I've had one for quite sometime. Oddly they first were sold for over $600 from MF back in the mid 90s. The first one I got was defective (trem was installed off angle and rubbed against side of body cavity - also had some white paint splatter on it) so I sent it back. At that time I decided I'd pursue "the real thing" but I found they were no longer in production and hard to find. Glad I never found one because there's better ways to spend that much money. Anyway, some time later I found the Spirits being sold by Music Yo for $250 so I decided to take another try. The 2nd one didn't have any of the flaws of the first one.
Anyway, I find the trem hard to use, so I generally just lock it. But for what you're thinking, I think they are the perfect travel guitar. I used to take mine with me too to conferences, with a reverb pedal and a battery amp so I could noodle around in my hotel room. They are very solid so you don't have to worry about them much. I upgraded the EMG Selects (that were used at the time) with DiMarzio Virtual PAF, VirtuAL 2, and Tone Zone. I also had coil tap added by Randy Parsons in Seattle (same luthier in the movie "It Might Get Loud") When I picked it up, Randy was kind enough to say that he decided it was a worthwhile project (which I appreciated) but I'm good at reading between the lines so I could deduce that he must have thought I was a bit crazy when I brought that project to him.
Point of the story, although it did add more presence, if I had it over to do again, I would just leave it stock. There's not a lot of depth to the tone in a paddle shaped maple body so it doesn't do the upgraded pickups justice, and the EMG Selects just had enough "blandness" to them that they masked the guitars lack of depth. Played with some OD/distortion the stock p'ups would have been fine, but I was really into clean tones back then.
Bottom line, yeah, I think they are an excellent travel guitar and hopefully they make them a bit better these days too. I like the looks of the Yin Yang model they now offer.
