The Portable Junk Guitar

For those of you that play guitar or are into the manic shredding stylings of Steve Vai, you might be familiar with this guitar:

The hole in the body there is a handle. A while ago I got my hands on an old beat-up classical guitar and messed around with it a bit, namely adding a handle of my own. Think of it as an acoustic take on the JEM up there. Sort of a traveling hobo thing.

There’s the handle.

…and there are some slightly silly things I drew on the front with permanent marker.

It’s a cute idea, but not without its disadvantages. Some might point out that it’s more likely to get damaged, but I’d be more concerned with the idiot-with-a-guitar-in-public effect. One must strike a fine balance when carting this instrument around. Quads of any sort must be avoided, aviator sunglasses shunned. Anything by Oasis is strictly off-limits (as if it ever wouldn’t be).

Still, maybe I’ll venture outside with it at some point.

It’s a surprisingly nice-sounding guitar, considering I think I paid less than fifty dollars for it and broke the neck shortly thereafter. The sound is deep and sonorous, if a bit dull. The action of the strings is incredibly high, making it somewhat difficult to play, but it adds to its crappy charm.