The actual kit that went around the world in the World in Six Strings footage. Sixteen months, twelve locations, about $900 all in.
This is the actual kit that went around the world in the World in Six Strings footage: a Taylor GS Mini-e Rosewood, its stock gig bag, a rechargeable Snark tuner, D'Addario EJ17 strings, a Kyser capo, a Dunlop glass slide, and a clip-on phone holder picked up on the road in Uruguay. Sixteen months, twelve locations, no roadie and no humidity gear. About $900 all in, and $799 of that is the guitar.
In early 2025 I bought a small travel guitar and it spent the next sixteen months traveling with my family through Costa Rica, Greece, Uruguay, Argentina, Spain and Japan. Everywhere we went, I handed it to whoever would play it. All of it was filmed, and it is becoming World in Six Strings.
People keep asking what the kit was. This is it, every item, with what actually happened to each one. Nothing on this page is here because it converts. It is here because it went.
This is my second GS Mini. The first, a walnut one, earned the trust at home. They play far above their size and the volume surprises people every time someone picks one up expecting a toy. When the 50th Anniversary rosewood came out in sunburst I bought it at Fullers Guitar in Houston, and it got the passport. Sixteen months, twelve locations, handed to street players, luthiers and strangers at beach bars. It never once felt like the compromise piece of gear on the trip.
Mine is the 50th Anniversary edition, which sold out. If you want that exact one, the used market has a couple at a premium and they are worth watching for. The readily available version is the current GS Mini-e Rosewood at the link above, the same instrument without the anniversary label.
And if you have a shop like Fullers near you, buy it there. Support local. The links are for everyone who does not.
The soft case in every airport shot is the structured gig bag Taylor ships with the guitar. It fit every overhead and every rental car trunk for sixteen months, and it worked great. You do not need to buy a case.
If you want more protection there is a real upgrade in Taylor's AeroCase, but I traveled the stock bag and it did the job.
Snark is king. One unit made the entire trip clipped to the headstock or loose in the bag pocket, and the rechargeable version means you stop feeding it button cells forever. It charges over micro USB, one more cable in the pouch, and worth it.
Restrung twice on the road, once in Punta del Este and once in Granada. Here is what nobody tells you: outside the US, steel string selection can be thin. The racks lean nylon, especially in Spain. Both times the reliable find was D'Addario phosphor bronze, and the 13-56 set sounded right on the small body, so I stopped experimenting.
Practical tip: pack a spare set. The hunt for a string shop in a foreign town is a nice afternoon exactly once.
A perfect fit for the necks and fingerboards of acoustic six-string guitars. A snap to park on the headstock and then reposition between frets using just one hand.
One Kyser lived on the headstock. I carried a second, not for me but for the other guitar player. When you hand your guitar to someone in a town square and a second guitar appears, the spare capo is how you end up playing together instead of taking turns.
The glass slide earned its bag slot on stage at Estudio Padron in Estepona. Cheap, small, and the fastest way to change what the guitar can do mid set.
Somewhere in Punta del Este I bought a clip-on phone holder, and it earned its keep the rest of the trip. Lyrics, tuner apps, filming from the headstock side. This is the item I should have packed from home and did not think to. The one at the link is the well reviewed equivalent of the one I found abroad.
I carried no humidity protection for a rosewood back guitar through jungle, beach, desert and northern Europe winter heating. Zero issues. I am not telling you to skip it. I am telling you what actually happened, because this page only works if it is what actually happened.
The one thing I would add: a stand small enough to live in the gig bag pocket. I was weight conscious and skipped it, and spent sixteen months leaning the guitar against walls and chairs. At home I have used Fender's foldable stands and liked them, so that is where I would start, and it happens to be the cheapest of the three. The Hercules packs flat for a few dollars more, and the Cooperstand is the premium pocket-folding version of the same idea.
Usually, and in the US it is not up to the gate agent: the FAA Modernization Act requires US carriers to allow instruments as carry-on if they fit in the overhead, and a GS Mini in its gig bag fits. Abroad is where it gets interesting. British Airways cleared mine at the desk and fought it at the gate, twice, in both directions. Board early, know the carrier's written instrument policy, and be politely immovable.
I carried none through twelve locations and had zero issues. Your climate math may differ, but that is the honest data point from this trip.
Yes, but steel string selection is thin in a lot of countries and the racks lean nylon. D'Addario phosphor bronze was findable in both Uruguay and Spain. Pack a spare set anyway.
It played to a crowd on the town hall steps in Ermoupoli and to a full taverna after a Rebetiko set, unamplified. The volume for the size is the whole reason this body shape got the seat on the plane.
The actual kit that went around the world in the World in Six Strings footage. Sixteen months, twelve locations, about $900 all in.
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