99% of the time this is due to one of two reasons: 1) An increase in humidity causes the wood to swell, which makes the latch hard to press down. and 2) the string force just makes it hard to press down.

For a quick solution try grabbing the neck near the headstock with one hand and pressing the neck against the guitar body. With your other hand, use your THUMB to press down on the button. Pressing against the neck helps add a little distance between the latch pin and latch catch so it can disengage, and using your thumb gives you more force to depress the button.

For a normal fixed-neck guitar, the nut may actually be unglued and you’d never know it until you removed your strings. It’s more common than you might think. However, if you’re frequently removing and attaching the neck of a guitar as you do with a collapsible guitar – it’s not uncommon for the nut to come loose due to the friction and change in pressure against the nut.

This is actually a very quick fix. To repair, simply remove the strings, add cyanoacrylate glue (super glue gel or gorilla glue gel) to the bottom of the nut and put it back in place – be sure to align the nut slots with the slots in the black string retainer. Hold it in place for around 3 minutes or until the glue dries, and restring your guitar – you should be good to go.

From our experience there are a limited number of factors that cause buzzing on our carbon guitars. Here they are in order of occurrence.

1) A loose tuning machine. When the hex nut on the tuning machine loosens the washer underneath ends up rattling against the carbon. This is by far the most common occurrence. Simply check the tuning machine nuts are tight and that there are no loose washers rattling. Then tighten if needed.

2) A loose pickup endpin washer. This is the same principle as above. When the endpin nut loosens, the washer rattles against the carbon. Simply check the endpin nut is tight and tighten if needed. There’s a rubber bushing inside so it should be able to tighten snuggly.

3) A Piezo pickup wire is rattling against the inside of the guitar. This is rare (less than 2% of complaints). To fix, you can take a flashlight and look inside the guitar and make sure the wires aren’t touching the soundboard. If they are, you can tape them together and it usually addresses the issue.

The above 3 issues account for the usual causes of buzzing on our carbon guitars. Other causes are as follows in order of the rate of occurrence.

4) The saddle is worn down. If the saddle is worn down, you can temporarily use a shim under the saddle, or just don’t tighten the bolt fully for higher string height – which should alleviate buzzing.

5) One or more nut slots are worn down (usually causes a buzz on one of the first two frets.) If a nut slot is worn down, you can try the baking soda (or chalk) and super glue trick to fill it in a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slCMkvEfK_U. This usually is a good fix until you can replace the nut.

6)You need to adjust the truss rod because there’s no proper neck curve. I’d say try this after earlier issues. If you tighten the truss rod to add curve to the neck on a carbon guitar, we recommend removing the truss rod cover, and turning it clockwise 180 degrees to add relief – then test the frets. Repeat this with 180 degree turns until the relief is appropriate. (If adjusting relief on a wood guitar, we recommend 90 degree turns because wood is softer and adjusts more quickly than does carbon.

7) Frets are uneven and need filing. This is very very rare – less than 1%. As long as you’re using newer strings you should be able to strum pretty heavily with no buzzing and an action around 2.7mm at the 12th fret on the low E string. If you play lightly or fingerstyle, you should be able to bring action to just under 2.5mm, but you may need to adjust the truss rod to achieve appropriate neck curve.

8) The latch or latch bolt springs are buzzing. This is literally the rarest occurrence as we’ve never had an issue yet. Our recommendation here is to check all the above issues. If the buzzing still persists, we can send you latch hardware to replace along with an instruction manual. It’s pretty straightforward.

If you’re experiencing undesirable action (string height) on your collapsible Journey Instruments Travel guitar, this can be addressed quickly with one of the first two steps in most cases.

1) Firstly, please check to see that the knob on the back is fully tightened. Fully tightening the main knob on the back will resolve 95% of any high action issues. To tighten fully, there’s two effective methods:

a. Placing the body of the guitar between your knees, Twist the knob with one hand while pressing the headstock downward against the guitar body – this makes it easier to twist fully.

b. Alternatively, you can grab the neck of the guitar near the headstock and angle the guitar soundboard facing down at about a 45degree angle against a floor, table, desk, chair or flat surface. Now tighten the knob while applying downward force against the guitar back until it’s tight.

c. If you experience high swings of humidity and have kept your collapsible wood guitar assembled during this time, it’s likely that the bolt may be very tight. Apply force to the neck in one of the above two methods while twisting the knob to loosen the bolt. (this is not an issue for carbon models as the material does not swell and contract with humidity or temperature changes.

2) Secondly, check your truss rod adjustment. After confirming the neck mechanism is fully tightened – if you still find string height is too high or two low, this may also be due to changes in temperature or humidity causing changes in the neck of the guitar. Usually in high humidity and a wood guitar neck will have a more forward bow (causing high action), and in low humidity it will have a backward bow (causing low action and buzzing). Here’s a great video by Tony Polecastro that clearly explains how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlIFN8oPDw

a. Start by evaluating the neck bow. There should be a very slight neck bow (nearly flat) to achieve proper string height.

b. If the neck bow is high, causing high action – remove the truss rod cover and use the included hex wrench to tighten the truss rod. Turn the truss rod clockwise a quarter turn and then evaluate the neck curve. Repeat this process

c. If the neck bow is backward or too low, causing low action – remove the truss rod cover and use the included hex wrench to tighten the truss rod. Turn the truss rod counter-clockwise a quarter turn and then evaluate the neck curve. Repeat this process

*Note OC660 carbon nylon neck has no truss rod.

3) Thirdly, you can file down the saddle. Here’s a great video from StewMac that shows how to file down the saddle, change nut slot depth, as well as adjust the truss rod. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DpLRfbv9ok

4) Fourthly, we can provide you with precision shims to adjust the neck angle if needed. This is rarely needed, but can be done within 5 minutes if needed.

From our experience, tightening the neck fully and adjusting the truss rod if necessary usually fixes 98%+ of string height issues. Steps 3 and 4 are rarely needed.

Sustain: Actually sustain is better on our guitars than on a normal traditional acoustic guitar. The main reason is that we use premium grade Mahogany for our necks, and we embed stainless steel latch and bolt components. The neck plate connector is also stainless steel. As energy transfer is primarily horizontal (from nut to saddle through the neck), our design makes for very efficient energy transfer, hence prolonged sustain.

Intonation: Our guitars have intonation in line with premium brand guitars in the US market – which is very good. Moreover, because our necks are detachable, you can quickly add shims behind the neck connector plate to compensate for any intonation issue that may occur over time. (Though we don’t have a single report of this being done to date)

Our shim kits are basically 2-3 shims of wood that are laser cut to fit the slot of our collapsible guitars, and are used to adjust the neck angle. Before you consider installing a shim kit, we recommend you first 1) make sure you’ve fully tightened the main bolt on the guitar. 2) Adjusted the saddle if needed and 3) Adjusted the truss rod if needed. If you’ve done these things and your string height (action) is still high, you can use a shim kit to quickly lower the action.

Shim kits can be installed permanently with all purpose wood glue, or temporarily. Here’s a link to the installation process.

Here are the links to our shim kits if you need one. Please note the shim kits are precision cut for the necks of the corresponding model, so make sure you order the shim kit for your precise guitar.

Shim Kit for Puddle Jumper

Shim Kit for Overhead and First Class Parlor

Shim Kit for First Class Grand Auditorium

Nope. We’ve been producing our collapsible guitars for years and our guitars are played by some of the best guitarists on earth. We’ve personally been on hundreds of flights with our collapsible guitars. Not a single complaint to date about string life.

HOWEVER, if you play your guitar daily, and you’re a tone freak, you should change your strings at least once every 3 months or every 300 hours – whichever comes first. This assumes you’re using coated strings, and is recommended for all acoustic guitars – regardless of if they’re collapsible or not.

We recommend the following strings for use in our instruments:

For Collapsible Steel String Guitars (All Carbon and Wood Overheads, Carbon RoadTrip, First Class) we use: D’addario EXP16 Coated Phosphor Bronze Lights

*For collapsible wood guitars (with the exception of the Puddle Jumper series) , we recommend only light gauge strings. Using medium or heavier gauge strings on our collapsible wood guitars will void the warranty.

* For Puddle Jumper Series, because of the shorter 23-inch scale, we use D’Addario EXP17 Coated Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings, Medium, 13-56. This is the only collapsible wood guitar for we recommend medium gauge strings.

Our carbon fiber steel string guitars (OF660, RT660) can use up to medium gauge strings.

For Journey Junior and Puddle Jumper Series we use: D’addario EXP16 Coated Phosphor Bronze Lights

For our Classical Guitars: All OC520, OC522, FC522, JC520, OC660M we use: Savarez 520 White Card Traditional Series classical guitar strings for our OC520, OC522, and FC522.

*we do not recommend high tension nylon strings on our collapsible wood classical guitars, but they can be used on the OC660M carbon model.

Here’s a concise overview of our collapsible classical guitars and their main differences:

• OC520 – solid top only, matte with sound port, full scale, backpack case that fits on all airlines, even prop jobs. 80% of a full-sized classical sound.

• OC522 – same as OC520 but with solid top and back. 90% of a full-sized classical guitar sound with great sustain.

• FC522 – solid top/back, all gloss, standard Torres size, full scale (not short scale like the one he demoed), figured binding, arm bevel, gold tuners, and a roller case. Fits in most airlines, but maybe not smaller pro-jobs. I’ve compared this to $2000 Alhambra and Yamaha classical and it sounds just as good and way more comfortable.

• FC522LTD – same as FC522 but with the figured American Redwood top.

• OC660M – All carbon fiber with no truss rod, same body format as our OF660M, and same scale as our OC520 but with a narrower nut.

• JC520 – our budget travel classical guitar with standard classical scale and nut width, solid top, wedged body.

Here’s a good summary of which models are best for which purposes:

• If you want this for just a nice holiday guitar – go for the OC520.

• If you want it for lots of travel and like best tone with no risk – go for OC522.

• If you want a guitar that travels great with wheeled-carry-on, and sounds and plays like a standard classical go for the FC522.

• If you want premium guitar with the eye candy, go for FC522LTD.

• If you want a go-anywhere with no-stress classical guitar and don’t mind the narrower nut, go for the OC660M. Sounds great on stage with the passive or add-on active pickup as well.

• If you want a smaller travel-friendly classical with a narrower nut, try the JC520 Journey Junior – this guitar sounds great for its size, has a full scale, and is super comfy.

All of our classical and nylon guitars come with our passive piezo system preinstalled.

We use a hardened nickel alloy that is super durable on all of our carbon fiber guitars.

No.

The carbon OC660M collapsible nylon string guitar doesn’t have a truss rod built in the neck, and we haven’t tested steel strings, so we don’t recommend it. However, this guitar does handle hard tension and extra hard tension nylon strings with no problem.

We use medium jumbo white brass frets on our carbon fiber guitars. We chose this material over stainless steel because it helps the guitar have a softer tone. Our fretboard is all carbon fiber.

You can re-fret our guitars, but the process is a bit more involved because you must use epoxy resin and a jig to press and hold the frets in place. If needed we have clear instructions for this that have been used by a few luthiers already.

This is rare, but the sound imbalance could be due to a number of factors including: inconsistency in thickness of glue applied to the piezo, location of piezo position, the density of wood in that section, a gap between the saddle and soundboard, unevenness at the bottom of the saddle, unevenness at the bottom of the saddle slot, or possibly slight sensitivity difference of the pickup – or a combination of many of these factors. As a first step we recommend you first remove the saddle and check the evenness of the bottom of the saddle and the saddle slot – this is frequently the culprit. Then make sure there is no gap between the saddle and soundboard. If you need to remove the piezo and reposition it, or replace it, see this FAQ: https://journeyinstruments.com/journey-faqs/?Display_FAQ=8664

We currently don’t install HyVibe systems on our guitars, but there are several guitarists who have done so. The sides on all of our current wood guitars are laminate (back and soundboard is solid), so this makes cutting into the side much less risky than if it were an all solid guitar. Here’s a Youtube video showing the HyVibe installation process and a demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MsUDZ9Eviw

Currently we have no electronics with stereo output.

Our Active EPS series pickups (any pickup with EPS as the first 3 letters such as EPS001-05K) are dual source pickups with a standard mono output.

Our Passive EP series pickups (any pickup with no “S” as in the product ID such as EP001K, EP002K etc…) are mono output only.

Step 1: Unplug the wire from the active module main unit to the guitar jack inside the guitar. We recommend you remove this wire entirely or tape it to the side of your guitar to prevent rattling.

Step 2: Unplug the wire from the three piezo elements to the main active module unit, and plug this back into the guitar jack inside the guitar.

Your pickups will now passively amplify your guitar’s natural sound with no volume or tone controls.

Our newer EP001K passive pickup is not only upgradable, but it uses an improved German-made Piezo element that sounds phenomenal and is compatible with the new dual-source active modules EPS001-05K for normal sound hole steel string guitars and the EPS001-15 for our OF660 offset sound hole guitars.

If you need to remove our previous pickups, we recommend you use a razor blade scraper tool, or a putty knife with a 2-4cm flat edge.

Simply pull down on the wires leading to the piezo elements and use the scraper or putty knife to slowly unwedge the piezo. GO SLOW. Don’t be in a hurry. If you do not bend the elements you should be able to use them with another instrument if you wish.

After you remove the piezos, take a piece of fine-grit sandpaper and make sure the surface is nice and smooth for affixing the new pickups.

There are countless situations in which acoustic guitars are played live or amplified, so it’s beyond the scope of our expertise to go into each one of these. So Firstly, we recommend you educate yourself on the factors that contribute to feedback, and some of the most common methods to deal with them. This will help you tremendously for future live events, regardless of the guitar you’re using. Here are a few guides we’ve found useful:

• Click here for Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s Guide (most thorough)

• Click here for Thomann’s Guide

• Click here for Reverb’s Guide

There are numerous videos on YouTube as well, so you can do a simple search on “guitar feedback” and see dozens of great videos as well.

For a quick and affordable fix for feedback on an acoustic guitar, you can try a sound hole cover – aka “feedback buster.” This is what we recommend most, and sooner or later you’ll come into a “feedbacky” environment and this will save a ton of time and headache.

For a more versatile but more expensive approach, you can try a preamp with a phase switch and notch filter included. This gives more customization for tone, and lets you dial out the offending frequencies.

For our carbon fiber OF660 guitars and OB660 basses, you can also try our YKG004 sound hole cover that’s custom designed for these sound holes. This is the simplest and most reliable solution for dealing with feedback on these models. IMPORTANT: This sound hole cover only works with the second generation of OF660 – see description for details.

If you’re using our EP001 upgradeable passive piezo pickup, you can try upgrading to our EPS001-15K dual source active module for our OF660 and OB660 sound holes, or the EPS001-05K module for traditional sound holes. These include a phase button and the ability to pan between two pickups as well as adjust treble and bass volume. Note that this is a powered unit.

NOTES: 1. You must use the newer upgradeable model that has a removable 2mm connector from the piezo elements to the pickup jack. 2. The EPS001-05K and EPS001-15K modules are not complete pickups, they require the EP001K, EP004K, or other passive piezo pickup to be previously installed or to be purchased and installed at the same time.

No. No bridge ground is needed in any of our passive pickup systems.

Our Passive Pickups:

Guitar – EP001K, Classical – EP004K, Bass – EP002K, Uke EP003K (click model to see specs or order)

In all of our instruments that use pickups, we use our in-house developed passive piezo pickups as our base pickup. These pickups use german-made ceramic piezo elements that are bonded to the bridge plate inside the guitar using cyanoacrylate (like super glue gel).

The advantages to these pickups are as follows:

1. They have efficient transfer of transparent tone. When installed properly, these pickups amplify the ACTUAL sound of your guitar. Since we make instruments that sound great to begin with, this is a great match for our instruments.

2. The unadjusted tone is much better than most under-saddle piezos. Our pickups sound more natural and less compressed than most under-saddle pickups – and they don’t sound metallic or compressed.

3. They require no battery and are virtually maintenance free. This is great for travelling when you come to a situation where you have no access to batteries. It’s also great for high humidity environments as they are resistant to corosion as compared to pickups with traditional circuit boards.

4. They are discrete. The natural instrument is a thing of beauty and cutting a “barn door” for a preamp or huge soundhole magnetic coils detract from the aesthetic beauty of a guitar.

5. We get rave reviews from customers like this one. We increasingly find guitarists buying our pickups for installation on vintage and boutique guitars that cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

Our Active Pickup Modules

• EPS001-05K for all traditional soundhole acoustic guitars

• EPS001-15K for offset-soundhole carbon acoustic guitars like OF660 or RT660

Our Active pickup modules are used with our upgradeable passive piezo pickups above. Please note – these are not stand-alone modules and must have one of our passive pickups installed in order to use.

We recently developed these battery-powered modules for artists who want more control over their tone when playing live. They comprise an additional microphone that can blend with the passive piezo elements already installed. This module has a dual source preamp with wheel controls for bass, treble, pan from microphone, master volume and a phase switch.

The Advantages of our active pickup modules are:

1. Super-easy tool-free installation. You can install this in around 5 minutes on a guitar that has our passive piezo pickup already installed.

2. Great transparent amplification with full control of your tone.

3. Discrete access to all controls. Since the control module is around the edge of the soundhole, you preserve the guitar’s natural aesthetic beauty, while maintaining easy access to control the tone and volume to your preference.

4. Ability to switch back to a passive pickup if your battery dies and you can’t find a replacement. You can re-route the passive elements to the pickup jack in a matter of minutes and still play amplified if your battery dies.

For more information, check out the specific model pages.

You can see our installation procedures here: https://journeyinstruments.com/pickup-installation/.