Travis Bean Artist

Serial # 1068 I bought it used in 1979 for $1000.00 It is koa with a flame under the bridge about 3/4 of the way down. Schaller tuners. A beautiful guitar.

Sound is rich, full, as sweet as honey, as nasty as necessary.
Mesa Boogie DC-5 1 x 12 Celestian w/mesa engineering 2 x 12 speaker cab, monster cable jazz 20' cord.
It's silent when not being played
Very rich/full sound plays like a dream
It can be used for everything from Country, to Grundge, Bop to Slop

Bought it used in pristine condition
Flawless

I've had it since 1979 and it is still as good as the day I bought it

I've played every day and many a night for over 40 years. This guitar is not replacable.
The only problem with it is it's heavy! That has come in handy from time to time when playing in rowdy clubs.
It cannot be compared with any other guitar.

Thin-line Artist with natural Koa body and ebony fretboard with Gibson style controls and two TB humbuckers circa 1976. Neck is car-painted black and is slick and of course is all aluminum thru-body, with pickups mounted to the neck. Fretboard is flat. Body is thinner than a fender. Made in California.

Cleaner than clean as I ever knew it before owning this instrument.
Pickups are blistering hot so it overdrives something fierce with a distortion/ high gain as with a Mesa Mark IV
Very quiet with unusually long sustain
Not at all muddy like a les paul, almost like a single coil that doesn't hum!

A very high end guitar with a beautiful design and swiss-like precision workmanship. Flawless execution. Low action since neck doesn't move.

No problems could be expected with this baby. Finish is sensitive so you want to avoid bar patrons throwing drinks around. no backup required at gigs.

Bean is out of business for many years.

Playing for 35 years. Wish I had this puppy earlier. All round great for very clean and very dirty with comical sustain. Great looking and a reall conversation piece to boot
Remarkable because most truly great guitars come in 3 flavors: fender, PRS and old gibsons. Didn't know there is a 4th until I bought this Travis Bean Artist.

1978 TRAVIS BEAN ARTIST. In 1978, i walked into a music store and found a brand new Travis Bean Artist for sale in a "Green Tag sale" for $500.00. I immediately flew to the bank and went back to the store the next day before it opened. When the store opened, the guitar was gone. It had been sold just after I left! The owner said he had another one, used, if I was interested. It was a little beat up, but played perfectly. we settled on a price of $380.00 with original case and I was off. It is serial number 1022.
It is the typical 22 fret aluminum neck with a Koa body. The lacquer was checked in a few spots, but no too bad. The two TB humbuckers are so powerful and clean that my amp (a Peavey Vintage actually overloaded at low volume). I was after the Jerry G. clean sound. I found a used Hiwatt combo w/ 2-12's and the guitar and amp combination sounded perfect. This is my present setup with the addition of an old Fender Reverb.
The guitar is a no frills deal set up like a LP and its 3 basic tones are plenty. I experimented with turning off each pick up by turning down its respective volume controlwhile leaving the selector switch in the middle position, and found even more tones.
One day, I called Travis Bean and spoke to Marc McElwee to discuss whether the pick ups could be re wired for single coil/HB. He explained that they were epoxy potted and it was impossible. He offered to sell me custom units he set up for this for $75.00 a pair.
Unfortuneately, this never materialized.
Six months later, I took the guitar apart to refinish it. It is now a beautiful Dark Green-Gray metallic IMRON finish. I made a set of polished stainless steel knobs with brass inserts and a matching switch handle.
The guitars always plays in tune (after the neck warms up) and the bridge never has to be adjusted. Action is low and clean. The Schaller tuners are nice and smooth with virtually no "play". I love the wide, flat neck. It makes it easy to articulate individual notes and chords.

The sound is CLEAN and bright. In the middle position, it is a great rhythm sound. It is similar to the LP/SG sound, but much more open and airy. The neck pickup has tons of bottom end and remains open and airy. The treble pickup position can scream while remaining super clean. There is never a problem with muddiness or frequency loss. Although it is a very basic 2 pick up arrangement, the high quality wiring and components keep the sound fresh and never boring. The use of quality film capacitors and 500K pots indicate attention to detail. All wiring is seems to with MIL spec.

The quality is superb. It is quite obvious that these guitars are individually constructed. The engineering of design and close tolerances speak for themselves. Only the best materials were used. Hawaiian KOA is a very dense and expensive wood. The Reynolds aluminum neck is a masterpiece of machune work. coup[led with the high grade electrical components, this thing is HEAVY. You could probably drop it off a 4-story building, pick it up and it would play in tune.

The fact that this guitar is is over 25 years old and plays perfectly is proof of its reliability. None of the components are showing any age. To this day, I use it exclusively (except when I go acoustic) is a testament to its reliability. I have no desire to use another electric unless I can find another Bean.

I only dealt with the factory once, to get new pick ups, and there was a glitch, but no fault can be assigned. Unfortuneately, they don't exist today or I'd consider buying a new one.

I've been playing on and off for 30 years, and although I'm not the greatest, I hold my own. I particularly do the "Bob Weir rhythm thing". If it "got gone" for some reason, I'd search high and low for another one. Sometimes I wish it could split the coils and change phase, but that is only a minor inconvenience. I forget all about that once I plug in and play.
Interestingly enough, I have gotten so used to the large neck, that when I went shopping for an acoustic, I bought a Taylor because they offered a very similar neck sizing as an option.
Overall, the guitar is very expensive, but you get what you pay for.
I can see why the company no longer exists. I'm sure very few people would pay upwards of $6,000.00 for a new one. I probably would.