[The Bard Rocks]

I have one here on trial. I am not going to consider it but am glad to have it here. The fit and finish were as nice as they could possibly be and I really like the smooth feel of the fretboard, which goes, incidentally to high C. The case is truly outstanding, both well-made and well-designed. It is tight for both the body and the neck, but they do fit. The guitar is simple to assemble and takes seconds. It makes a neat sort of boing sound when you do that. I am not sure it needs the screw to hold it in place, though I used it. It is neat to be able to put a hand inside the guitar without removing the strings. There is no internal bracing but there is an inexplicable stud coming up from the back near the label.

I found the neck was a little too straight. Maybe the truss rod will adjust that, but that's not for me to do. It was smooth and had a good feel. And the action was a bit high, not bad, but some tweaking would improve it. I like the 1/3/4 nut but find the string spacing a bit closer than expected. I did not have trouble fingerpicking it however. The tuners are fine and the side dots on the fingerboard, while small, are easy enough to see.

But I did not like it. Why? First, it is way too quiet. Good for playing in a hotel room, but not satisfying and if an instrument does not satisfy me, I won't be playing it. I have little use for a travel guitar per se, but do have a use for one I can take camping, leave in the back of the car, take to festivals, that sort of thing. They gave up too much volume just to make it fit in the overhead. (Yes, I know they started with the premise that this guitar was going to fit, and it was built around that idea.) I will say that it is FAR louder with a flatpick. All guitars are louder but the difference here was more marked than usual. If you use a flatpick, you may not feel it is too quiet. Fingerpicked, with flesh, it just sounds dead to me. The sound I heard was emblematic of what others hear too - poor projection.

But that's not all: its sound is uninspiring, completely uncolored. It lacked anything to distinguish it. Maybe we need wood to accomplish that? I played a Blackbird for a week some time ago and found it to be a little that way. On the whole it was FAR more satisfying to play and to hear, though, and is something I can recommend. I am sidetracking myself.

I have some other objections to the Journey. It's intonation is off. After carefully tuning it, I put the tuner on the 12th fret and found each sting off 1/3 a step or so. Not good. It is surprisingly heavy, given carbon fiber's reputation for lightness. Maybe the massive interior heel block need to hold the neck to the body is responsible for this. It is noticeably heavier than my L00 which is significantly larger. It weighs like a full-size normally built guitar. I don't feel a lot of vibration when I play it, not like other guitars. There is some of course. Tap on the top and it is deader than I am used to. It's sustain is quite adequate in the bass, but much less so in the treble. When I first assembled it, the G string caught in the screw on the truss rod cover; that's just sloppy assembly at the plant. The top shows fingerprints and smudges easily, something others have noted, and no big deal. There is no pickguard, but that is easily remedied and perhaps it doesn't need it. I am not someone who needs a cutaway to play, but I didn't feel the scoopaway (which is a neat idea) added as much access as I expected. Maybe you will feel different. I did find it comfortable to play, other than my elbow was bent more than I want (which is a function of the small scale) .

The small scale and size is something I don't particularly care for, but that's not a complaint as I fully knew what to expect ahead of time. But it feels that the pictures I see of people playing one must have all be smaller-than-average folks. Let's be fair: you can't accomplish what Journey set out to do and make it much larger, not unless you eliminate padding in the case.

Now to put this in some perspective: my own guitars are nearly all very fine instruments and each cost considerably more than the Journey does - so comparing them to the Journey is not very fair, though it's what I have. If I really needed a travel guitar, I might think differently about a number of things I moan about here. When compared to most other travel guitars, it probably would not be called too quiet. I have been waiting for 2 years to see and play one of these and have communicated often with Rob and some of the folks who now sell them and have nothing but good to say about their openness and prompt willingness to discuss my concerns. But at the end, it did not live up to my hopes. Perhaps those were inflated. At any rate, I am glad to have had the chance to play it and get that out of my system!