What's the best for winter travel?

[WilliamScott]

We are about to do some road tripping between the upper mid-west and Canada during Christmas week. I'll be gigging with some old pals at New Year's so I'll need to take a guitar. I'll be able to take the guitar inside every night and will be playing with some other folks along the way. I'm worried about cold weather damage. It will be cold for sure. Anyways, the question is which guitar has the better chance of surviving this. I could take a telecaster or an ES-175. Solid body or hollow-body? I like playing the ES-175 a little bit more than the tele but don't want to damage it.

[Dave70]

Tele of course.

[nyc chaz]

A solid body guitar like the Tele would always be a better choice in my opinion.

[WilliamScott]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure the Tele would fare better. I'm hoping to hear that the ES-175 should be fine if I take it in from the car every night, but probably a better idea to take the tele...

[Cunamara]

While I would always tend to take one of my solidbody guitars when traveling rather than an archtop, especially with temperature changes, the ES-175 is pretty much a road warrior among archtops. I might be more concerned about damaging the nitro cellulose finish than actually damaging the structure of the guitar.

And, when it gets down to it, the Fender Telecaster is a far easier thing to replace than a Gibson ES-175. You can get a Telecaster basically anywhere if it were somehow to go missing on your travels. On the other hand, in my metropolitan area of almost 3 million people, I am not aware of a single Gibson ES-175 for sale.

[Woody Sound]

Just be sure to give it time to acclimate to temp/humdy changes. Don't open it up dead cold into a warm room. And vv.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure the Tele would fare better. I'm hoping to hear that the ES-175 should be fine if I take it in from the car every night

The bigger risk is what you do with it during the day. Leaving a guitar in a car trunk in subfreezing temperatures for hours before bringing it into a warm room and opening the case without at least a few hours to rewarm slowly is a recipe for trouble. So is taking it out of a warm room, putting it into the trunk, and letting it go from 70F to 35F and back several times in a week - even if it never leaves the case. Even rapid swings of 20 to 25 degrees F can probably cause finish checking.

I’m sorry to be another voice in the choir, but Tele it is. Have a great holiday!

[marcwhy]

Do you typically gig with the tele? And as others are wondering, where will the guitar be when you stop for lunch, etc?
[If you take care of it, your 175 should be fine!]

[Sam Sherry]

You want the one with the poly finish, which in this pairing is the Tele.
And on NYE you want the one that's beer-proof, which in this pairing is the Tele.

Safe travels and Happy New Year!

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

you want the one that's beer-proof, which in this pairing is the Tele.

I've always found the backs of my Teles to be very useful for entertaining. In addition to being stellar beverage trays, they make great cutting and serving boards for cheese, bread, etc - and they're excellent surfaces for shaping pasta. On gigs, you can set your tip jar and business card holder on them. They're also great for fending off adoring fans.

[WilliamScott]

Tele it is. Thanks. It'll be in the trunk during lunch. Still don't know if I can afford multiple hours of acclimatization. We'll have to see.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Tele it is. Thanks. It'll be in the trunk during lunch. Still don't know if I can afford multiple hours of acclimatization. We'll have to see.

To be honest, I don't think solid bodies need hours of acclimatization if they're finished with a durable material like poly and they're not exposed to rapid and dramatic temp swings. I'm moderately careful with my solids, but I've left a few in a car trunk in weather ranging from a sunny 85+F to nocturnal 20F and below without a problem. Over the years, I've had a few Teles, 3 LPs, a Carvin 727, 2 Strats, a Mustang, 2 PRSs, a Kubicki, and a few others I can't remember. They've all been durable and reliable with far less attention and coddling than my archtops get.

We drove from Philadelphia to Key West and back with an Ibanez solid body and through a snowstorm from Boston to Philly with a Tele and my '57 Fiesta red P-bass in the trunk along with our luggage. Both survived their trips with no adverse effects. I picked up my Carvin new at the San Diego factory (in 1994 as I recall) and left it in the trunk of our rental car for a week before flying back to Philly with it in a gig bag, throwing it into our own car at the airport, and driving home in freezing weather. It was still in beautiful condition when I sold it to another JGO member a few years ago.

So I'd take the Tele, relax, and enjoy both the trip and the beautiful 175 waiting patiently for you at home.