Small but perfectly credible, the Carry-On is a fun little guitar that's dead serious when it comes to practice. This and the Fly 3 makes a great little on-the-go practice rig.
Pros
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Simple design, well-executed.
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Very portable, uke-sized proportions.
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More than respectable tones for practice.
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Good value.
Cons
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Not much but it lacks a little bite.
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In what is probably the most hopeful product launch of 2021 so far, Blackstar has announced the Carry-On travel guitar. It’s certainly a forward-thinking introduction and here’s hoping we’ll be able to travel somewhere before the end of the year! Timing aside, the Carry-On is a credible example of the downsized travel guitar.
Designed in the UK by Blackstar in association with the master luthiers at Gordon Smith Guitars, and made in China, it’s certainly small, centring on a 527mm (20.7-inch) scale length and a ukulele-sized body that measures approximately 211mm across the lower bouts; body depth is 39.5mm.
It has a natural matt finish to the back, sides and neck, and the top is not only glossed (in a choice of Vintage White, as here, and Black) but also bound with a tortoiseshell-like plastic. The same plastic is used to bind the fingerboard and around the lightly back-angled headstock, which features full-sized enclosed tuners.
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(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
Overall length is 747mm and it weighs just 1.79kg. The Carry-On is made from okoume and has a 19-fret laurel fingerboard. The fret gauge falls into medium-to-jumbo territory and the fret tops are pretty well-fettled, the fret ends actually sitting over the edge binding.
Despite the reduced scale-length and the miniature size, the neck is actually full size with a conventional nut width that measures 43.43mm and a neck width of 52.2mm by the 12th fret. The well-shaped full C profile has a depth of 20.2mm at the 1st fret and 23mm by the 10th fret, before the neck curves into a pretty classic domed heel.
Clearly, then, this is a set-neck guitar, the neck joining the single-cut body just past the 15th fret. The string gauge is heavier than you might be used to (0.012 to 0.054), but this extra weight compensates for the short scale, even though the perceived tension veers on the slightly floppier side.
That said, with regular string spacing (35mm at the nut, 51.5mm at the tune-o-matic bridge) it really plays rather well and there’s even a wheel-style truss-rod adjuster at the base of the neck to ensure the optimum setup, while the strings are anchored through the body in offset Tele-style ferrules.
Sound-wise, it does sound like an electric guitar – certainly good enough for practice. There’s not excessive bite, you’ll find a reasonable depth to the voice, the coil-split is rather good and the volume and tones work effectively. Pint-sized but pokey!
Specs
(Image credit: Future / Phil Barker)
PRICE: £419
TYPE: Singlecut travel guitar
BODY: Okoume
NECK: Okoume (body and neck one piece)
FINGERBOARD: Laurel
FRETS: 19
SCALE: 20.7" (527mm)
PICKUPS: Mini-humbucker
CONTROLS: Volume w/ coil-split, tone
EXTRAS: BlackstarFly 3 Bluetooth Mini Amp [deluxe package; Fly 2 headphones amp with standard], premium gig-bag, strap, 3x medium-gauge picks, travel notebook and mechanical pencil
Dave Burrluck is one of the world’s most experienced guitar journalists, who started writing back in the '80s for International Musician and Recording World, co-founded The Guitar Magazine and has been the Gear Reviews Editor of Guitarist magazine for the past two decades. Along the way, Dave has been the sole author of The PRS Guitar Book and The Player's Guide to Guitar Maintenance as well as contributing to numerous other books on the electric guitar. Dave is an active gigging and recording musician and still finds time to make, repair and mod guitars, not least for Guitarist’s The Mod Squad.
