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Stow-Away Travel Guitar

  • Features:
  • Action, Fit, & Finish:
  • Sound Quality:
  • Reliability/Durability:
  • Ease of Use:
  • Customer Support:
  • Overall Rating:
  • Brand:
    Stewart Guitar Company
  • Model:
    Stow-Away Travel Guitar
Tags: tax#aa tax#a brand#stewartguitarcompany

Reviews

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Stow-Away Travel Guitar

Review By:
Bubba-_pHPC
Bubba-_pHPC on 12/5/09 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Directly from Stewart Guitar Company
Price:
$499.00 USD
Features:
Standard Stow-Away (stock model -- no options added)
Action, Fit, & Finish:
Great action, fingerboard, and fretwork.
Sound Quality:
Reliability/Durability:
Heavily-used for 4 years.  After I broke a piece on the guitar myself, Woody mailed me a replacement free-of-charge.  That is unheard-of in today's world.  Exceptional service.
Ease of Use:
Customer Support:
See note above regarding Woody Stewart's accessibility and service.  Unparalleled.
Overall Rating:
I will likely buy several more of these guitars for an upcoming slate of gigs.
0 Comments Tags: tax#a brand#stewartguitarcompany

Stow-Away Travel Guitar

Review By:
Mark Grogan
Mark Grogan on 6/30/09 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Stewart Guitars, NC, USA
Price:
Features:
Mine is a Black Strat type model.  I have had it 4 years and it has been with me everywhere domestically and internationally.   This little guitar has everything for a travel guitar but I have taken it out and played with it live on the road.  It lacks nothing...It sets up and intonates perfectly, and with the quick lock neck mounting system you are just a few turns of the tuners from being set and ready to go.  I especially like tht neck pocket for keeping all the strings together and everything tidy when I travel.    The guitar also is pretty durable as I have taken to just shoving it in my carry-on bag as I also have a breifcase and a 3rd bag is taboo with the airlines these days.
Action, Fit, & Finish:
Woody Stewart is extremely conscientious about getting the little things right as evidenced by the micro tuning bridge...and his constant tweaking of things to improve on huis design as new technology / ideas become available
Sound Quality:
True Start sound and quality.    I've received many comments from other players about how great it sounds.   The guitar resontes really well and is NOT a practive quality guitar...this is the real deal.   I see guys lugging around the backpacker and others and I just do not get why you would do that.  I also carry a Korg PX4d (tuner and effect box) and I can get any sound I need.  Add my iPod into the Korg and I can listen to Kimmy Page and play along right in my hotel room at full brain expoding crank ...without disturbing the next room over.   Amazing
Reliability/Durability:
As I said before I do not treat this guitar nicely.  Sometimes when the stowaway is in my carry on it makes the bag too big to fit in the overhead.  I have ripped it out of there and thrown it as is in the bin so that I could get out of the aisle.  The guitar always comes back for more....Few scrapes and dings but that's character right?   Been adding stickers to it from wherever I travel.
Ease of Use:
Customer Support:
So after all this wear and tear - I finally got to a point where I thought it cold use the once over.  I sent Woody an email and he took it in and "modernized it" with a new piece for the top of the neck and replaced the whole tuning system with the updated system....a big help as the new system is a bit angled away from the body and easier to grip.  He also crowned and leveled frets, and set it up and reintonated it.   This guy sees all these guitars as his kids and services them all accordingly.  The charge....none.  hard to beat that service these days.
Overall Rating:
This is simple - if you travel and you need a REAL guitar....get one from Woody Stewart....it is the most incredible value in guitars period...not just travel guitars.   Thanks Woody!!
0 Comments Tags: tax#a brand#stewartguitarcompany

Stow-Away Travel Guitar

Review By:
paleolith
paleolith on 2/24/09 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Stewart Guitars
Price:
Features:
I'm another who's used one of Woody's guitars for a couple of years, but neglected to submit a review. Read on, you'll see why I decided to do so now. Red Stow-away, 2 years old, 22 frets, full Fender scale length (although the body itself is a bit smaller than a regular Strat). This is not one of Woody's hand-made items, it's the $499 ones (I get the impression that all or most of the reviews before mine were for the hand-made jobs). It has an amazingly nice rosewood fretboard: I've had or played many more expensive guitars with much more porous rosewood than this, which amazes me. I'd describe the neck itself as an oval, but without the baseball-bat connotations of that term. Pickups are fine, but nothing special. The Clip-Joint is just astounding. If you love stuff that was made right the first time (Fender Tele, Colt 45 1918, etc) you'll love this feature. It takes a few runs to unconsciously navigate around a corner on the clip joint, but after that you honestly don't even notice it unless you're doing that big ol' D-to-E bend on Gilmour's solo in Money.
Action, Fit, & Finish:
Set-up, intonation etc. perfect. Had problem with a saddle, Woody sent me one immediately. Remember, this is 2 years ago. Also, remember this is not a hand-made model. Bearing that in mind... Over the last couple of years, I decided the fret ends were too sharp, and that the barrel tuners were a real pain to tighten as time went on. I adjusted to both, never thought of complaining  or asking that they be "fixed", as I still thought I got my money's worth. Had a problem for a while with fret buzz on frets 1 and 2, found that screws were working loose on "headstock", fixed in 5 minutes with toothpicks in the holes, all is good. Finally, one of the barrel tuners broke or stripped, so I emailed Woody asking if he had an upgraded model of tuner (which I was happy to pay for) so I could replace the one that broke with one that was easier to use. We talked back and forth for a while about my other niggling issues over the last couple of years. So... I shipped the guitar to Woody. He replaced the old tuners, installed a special shim, dressed and leveled the frets, cut, re-drilled, dowelled, etc the headstock for a complete repair, fixed a body ding I did not know I even had, drilled out the string holes to increase performance, repaired a nick in the fretboard, did complete setup, shipped it back to me at no cost. He only had it about a week. He apologized for taking so long!
Sound Quality:
Typically run it through Pandora unit to headphones when traveling, or Pandora into Peavey Backstage practice amp when home. Under these conditions, the guitar has no particular "sound", as it's being washed through digital models and tiny speakers. When I run through a real amp, I am astounded at how rich the sound is considering the body is slightly undersized and has a big channel cut right into it to stow the neck. This guitar made me appreciate how important the neck of a guitar actually is to tone. This thing sounds loads better acoustically than it has any right to.
Reliability/Durability:
Solid as a rock, except for headstock issue mentioned above.
Ease of Use:
Customer Support:
This is why I took time to write this. Look, my opinion is that this is the best travel guitar out there (and I'm one of those compulsive guys who looks at all options), but even if it were not I'd recommend it because of the pride of the individual human being behind it. I've dealt with good customer service from larger companies (Mesa/Boogie), smaller shops (Keeley Electronics), and I really love them both. But what Woody does, and his pride in how his work reflects on him, are just extraordinary. If you have a problem, he wants it fixed probably more than you do!
Overall Rating:
Played 35 years, seriously for 5-6. Down to one other electric, a Tom Anderson drop-top. Mesa-Boogie 5:25. Some stomp-boxes, from off-the- shelf Boss to Roger Mayer.
0 Comments Tags: tax#a brand#stewartguitarcompany

Stow-Away Travel Guitar

Review By:
Paul-YX.yf
Paul-YX.yf on 3/8/08 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Stewart Guitar Company
Price:
Features:
I should have put something here before this because Woody Stewart and his products deserve the attention. I am an acoustic guitar player of many years who happens to travel for a living; I mean, all airplanes, all the time. I wanted something I could have with me in the endless hotel rooms that are surrounded by freeways on all sides. Like others here, everything available was really not appropriate for constant travel. The stowaway was the FIRST and ONLY product to truly solve the problem.  It fits in a large computer bag with my computer and a ton of other stuff.  I bought the bag at a retail store so I could carry more.  I slide the travel bag over the top of my roll aboard suitcase and as I stroll and roll down the airport concourse, no one can tell that I am "packing". The guitar goes right through airport security and does not have to be removed for inspection.  Most of the time the screeners don't even comment on it, they can see that it is "just" a guitar. Once in my room, I pull it out and I have the thing ready to play in about one minute.  I use a little headset amp with a short power cord and the headsets of my mp3 player.  It's perfect.  The strings require just a bit of tuning which is not a problem at all.  My laptop takes me to a "get tuned" website and I am at pitch in moments. Once you are up to speed with this guitar, you will wonder what the heck you ever did without it. I had some difficulties learning the ins and outs in the beginning.  I was not even an electric guitar player so I had no feel for the strat model.  But I am sure catching on now and others tell me that my Stewart is right up there with other strats. There is a learning curve with assembling the neck correctly and quickly and then learning how to change the strings.  I struggled at first.  You MUST follow the directions very carefully until you have the procedure down pat.  For example, when I first pulled the neck out of it's stowage channel on the back of the guitar, I dropped it so that the neck passed in between the strings.  This tangled the strings and the strings had to be removed and restrung.  That was a hassle, but it was my fault.  Once you learn to hold the strings as you take the neck on/off, this never happens. I also didn't understand at first that once the "clip joint" is attached, it is still important hold the neck back with pressure as the thumb-screws are tightened.  Failure to do this affects the action up the neck.  Once I learned to do this, I have found that the Stewart action is excellent all the way up and very comparable to strats in general.  So again, problem was my fault.
Action, Fit, & Finish:
Very well made as far as my limited expertise can judge. Arrived in perfect condition and all problems were my own user error. As I said, the action was great once I learned to put it together correctly. Bless patient Woody Stewart's heart for putting up with my inquiries in the meantime.
Sound Quality:
It took me awhile to start to get the feel of a strat after years of acoustic fingerstyle playing.  Now my only regret is that I did not start sooner. The stowaway is a real strat with all the pickups and conrols except for a whammy bar.  It is really fun to play and I was missing out previously. I bought a little practice amp for home now because I am finding it so much fun to play.  I will never again be just an acoustic player
Reliability/Durability:
This guitar is solid and well made, especially for the price. I am carrying it every day and it is obviously made to do exactly that.
Ease of Use:
Customer Support:
Woody Stewart is a class act.  He is a genius for inventing this thing.
Overall Rating:
If you are a traveler and you don't have this guitar, what are you waiting for? You are missing valuable hours of music enjoyment.
0 Comments Tags: tax#a brand#stewartguitarcompany

Stow-Away Travel Guitar

Review By:
Vince-muF5w
Vince-muF5w on 2/19/08 1:00 AM
Reviewer Background:
Purchased From:
Stewart Guitar Company
Price:
Features:
After spending many years flying multiple times per week for my job, I had a dream:  Maybe I could pass a lot of those boring hotel evenings by playing a good electric guitar, through a Presonus Inspire ADC, a Cubase DAW, a Guitar Rig VST, and Shure E4 headphones.  My Stewart Stow-Away travel guitar completed that dream for me.  I have had it for about a year, and it looks exactly like the black version shown on the Stewart Guitar website.  It has the three passive single coil pickups, and I also had the 13-pin Graph Tech saddles-plus-Ghost/Accoustiphonic setup built into it when it was made.  I also have the neat little chromatic LED tuner display built into the top side of the top body horn (arm?), so that I can see my tuning by glancing down, even in the dark.  Bottomline, the Stewart Guitar Company's removable neck device is the feature that makes all the difference.  This device, called the Clip-Joint, appears to me to be the only way to make a travel guitar that hits all of my requirements - right weight, good balance, full neck scale, tiny travel size, and reasonable price.  I looked at most of the other travel guitars, including the following: Erlewine Chiquita and Laser, Chrysalis Guitar, Etribe Travel Guitar, Fernandez Nomad, Guitaround Enterprises Guitaround and Ra-Guit, PalmGuitar, Risa Musical Instruments Guitarlele, Traveler Guitars Pro Series and Speedster.  Some have odd dimensions and configurations, with short-scale necks and strange body shapes that, to me, just do not feel and play like a normal electric guitar.  Some of the others are outrageously expensive.  I wanted both my guitar and laptop to easily fit in the smaller regional jets as carry-on, and only the Stow-Away could do that well. I actually used one of my business trips to drive out to see Woody Stewart at his facility in North Carolina, and when I tried one of his guitars, it was clear I had found the one.  Watching a great-playing full-sized 25.5" scale guitar disassemble to fit inside 18" x 13" x 3" briefcase, in only a few seconds, was quite a magic show. Perhaps the only feature that the Stow-Away did not have is a tremolo mechanism.  At that time, Woody could not find a tremolo assembly that would fit with the Stow-Away design and price parameters.  The Stewart Road-Runner model can accommodate this, but I wanted the smallest travel size possible.  I do not really need a whammy bar on my travel instrument, so this was not a big deal to me.
Action, Fit, & Finish:
The Clip-Joint device is made by a precision machining outfit, to tight tolerances.  The resulting neck-to-body union appears to me to be at least as rigid as the traditional bolt-on technique (and probably more rigid). Though the neck is headless, unlike the similarly-designed Steinberger, it does not require those special strings with balls at both ends.  Instead, the un-balled end of a standard string runs through holes in a custom neck cap that has set screws to lock down the string.  Rather than have sharp strings stick out the top of the neck cap, the string-hole exits are recessed, so that the excess string can be nipped off below the surface — a very nice touch.  I wondered if the string-tuning slipped a bit on re-assembly, but as the free end of the string is locked, strings (that are not too new) do not require much re-tuning after travel.  There are three strap buttons on the guitar, with two at the bottom, as "feet", which is convenient, as travelers like me will not be toting a guitar stand.  As I had the opportunity to visit Woody Stewart's shop, I can report that it to be set up very well, with jigs and templates to ensure that all his guitars were executed within tight parameters.  The Clip-Joint mounts such that all aspects of his guitar line-up nicely.  The guitar plays amazingly well for this price point and travel configuration.  It was shipped to me with excellent low action and played effortlessly.  Even though I found nothing to complain about when it arrived, I am not an expert at judging how well a guitar is set up, so I took it in to one of the better guitar shops in my area to see if they could make it even better.  The shop gave it back untouched, saying that they could not improve on the excellent setup. Woody's guitars also look as beautiful as they perform.  He does most of the work himself, which raises the level of craftsmanship beyond that of overseas manufacturers.  No, it does not out-shine my high-dollar PRS in looks and playability, but anyone comparing the two would think that the Stewart Stow-Away is much closer in cost to the PRS than it is.  The pictures on Woody's web site do not do his work justice.  He can produce a range of finishes, from superb natural woods, to striking glossy colors.  His hardware looks like it is top notch.
Sound Quality:
I was afraid that the bolt-on neck and heavily-routed body would lack sustain and warmth, but this is definitely not the case.  It sounds great, with lots of warmth and sustain.  I have only used humbuckers on my other guitars (PRS and Gibson), but the tone from these single-coils sound good to me.  I can dial in just about any sound I want from them anyway with the simulators and effects that I use.  The Graph Tech unit also adds some great sounds, and guitar synth possibilities.  I am thinking of switching to humbuckers, however, as I never really get use to the extra noise factor from single-coils. 
Reliability/Durability:
This guitar can serve my guitar needs anywhere I would like to use it.  I would not hesitate to gig with it (if I was gigging these days).  Before my recent PRS purchase, I had started using the Stow-Away as my primary at-home guitar (versus my Gibson).  It is built well enough for constant travel, but should be protected.  The guitar comes with a soft travel case that will protect the finish in travel.  The case is not very large, but I save even more space by putting the guitar in a rubbery computer sleeve for a 17 inch display laptop, and sliding the sleeve into my business laptop backpack.
Ease of Use:
Customer Support:
Woody Stewart is an interesting and rather nice fellow.  Some of his background is in engineering for the military, and he displays certain qualities and talents which might not be found in other guitar builders.  It explains why his operation is so well organized, why his instruments are well-engineered, and why he has a perfectionist approach. His handling of the customer service aspects of his business is as good as it gets.  While he can not build massive volumes (so you have a wait period to get a guitar), he does respond quickly and effectively to questions and issues. While it is not the fault of Stewart Guitar, I did have the Graph Tech electronics fail on me.  It worked fine when I received the guitar, but seemed to simply fall apart after several months due to manufacturer defects.  I just received a replacement from Graph Tech, and hope that it works better going forward.  Their responsiveness, while not bad, was not as good as Woody's.
Overall Rating:
I have shown it off to my friends, and they are all amazed and envious.  When I travel with business associates, they often ask if they can borrow it for an evening on the road.  It was a great acquisition, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to do it in the road. The only thing that I wish I could improve is the wait period to get one of these made, but that is the price for any fine item that is to be built by a craftsman.  Since it is a travel guitar, it might be a good idea someday to offer a built-in ADC interface with a simple FireWire or USB connection to a computer (I also use a PocketPod).  I would also love to see Woody's Clip-Joint become a standard feature that you can order from any guitar manufacturer.  Keep it up Woody (hmmm, maybe that doesn't sound quite right???)!
0 Comments Tags: tax#a brand#stewartguitarcompany
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