I've been kicking this idea around for a little bit. Here's the problem: I like to travel light, and I play the piano. Solution: Learn guitar. However an ordinary guitar is on the large side, on the loud side, and not headphone-able for my suitemates' sanity. Travel guitars are expensive.

But what if I got this Martin backpacker steel string guitar? And then followed this Instructables tutorial to slap a disassembled piezo buzzer into the body as a cheap (yet supposedly still decent) pickup, leading to something like this Martin backpacker electric-acoustic, except that slapping in my own pickup wouldn't cost an extra $100. Use the money I saved to pick up a cheap amp.

Then if I have extra time and money, perhaps add in this kit which is a preamp with headphone output for $37. Or machine little attachable "wings" to fill out the Martin into a guitar that can actually sit on my lap, rather like this Aria Sinsonido travel guitar.

Essentially, for $50 worth of electronics and random material, transform a $160 Martin into a $340 Aria. The only thing I need to decide is whether I'll actually play it if I build it. No sense in building a guitar I'll play for a month and then abandon. I'm terrible at figuring out what I'm going to follow through on, which is making me more cautious now of what I say I'm going to do.