could be done. The one I made for him was made with Birdseye maple.

This is the PRS I have started It's made with a Black Walnut tree that was cut off the side of the road


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Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Guess I need to read up on posting pictures. Also on the PRS you will see a ooophs next to one of the holes. I have to repair that and still have to make the fret board
 
A bit of miscommunication maybe?  You said "one is a true Hollow body Strat", but that is not a Fender Strat, that's a copy.  Hollow body strat copy would have told me a lot ;)
 
Yes Fender made hollow body strats for a while in the 70s. They are rare because it kills the strat sound so they went over like a lead balloon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Pawn-Shop-72-HH-Semi-Hollow-Stratocaster-BODY-/190537082148?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2c5ce52524#ht_912wt_905
 
I'm fairly involved in the vintage guitar market and don't ever remember a hollow-body Strat.  The one you are referring too is a brand new model from the Pawn Shop Series.  They are not copies of anything, just Fender's interpretation of what "might have been" if somebody modded out a Strat.  From Fender's website:

The new Pawn Shop Series guitars draw inspiration from the eccentric and sometimes wildly innovative Fender creations of the mid-'60s and mid-?70s era that sometimes found their way to the outside world and into the more esoteric pages of Fender history.

In fact, one of their new models is an exact copy of a Squier guitar (Squier 51) that became wildly popular with modders because they were so well built and dirt cheap.  I have two of those.  I paid $140 for one and got the other for a penny.  Now, they're selling it in the Pawn Shop series and asking $800.
 
I read a book on the history of Fender a few months ago and distinctly remember the hollow body strat. I don't remember the details but you are probably correct that it never made it into production. It probably sounded nothing like a strat.
 
seilerbird said:
Yes Fender made hollow body strats for a while in the 70s. They are rare because it kills the strat sound so they went over like a lead balloon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Pawn-Shop-72-HH-Semi-Hollow-Stratocaster-BODY-/190537082148?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2c5ce52524#ht_912wt_905

That is ONE WEIRD STRAT!  Body shape like a strat, hollow F-hole chamber, but the pickup and control routings are pure Telecaster.  What an odd thing.
 
What I said Topdownman was I have a hand made true hollow body  Strat. Witch I have. It is hand made. If it was from Fender it would not be a hand made Strat. I say True Hollow body because the body's you can buy are not true hollow body's. They have had some of the wood remover to make them lighter. This one and the other Strat I made have 90% of the wood removed. You can play these without plugging them into a amp. They are not as loud as a flat top. The sound is a real warm sound kind of like the mood music of the 70's. They are made from Finder Strat plans that came from Finder. including the neck.
 
I buy cheap full sized guitars and fiddles and figure that heat and the road will inevitably take their toll at some point.

The guitars (I often travel with other musicians) tend to end up in the shower at night to save space, and are on the beds at other times.

In response to the question upthread, yes, there are folding upright basses.  I know of at least one gigging band that uses one.  They require an amp.

 
Thanks for the very interesting info on Guitars and RV's.
Being an alien (as the border people say), we have to leave our trailer to the elements in the summer and winter (for some reason we prefer the Spring and Fall for our travel in the States). When we say that we leave our instruments in the trailer we get sharp intakes of breath, like a plumber about to give a quote, and advice that the glue used on guitars will break down above 120 degrees.
However we have had no problems so far. We place each instrument in its case, in a vacuum bag (no vacuum, just most of the air removed). Each time I have the internal debate about detuning, and have come to the conclusion that it sits at home for months without any problem, so the first couple of times I backed them off, but now I have left them fully tuned. So far we have had no problems (summer humidity in Orlando and arctic cold in Dallas).
The idea of the folding guitar gives the same feeling as scraping nails on a blackboard, but the you tube video seems to show it working.
As for portable instruments I rather like the idea of an inflatable double bass.
 
fastrak100 said:
So far we have had no problems (summer humidity in Orlando and arctic cold in Dallas).

I remember once, when I was in my early twenties, I pawned a six-string acoustic for a month or so during the dead of winter.  When I went back to get it and opened the case, it was broken, its seams split in many places.  The pawnbroker admitted to not leaving any heat on at night in his shop (Atlanta). 

On the other hand, I recall playing in a band in Guatemala, in a marina on the edge of a river with jungle all around.  It was summer, hurricane season, and the Rio Dulce was a great spot for boaters to hangout and pass the time while waiting for hurricane season to end.  Anyway, I was playing in a band in the marina's restaurant in the high jungle humidty.  I've never had so many problems with tuning, constantly, after every song and sometimes during a song.                     
 
Inflatable bass!  Love it.  Oh, and Arctic cold of Dallas!  Good stuff. 

Summer of 2009 left fiddle, guitar and mando in the house in FL with mostly 95 deg temps, then when the thermostat failed in the AC on mode, another month at ??? degrees?  They were all fine upon return.

 
Well Luca 1369, we have moved on since Guatemala, we have steel strings now rather than cat gut, and if you played in the marina, as stated, then I am sure that the dampness would have got to your guitar whatever the strings.
So I can buy my Martin now then and it will be safe, I will tell my wife the good news. Just as I was going to buy some of those tire pressure gizmos, that I have been reading about on another thread.
 
fastrak100 said:
Well Luca 1369, we have moved on since Guatemala, we have steel strings now rather than cat gut, and if you played in the marina, as stated, then I am sure that the dampness would have got to your guitar whatever the strings.

We played in the marina's restaurant, an open air venue, no walls, just a railing.  The restaurant sat sat out over the water (in fact my avatar is a photo where I'm sitting along the railing during a gig).  My guitar had steel strings and the humidity would have affected a guitar regardless of the string composition (as long as the guitar was made of wood).  I met someone down there who had one of those new carbon-fiber acoustic guitars and humidity did not seem to affect it in the least, even the fretboard was a carbon-fiber laminate! 
 
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