Journey Instruments Carbon Fiber Collapsible Travel Guitar OF660

As I have gotten older and my sons have grown, I have been fortunate enough to have been able to purchase several nice guitars, not to mention having more time to practice. I have been hesitant to take my guitars when I travel to see my grandson or am on vacation or at a conference due to temperature worries; thinking of bringing a guitar on a plane would not have even crossed my mind. But I found myself missing playing when I was away from home. So, I started researching travel guitars and decided on this one. I have had it for a whole day now(!) and am quite pleased. It is compact in the carrying case, straight forward to put together, quite playable and sounds great (which my wife commented on when she heard me playing). The bass strings sound remarkable! I don’t usually play using an amp, but plugged it in to test the pickup, which worked well. The guitar is smaller than what I am used to, but this was to be expected and not a big deal for me. I would highly recommend this! The blue color on the front of the guitar is pretty dark. I really like it. One other thing. The owner’s manual recommends not carrying the case in the rain without a rain cover. Journey sells a raincover on Amazon or at their website. It costs $15.99. If you invest in the guitar, you might as well get one of these too. I have ordered one but have not received it yet, so I have nothing else to say about it other than that it exists. Best wishes!

We tested out small travel guitars by Martin and Gibson in a range of high end wood types, and nothing came close to the tone and playability for such a compact size. Assembled, this is larger than the smallest size travel guitar, thus generating higher quality sound, but folded it is even more compact, making it perfect for air travel overhead bins, camping trips and space limited road trips. We were skeptical that the carbon fiber would sound as warm as our favorite full size Martins, but this came close, just at a quieter volume. It definitely sounded less banjo-ish than the 000 or taylor baby. Add in a tiny pocket amp like the Blackstar Fly, and you get the bonus of both electric and acoustic options while on the road! Absolutely perfect for a travel.

This one did not intonate well. That is, for me, of paramount importance.

I bought my Journey carbon fiber travel guitar specifically for a working trip to Indonesia. I'm there now and I have been enjoying sitting by the hotel pool and picking, not having to worry about the unbelievable humidity or accidentally getting it wet--I even played it while sitting IN the pool yesterday and it didn't even need a re-tune. Sounded exactly the same. Loving the carbon fiber! If I love it so much, why only 3 stars? Read on! I dropped one star because of the carry case. I dropped another star due to sound/tone. I stowed the guitar in the overhead compartments on airplanes for about 23 hours, so the claim of it being carry-on is 100% true. Unfortunately, the last 2 hour leg of the trip required that it be stowed with the rest of the luggage under the plane and my guitar suffered some damage. Good news is that the guitar mostly survived the experience and I think that's a testament to the strength of the carbon fiber construction. I say 'mostly survived' because the take-down button was found rattling around inside the case when I opened it up. It looks like a small piece broke off. It's currently snapped back into place, but with one of the legs broken, I don't think it's gonna stay put for long. My complaint about the carry case is that it could really benefit from some closed cell foam padding. The Indonesian airport luggage handlers tossed it, and there is now a small chip on the fretboard, right in the bottom corner. It doesn't affect play at all, but when you spend $1500 on a guitar, you want it to stay looking nice, and I've only owned this one for a month. Just a little bit of foam padding may have prevented this from happening.....in fact, upgrading the carry case to a Pelican style hard case would be fantastic (and if it's ever available, I'll buy one!) My complaint about tone is more of a personal opinion. To my ear, the #6 and #5 strings are full and almost as fat as my old Washburn and resonate better than my Ovation shallow body. Strings #4 and #3 are more subdued and I have to pick harder to get them to resonate equally. They're probably about equal to the Ovation. High notes.....very subdued. Mellow but still fairly bright, but much much harder to hear over the boom of lower strings. They play well, no buzzing but its almost like 6 & 5 are on volume 10, 4 & 3 are on volume 6 and 1 & 2 are underwater. I've been playing for about 30 years and this is the first guitar I've played that sounds like this. Something nice about the guitar is that it comes with 2 bridges. High and low. Journey recommends using the high if you're a heavy strummer and the low for a super low action. I'm a picker and mostly using the low, but swapping out the bridge only takes a few seconds (and a re-tune) and I make sure to keep the high one in the case if the jam session gets more lively. The neck is smooth, straight and the fret edges feel great. I haven't felt the need to file or polish any edges at all. Overall, I'm happy with my Journey travel guitar but there are a few things that I would change if I could. I travel fairly often, and this instrument will probably be with me wherever I go.....but it will be in either a better case or I'll install some rubber impact protection before I take it out again. I'm going to experiment with different gauge strings to see if I can get some more volume out of the high strings. The guitar comes equipped with Light.....gonna try mediums. Edited to add: last night I had a nice jam session at a bar. When the guitar is plugged into an amplifier, it sounds every bit as good as I would expect it to so I’m giving it 4 stars now.

I’ve been a full time musician since 2014 and so between 240-300 events per year. Naturally, I own many guitars that I use for the stage, studio and other situations, but I wanted to try this travel guitar for days off, vacations and even sitting in with friends at their events from time to time. I also wanted to be able to ride my motorcycle to some smaller events where a PA is already available and I can just plug in and play. I honestly planned to try it out and either send it back or sell it if I didn’t approve, but I’m blown away at the quality and especially the sound this thing provides! It’s also setup nicely and stays in tune well. Looks like I’m keeping it. Good thing I’m not married anymore. One more guitar!

I love this guitar. So nice not having to worry about traveling and trusting my equipment to some airport baggage handler. It also plays beautifully with the supplied low bridge to my preference. The thing is also wonderful to look at with the dual color scheme. I use it with a Tonewood Amp 2 and it sounds great.

I was traveling and wanted to pick up some shows, so I purchased FF660M, and I have nothing positive to say about it. The body finish is terrible cracks where it was carelessly done by the neck pocket, big blob of resin just iin the sound hole, hanging fiber inside the body, the worst neck I have ever played with resin sloped up the sides of every fret, passive pickup was very quiet, and the sound was so bad a venue refused to have me play if I was using that guitar. I despised every aspect of this guitar outside of the bag that looks like it's been on the road for years after 2 flight and 8 rides in a car. I cannot express how disappointing this guitar was, I hate that I wasted 20 dollar string on it hopping the sound would improve, I played it for two weeks hoping it might break in, it sounded like the plastic 50 dollar guitars from first act I bought my niece and nephew and few years back. Sadly the crappy toy guitars may have sounded better. Everything about this experience was terrible so glad to have finally sent that piece of junk back. If I had paid a quarter of the price for this guitar I still would have been disappointed in the quality and sound for the money.

Out of the box was almost completely in tune. Action great, no string buzz, sounds awesome. Not wood but darn close in tone, maybe a little fatter in some ways. My opinion: worth every cent for airport travel, around sandy beach, chlorine, dogs and kids. It will out live you.

I sold my McPherson Kevin Michael carbon fiber 3/4 size guitar to buy the Journey Instruments OF660M. The guitar is made in China and the finish is rough on the parts of the guitar that do not show. This helps keep the cost down. The cost is $1735 and the cost of a Kevin Michael is $3500. I bought the OF660M because the neck disconnects and I can travel on a plane with it. I did not expect the sound to be as good as the Kevin Michael. To my amazement the OF660M has a better sound. I find it hard to put it down. The sound is clear, full and the sustain is long. Amazing for fingerstyle playing. I also own a Martin D45 and a Gibson Southern Jumbo both have amazing sounds. I enjoy playing all three guitars equally. I had some questions and reached out to the company and they got back to me within a day and answered all my questions. I certainly recommend this guitar. Thank you Journey Instruments.

I have owned many high end guitars, and this is well worth the price.. even compared to anything else. It sounds different, but a good kind of different. And the neck removal plus durability is kind of mind blowing given the instrument itself sounds so good. I never write reviews, but this is for the people on the fence about it.. go for it!