Journey Instruments Solid Acacia Koa Travel Guitar – OF882C Traveling Acoustic-Electric Guitar with Collapsible Patented System – Portable Backpack Case (Overhead)

This sweet little guitar is probably one of my favorite guitars. I pop it apart as a party trick, but when I put it back together— it’s often still in tune! How is that even possible? It’s gone all over the country and the world with me. I love it so much I bought Journey Carbon Fiber Bass that comes apart too. If you love to play and love to travel this little guitar could be your dream come true.

Ok. I’ll get to it. I own Taylor, Martin, and Zager guitars. All immaculate instruments, but I’ve found I play one in particular 95% of the time… my Solid Mahogany Baby Taylor. It sits by my desk, and has been my go-travel guitar. I’m sure I play it the most because I don't feel bad for not cleaning it after each use, or not storing it in a humidity and climate controlled environment. I’ll play it by campfires, on the couch, throw it in the Jeep… very user friendly. That said, you can only get so much volume from a small body like that, and it isn’t as travel friendly for planes as they claim. Where the neck “can” detach with screws, it is not designed to be taken apart and reassembled. Over time you will split the wood and compromise the structure.There’s my background and the reason why I was so curious about this Journey Puddle Jumper. About the same price point as the baby Taylor, but with a significantly larger body and detachable neck… while still providing a solid sitka spruce top and layered mahogany back and sides… (the layered is a good thing as it is stronger and less susceptible to humidity and climate change when traveling).I’ll be completely honest. I thought it would be garbage. I bought it on prime to try it and fully anticipated being underwhelmed and returning it. Let me be clear… the quality of the instrument matches that of my Taylor’s. The case and design I are exquisite. The sound is REMARKABLE… prior to receiving I watched the YouTube video where a guy compared the Taylor Baby to the Puddle Jumper side by side. You really cannot tell from the sound on the video. In fact, I thought the Taylor sounded better… but I was 100% wrong. When you hear this guitar in person, I would stack it up next to my larger bodied Taylor Koa GS mini. So far superior to the baby Taylor. The highs are more pronounced, the lows actually fill the room with bass… the fret layout and neck design is more comfortable for me. Where you do lose a couple of frets on the shorter scale, the vast majority of what I play is 1st - 10th fret so I haven’t missed it.Suggestion - I went ahead and upgraded the tuners to the Grover Mini Lockable ones. They were about $70 and a direct fit replacement. Smart move considering breaking the guitar down for travel will impact the tune. Don’t be mislead… every time you break it down and put it back together you will need to touch up the tuning. I also replaced the bridge pins with bone. I do hear more sustain.Great job, Journey. Best travel guitar for the price by a mile.I’ve listed the baby Taylor for sale. This guitar is awesome. Truly impressed… and I’m fairly picky.

The media could not be loaded. This Journey guitar is a great sounding, and beautifully crafted instrument.I purchased this guitar after running out of time trying to fix an alignment problem that had developed on another travel acoustic which I had taken with on vacations over ten or twelve years. We were supposed to leave in only a few days. Not enough time to fix the problem.So...I found Journey Instruments on Amazon and was able to find a nice alternative to my other one...and I got it within two days! It is a well built instrument and once I got it tuned up I found it to be a very friendly and true sounding instrument throughout. It also fits very nicely into overhead compartments in an airplane...which was sometimes a problem with the other acoustic in small commuter flights.All in all this guitar has excellent intonation, action is very comfortable and the locking Grover tuning heads make for a really well built instrument that stays in tune and plays comfortably and accurately up and down the whole neck. The sculpted cutaway is also a really nice touch which makes playing on the high registers a breeze. The built-in piezo passive pickups are high quality too.Most of all..having this guitar along on our vacation (that my wife and I had planned for our 45th anniversary to Hawaii) last week was a nice touch and the 'Journey' was a big hit.Just mellowed out listening to some waves and playin' some tunes...that works just fine!

I have been looking on and off for years for a travel ACOUSTIC guitar that I could fly with easily. Not necessarily to perform with, but to maintain my ability to practice when away from my home guitar for extended periods. This guitar absolutely fits the bill for that need. It's not overly expensive, it packs in an overhead with no space concerns regardless of the plane size and most importantly, plays like a TRADITIONAL acoustic guitar. The setup and packing is super easy, the playability is very nice, and the sound isn't as good as my home higher quality guitar, but definitely not offending. (And the mid-range is actually exceptionally good.) This model has a standard scale with the 12th fret fully reachable, comes with a pickup if you did want to plug in and get an improved tone, and a slightly smaller body that is quite comfortable even for me (I'm tall). The beveled body definitely contributes to that. I play primarily fingerstyle guitar so the alternate lower bridge works quite well thought I may shave just a smidge off. Neck quality is quite good, on the wider sided and a little thicker than some, but nothing that impacts playability. Once snapped together the guitar holds it's tune quite well due to the quality tuners. Aesthetically it's quite good and comes in whatever wood stain you would like. I'm and engineer and the carry case and packing is very cool. If you are considering the Journey Puddle Hopper version I also tried that out but ended up returning it. It is even more travel friendly due to the smaller size and will fit underneath the seat, but it comes with a sacrifice in a shorter scale length and a big impact on sound quality. Still, if size is key and you don't play much lower in the neck it's still a good option. I decided to trade the small difference in size for better playability and sound. Sorry for the long review, but I wanted to provide a bit more info for the true guitarist out there that may have been on the same search as me. Good luck!