Many people ask about my little headless, bodiless, nylon-string guitar, also known as my Guitette. It's about as small as a full scale (string length) guitar can be. It was made for me by Jack Spira (http://www.jackspiraguitars.com) and after much discussion, we'd come up with pretty much this design. But then I discovered a similar thing on the net, http://www.travelerguitar.com . After I found out they didn't make a left handed version of what I wanted (and thinking we could do better anyway!), Jack agreed to make it for me. And he did so with great aplomb, with little handmade wheels (to pass the strings over the end to where the tuners are underneath), a Baggs Elements bridge pickup and a delightful bull oak 24 fret fingerboard! I've done a few modifications, like moving the strap pin onto the neck for better balance and sponge underneath to stop slipping. Otherwise it's brilliant and sounds fabbo. I've always thought that once you're using the pickup, a guitar body's resonance often just gets in the way! I use a plastic stethoscope, rubber banded to the nut, for private listening. Oh, and I've rejigged my trombone case to fit not only my trombone and slide trumpet, but also my little guit!
2018 update: The little nylon wheels Jack made were grand, but they'd always needed help in turning whilst tuning. I know Jack had never been quite satisfied with the situation and for more than a decade, I'd oft pondered on how I could ameliorate it. Well, in April 2018, I was in Metro Hobbies https://metrohobbies.com.au with my nephews and I saw a rack of spare bearings made for RC cars... ahhh! After a week of more focussed pondering, I returned and bought the appropriate bearings for a mere $20 for 8. The holes in the bearings were too small for the axle, so I put it in a drill and ground it against a brick (yes, a brick) until it was the perfect snug fit. That took a while! Then I drilled out the nylon wheels so the bearings would fit inside: This was tricky, as nylon is flexible and vices, pliers and drill bits are not. All was fine until the last of the six wheels split and needed an Araldite repair and very careful final drilling. Once all snugly aligned, the bearings were Supaglued into the wheels. I then filed the wheels thinner, as they had originally rubbed side to side too much. The wheels had also rubbed slightly against the body of the guitar. And because the axle was now thinner, the holes in the cradle were too big. So I found a metal washer that was the right thickness to fill the gap in the cradle holes and cut it in two and bent each half into the holes (with some Bluetac!) to push the axle further from the guitar body. I then found a Bic pen whose tube neatly fitted the axle and I cut and filed spacers from it to fit between the wheels and also within the sides of the cradle (with a notch there to allow for the bent washers). Due to the string angles from the bridge, over the wheels to the tuners, the 2 groups of 3 wheels had to be as close to the cradle edges as possible. After much finessing and self doubt, I fitted it all together with a final satisfying tap of a hammer to push the axle snugly into the opposite cradle hole. Done! I then strung it up and who woulda thunk it... it works! I do still reach for the wheels out of habit whilst tuning, but it's no longer necessary. Woo hoo!
Note the bent half of a washer used to secure the axle (a tad further from the body).
Underside view with spare bearings. The Little Guit in action in Berlin 08