I think Foolestroupe's post at 15 Feb 07 - 07:30 p.m. is very much to the point re: loosening of strings and changing tension on the guitar. Several decades back, I left my good guitar at home while spending several months in another city (I took an inexpensive guitar with me). A bit new to guitars, I was advised by someone to loosen the strings if I was going to leave it in storage, so I did. When I got home and tuned the guitar up again, it never regained the rich quality of tone that it had before, and no, new strings didn't help. It sounded—okay—but it didn't have the vibrant sound it had before. It had gone sort of dead.

I have since been told—by a luthier—that that was the wrong thing to do. His advice was to leave keep a guitar at concert pitch, even if you're not going to play it for awhile (better still, loan it to someone you trust and have them play it while you're gone). He went on to say (and lots of folkies won't like or agree with this) that cranking a guitar's strings up and down for special tunings is definitely not good for a well-made guitar.

For travel purposes, I use one of these:   GO-Guitar. They're made by Sam Radding in San Diego, and their tone and volume is amazing for a soundbox their size. I have used mine in gigs in fairly sizable venues—and in one full-blown concert almost a year ago—and it did the job nicely. It sounded like a "real" guitar. Some folks thought it was a period instrument of some kind.

The only problem with the Go Guitar is that if you walk through an airport with one in its gig-bag, it looks like you're carrying a rifle. Bells ring, sirens go off, and you're surrounded by all these guys in uniform. . . .

Don Firth