There are a lot of travel guitars on the market nowadays, and some pretty good ones too - if you just want to strum-on. But you may find it problematic to seriously practice on the move since none of these guitars reproduce the actual posture and neck feel of a real acoustic guitar, let alone a gypsy jazz guitar. You may be able to practice but on an instrument so different to your actual concert guitar that you will probably find it difficult to readjust later.

It was with this dilemma in mind that Bar Zalel asked me to build a travel practice guitar. The guitar had to reproduce the posture and neck ergonomics of the 14-fret D hole gypsy jazz guitar that I built for him early last year, but it also had to be easily transportable on his back without a case and silent enough not to disturb anyone standing close by.

The SNCF model (named after the french rail company... hope I wont get sued for that!) matches exactly these requirements. It has 670 mm scale and it reproduces the neck angle and body ergonomics of a full size gypsy jazz guitar. The guitar has been shortened by removing the headstock from the neck and by trimming the body right behind the bridge. The strings wrap around the back with the tuners fitted on either side of the body central part. The guitar is fitted with a bridge transducer so it can be played through an amp or headphone pre-amp. The SNCF can be upgraded with a magnetic pick-up right behind the neck that will give it an electric edge (it's up to you to do whatever you want with that....). The frame can be also be removed to make it even easier to carry around or to store.

But one thing I want to make clear... it doesn't shoot bullets.