Review : Journey OF422 Travel Guitar
NOTE : Some of the text in this review is identical to text in the review of the Journey OF660M for information purposes as not all readers read all the reviews
Hey folks, this is the second of three reviews of Journey Instruments Travel Guitars.
The OF442 is a travel guitar that comes in an overhead ready nicely padded case, where the guitar is made of a solid sitka spruce top over a solid pau ferro back and laminated pau ferro sides.
A Travel Guitar
A travel guitar is always going to be a collection of benefits and compromises. It’s going to be compact and transportable, but the offset to that is that it will not be as loud or perhaps as rich in the bottom end. That’s not a materials thing, it’s an acoustics thing. A travel guitar must be built to be able to get small, and that means some engineering to make that happen. Sometimes it means a shorter scale size, particularly since the maximum length of an overhead on an aircraft is already shorter than a common instrument scale length. This can be achieved with a short body, sort of, but then there is a comfort and playability compromise.
Most travel guitars are pickup based because body depth can be another problem relating to both sound and the viability of the neck joint. So some smart engineering is needed there as well if the thing is going to be reliable.
If the neck comes apart as part of the design, when reconnected, it must go back to the same action, string tension and usability every time, It also must provide for rapid tool free assembly and compaction. While these things may sound simple, they really aren’t simple at all.
Thus choosing to build a travel guitar is a decision fraught with challenges that are above and beyond building a compact guitar. And that requires innovation, engineering and attention to detail.
Or Is It Really Just a Travel Guitar?
More to come on that idea…
About Journey Instruments
Journey is a US company based in Texas with a building shop located in China. The team is small, but built of folks with massive expertise in their fields. They bring experience in carbon fibre weaves, engineering and hundreds of hours of research specifically focused on travel guitars. For this and the other two reviews, I will be looking at the Overhead Series, although there is a Puddlejumper Series which is collapsible and the Comfort Series which is not.
Travelling
I find it very annoying that what the instrument media refer to as travel guitars really aren’t. They are either ¾ body or small body, short scale options that will engender hostility at the gate at most airports. Having spent more than 3 million miles in the air. I have seen every size and shape of whatever attempt to be stuffed into the overhead bins on everything from full size aircraft to regional turboprops. Clearly many people have not figured out that you cannot fit 9 cubic feet of luggage into 4 cubic feet of constrained space. Most of what I see marketed as travel guitars will take up more space than typically allowed in an overhead and certainly would not fit under an airplane seat. Now if you take air travel out of the travel potential entirely that’s a different conversation, but the Journey Instruments were designed with air travel in mind. And as air travel continually degrades into a bovine boxcar experience with narrower seats, less legroom and less overhead space, those so called travel instruments could end up in the hold. We’ll call that sub-optimal and leave it at that. The Overhead series being reviewed here is built to go in the overhead compartment and not suck up so much space that you end up in a fist fight with a Karen.
The OF442
The OF442 is part of the Overhead series and is the closest thing to a traditional wood acoustic guitar. This model uses a solid sitka spruce top, with pau ferro sides and back. The back is solid and the sides are laminates and as discussed many times, there is no significant downside, but an upside in stability in the face of temperature and humidity variances.
The top is finished in a beautiful high gloss. The sides and back are done in a smooth matte finish. The back of the neck is similarly smooth and never gets sticky or gooey. The nut width is between a steel string and a wide classical, so string spacing is very comfortable and even big fingers can get in there easily. The OF442 is a steel string guitar, but for those who want nylon strings there is a nylon string version available called the OC520. There are a variety of different wood combinations available in the line with different model numbers.
The body is a 00 size and layout and there is nice shoulder bevel on the upper rear. More importantly to me, it has a regular scale length. In my test example, the upper lower bout is also relieved in a dish fashion to ease access to the upper frets, just as on the OF660M. Unfortunately this wonderful feature did not show in the factory photographs.
Unlike the carbon fibre OF660M, the soundhole is centered in the body as in a traditional acoustic guitar,
The frets are polished medium brass, the bridge is ovangkol and the saddle and nut are bone. The fretboard is ovangkol over a solid mahogany neck that is carbon fibre reinforced. The tuners are Journey branded locking tuners that are smooth and without lash. The factory installed strings are Elixirs.
This guitar includes a three contact sensor passive piezo pickup system that looks a lot like a K&K Pure Mini to me, but is most likely a clone of the well established K&K. Passive means no battery, but you will then want some way to control the output gain, either with a strap mounted preamp, or a volume pedal on the floor. To record, I ran the guitar directly into a Clarett 8+Pre and then chose a channel strip that I liked to deal with any piezo issues, The output uses a standard mono guitar cable.
The Overhead case is built specifically to hold the guitar when disassembled and is nicely padded and semi rigid, It has space for the guitar, some accessories like a tuner and capo as well as cables. There is a built in laptop sleeve that will hold a 14” laptop.
Assembly and Disassembly
The photo of the OF442 in the case shows that the strings don’t come off for travel. You detune the strings and follow the simple steps to remove the neck before putting it in the case. When you are ready to reassembly you reverse the process. The first time I did it, it took me about two minutes. Now that I know what I am doing, it is quicker. You don’t need all kinds of strength, endurance or agility but do make sure the strings are detuned to make the job easier.
Journey includes a printed Quick Start Guide page, and I have reproduced it here.
If the QSG makes it look incredibly easy, that’s because it is incredibly easy. What I really appreciate is that if you follow the instructions and tighten up the neck bolt, the action is nice and low and there is no fretting out. The truss rod is fully adjustable although I like carbon fibre because it is so darn stable.
While wood is more sensitive to temperature and humidity than carbon fibre, that the neck is carbon fibre reinforced, has a dual action truss rod and the sides are laminated, reduces my concerns with the guitar suffering due to changes in temperature or humidity. As with any guitar, when you go through changes like that leave the guitar in its case to acclimate to the new situation.
As the rear strap pin is also the output jack you run into the same problem as you find with all these things. My solution is an adapter from Music Nomad called the Acousti-Lok. I’ve written about them here. You remove the factory end cap and replace it with the Acousti-Lok. Now you have an endpin jack that is separate from a standard sized strap lug. Do you have to do this? No. But I always do, because I always use a strap.
Playability
As this is my second Journey, I arrived with some expectations based on the Carbon Fiber version. I tightened up the neck lock and then did the leg brace thing as in the document and got some more turns on the neck lock. This resulted in an action of about 2.2mm on the low E at the 12th. No rocking frets, and consistency in action between takedowns and reassembly.
One of my core tests of factory setup is whether it is simple to play an F barre chord at first position without massive hand strength. Piece of cake. I’ve watched more beginners find this to be a stop sign to playing than most anything else.
I expected the smaller body and narrower depth to be missing low end and to sound thin. In fact it is even louder and warmer than the carbon fibre version, and for my personal preference, while I think that the Carbon version is incredible for the investment, I preferred the sound of this guitar.. I got a nice wide range of tones from bright to deep and warm. The factory Elixirs are decent strings and while I would change them out if it were my guitar, the instrument is ready to play as it arrives.
The built in pickups sound just fine and as the contacts are place in body and not just under the saddle, the tonal range is quite good. Being not a lover of piezos, I would use an external preamp, or decent acoustic amp if needed, or run into an interface and use a channel strip but I can be a bit picky and believe that saner folks would be happy just the way the guitar comes.
I neglected to mention for the CF what is true for this one. At first tuning stability seems to be not there. However, after leaving the guitar fully assembled for a few hours and a couple of passes with my string stretcher, that “problem” proved not to be a problem at all.
Example Sounds
To get some quick samples of the sound of the guitar, I used its built in pickup system direct into a Clarett+ 8 Pre which feeds Logic Pro. I recorded the guitar completely dry, using the input level control on the Clarett to set my recording level. Once I had the basic track down, I then tried versions using different channel strips to determine what I liked best. In my preparation, I plugged the guitar directly into a LANEY A Series DUO and a AER Compact 60. Both have their own preamps and as usual, I prefer a preamp used with any piezo based acoustic guitar.
I played the progression and as noted recorded it raw. That’s the first pass. The second uses an Abbey Road TG12345 Channel Strip and a Fairchild 670 compressor. The third uses a UA LA-6176 Channel Strip. All are finalized with a Brainworx Masterdesk.
It is my contention that this small, massively portable guitar sounds great and will serve any person looking for a great playing, great sounding, easy to travel guitar. And perhaps more.
As noted for the OF660M, I have played other acoustic travel guitars. My first experience was with Martin’s Backpacker. The Backpacker looks more like a stick than a guitar but when it came out, it was the one to choose, although I never liked the sound. I found it lacking in the low mids and having no bass and did not like the neck. It felt to me then, and still does, like a low end guitar with a very expensive decal.
I own a Baby Taylor that I won at a Taylor event. I gave it to my daughter because it suits her playing activity and space considerations better. It would be tough to stuff it in an overhead compartment and while it is quite a bit less expensive than the Journey wood acoustics, is not a joy to play and the visible wood screws that hold the neck on from the front just cheapen the look and the feel.
Thus for me, the Journey is a far superior choice. It sounds like a proper wood guitar, fits well and it is a far better playing experience than anything else that I have had the opportunity to try.
The Or Is It Question
I’ve had a pretty serious health issue and so am moving a lot more slowly while I am recovering, which means that I am spending less time in the meat of the review playing, and that has caused me to ask a question. Can a travel guitar also be your main guitar?
For myself, perhaps not, because guitars are works of art to me (or the ones I keep are) and each has its own identity. But as any who know me will say, I’m not normal. For a lot of us, we love the playing experience, we love the joy that we get and the positivity that comes from playing a song that we like in a manner that sounds good to ourselves. We may also like just pulling a guitar out with friends, to play and sing, and contrary to popular photographic marketing that doesn’t always have to be around a campfire. My friend Ryan from The Arts Music Store hosts a monthly play along. It’s always packed with folks of all kinds of different skill levels. They show for the fun and camaraderie, not to show off their gear or their chops.
So can a travel guitar also be your main guitar? I think that is a personal question, but in my opinion as I work my way through the excellent Journey Instruments products that the answer could very well be yes. The OF442 is not folded up in its terrific little case. It’s sitting leaning on a rack beside the chair where I must spend more time than I would normally like. I sit down, look over and just pick it up. And I play. For 5 minutes, or 50 minutes. Does it have the sound and build of an $8000 Boucher? Of course not, but it’s not some plywood piece of crap from Amazon either. It’s small, lightweight, plays great, sounds great and brings with it no stress at all. I can plug it in and record some ideas and if I just want to be loud, I can push it through one of my acoustic amps.
Thus, while the choice is yours, I’m going to say that this is not an either or question, but more probably a yes to all question. And to be really blunt, I never expected to go here.
Wrapping Up
Journey guitars are available from select retailers and also online directly. Advertised prices are the same everywhere. The Journey Canada store shows the OF442 complete with case for $1133.99 CAD which considering that the top and back are solid wood, the price is quite reasonable considering that it not only sounds great and plays great but is also easily transported. Do I recommend it? Heck yes. So far we are two for two in travel guitars from Journey Instruments. Next up is the solid body electric.
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