No body, no problem – the Minicorda is a portable acoustic electric travel guitar with a hollow neck build

The Minicorda is a compact, nylon-string electro-acoustic travel guitar that’s just 19” long.

The instrument was designed by Augusto Filocamo and Diego Spina, who wanted a suitcase-size nylon-string that could still utilize regular tuning, but did not require any construction before use. 

The result is the Minicorda, which skips the body part of guitar design altogether and uses a hollow-neck design to create resonance.

“We learned guitar moves air that is in touch with resonance surfaces,” Filocamo told MusicRadar. “We simply increased the size of the air-exposed surfaces. The neck of a 19” guitar is the guitar itself. So making it hollow was the answer.”

Though it creates very little sound when unplugged, inside the Minicorda is equipped with a Fishman Sonitone mic and preamp, which amplify the signals and send them to the line-out.

It’s constructed from “65 percent recycled materials," including aluminum and ABS polymer, and went through a reported 25 3D-printed prototype builds, testing for tone and durability, before Filocamo and Spina settled on their final design.

There have been a few concessions made in order to make things work with the all-neck design. Most significantly, the tuning mechanism, which requires the use of a hex key. 

In addition, the Minicorda also requires a heavier sixth string, (0.04 thicker than a usual low E) to be precise, which is widely available, but not necessarily in pre-packaged form.

These niggles aside, the Minicorda could be a tempting proposition for the nylon-string guitar player who needs to pack light. 

The Minicorda has a price of $270 (with free worldwide shipping). Head to the Minicorda site for more information.