One of the best sounding travel guitars we've tried is Yamaha's Silent Guitar, which offers a choice of modeled simulated tones or piezo-sourced sounds routed to headphones or an external amp. It doesn't have its own amp and speakers built-in though, like, say, a Vox Apache. And there's no Lineage-like smartphone integration to mix in some digital effects. In fact, you might struggle to find all three in one instrument. Unless you stumble across the Fusion Guitar from Melbourne, Australia-based designer and guitarist Dave Auld, which combines an iPhone dock, amplifier, battery and speakers in one futuristic-looking axe.

"The three biggest barriers to taking up electric guitar are price, tuition and convenience," said Auld. "I realized that technology was now available to solve all three. High tech manufacturing can bring the cost down, internet based lessons and demos make learning easy and fun, and battery technology can make a full guitar setup portable."

The Fusion Guitar boasts interchangeable docks, making it currently compatible with iPhone 5 and 5s, and 6 and 6s, as well as the fifth generation iPod touch, with a future proof promise from the makers to support upcoming generations of Apple devices. Its integrated Lightning connector caters for both data communication and smart device charging while docked, and as the player looks down on the smart device, it's said to be a good fit for learning following onscreen video instructions. However, a docked iPhone will continue to operate as a phone while sitting in the Fusion Guitar, so players are advised to put it into Airplane Mode while jamming.