I am going away for a long weekend and flying for the first time since starting to learn guitar 24 months ago and found myself very uneasy about breaking my self imposed rule of ‘pick up the guitar every day’. So, here it is, designed to fit under the seat in front of you on the plane! I haven’t opened the box yet, my existing guitar for scale. I will come back and add some more photos and my first impressions if anyone is interested.
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Get that box open Kim, let’s have a mooch at your new instrument.
you do know this is a Guitar forum, right? why woudn’t we be interested lol
R
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Sadly a work task is getting in the way of my real Guitar life, I will be back with the box open soon!
Looking forward to hearing your views on it.
Ok all, thanks for your interest. I have had time to get it out the box and have a play now. Photos attached.
Overall, a great little travel guitar. A few negatives, one of them quite major and I have emailed Journey Guitar about it.
Size:
So, first of all the worse thing about it is that the case size is taller than advertised on their website. This means that I stand no chance of taking it as under seat luggage on EasyJet who have a maximum length including handles of 45cm. It’s advertised as 47cm and I was prepared to ‘lose’ 2cm with duck tape at the airport if necessary as the top handle isn’t essential to use as it has backpack straps (the other dimensions are within EasyJet specs). However, it’s coming in at 50cm and the guitar body itself is 45cm out of the case. This means it’s going to have to go in the overhead locker and if I knew that I may have considered the overhead version which is larger (I have paid for an overhead bag on my flight, now I am going to have to find an alternative solution for my clothes which will probably include stuffing socks into my guitar!). I may yet send it back if the overhead version fits the large cabin bag spec (although it is a lot more expensive). Oddly enough there was a label in the bag for the larger backpack but with a puddle jumper serial number stuck to it.
Assembly:
Out of the box, assembly was quick and straightforward although I had to untwist the strings from the neck which took a couple of goes. I haven’t tried disassembly yet, and you have to scan a QR code for instructions other than the quick start assembly guide. Tuning took three attempts to get it in tune and there’s no room on the headstock for my Snark clip on tuner, so had to use a phone app. I have small fingers and found it a bit fiddly turning the nuts on the thinner strings as they were so close together Not a deal breaker.
Playability:
Very good, all things considered, although I did have to retune it after a few minutes of playing. The action is pretty good, only a tiny bit higher than my full size guitar and I can manage an F barre chord quite well although slightly more prone to a muted 2nd string than on my full size guitar. It’s surprisingly loud with a nice tone, the fret scale is slightly smaller and stops at fret 16, which means I can’t play the riff to ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ properly (which goes up to fret 17). My small hands with a misshaped little finger find the stretchy riff to ‘Enter Sandman’ and the Am pentatonic easier on the smaller scale. Playing ‘Hotel California’ with a capo on the 7th fret is a squeeze but possible. If you have larger hands it would probably be a challenge.
Off to think about cabin bags and whether to get a bigger Journey Guitar than this one. I probably will keep it though due to the price jump to the next level.
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Sorry Kim can’t see the photos, 
Didn’t work first time so had another go!
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Thanks Kim !! It looks really cool and the write up suggests it plays pretty from what you say.
Happy NGD, I hope you have many happy miles travelling together. 
That was a nicer box 
Have a good trip and a lot of playing time
Greetings
Happy NGD, Kim! 
It’s a shame the sizes are being different from description. 
But maybe you can still keep it and will have lots of great journeys together.
Have a good time travelling and lots of hours enjoying your new little friend. 
No don’t open THAT box! 
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Well Kim, realistically a long weekend without your guitar won’t make the slightest bit of difference to your practise routine.
I’m currently on a two week holiday in Spain. I flew here so didn’t bring my travel guitar (which I bought for car travel).
I’ve every confidence that when I get home I’ll get right back into it. My fingertips are still hard!
Having said that, your guitar looks great, a really small package. Trouble is, the budget airlines are constantly reducing the size of cabin baggage. Can you guarantee that it’ll fit in years to come? Filling it up with socks and pants is a great idea though.
I’ve got one of their carbon fibre models, very similar to yours. It’s worked very well for me on international and domestic flights.
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