Travel guitar: Voyage Air has a new competition (Martinesque vs Tayloresque)
 

Voyage Air guitar is known for its affordable full size travel guitar - basically the neck folds and fits in a backpack.

The last decade we have seen all sorts of travel guitar in various forms.

One of them Journey Instruments is not new to the market now with their affordable smaller size guitar, detacheable neck, fits in a backpack, a lot of you have seen this I'm sure.

Now they have finally come up with a full size guitar, full scale, detacheable neck fitting into a backpack with wheels like a carry on luggage. I see this as now going head to head competition with Voyage Air guitar as they are now offering the same thing.

Voyage Air - the Martin of full size travel guitar (Dreads and OMs)
Journey Instruments - the Taylor of full size guitars (Grand Auditorium)

See youtube video below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=137cdzOave8

Brunner removable neck guitars have been sold for at least 10 yesrs and for a time there wss even a cheaper line made off shore.

I owned 2 brunners before, they are not full size, even their full size model is only a 00 size, they do not have a proper full size with at least 15” lower bout and above that is deteachable nor affordable

Looking at the video it appears that the body is deeper than a GA sized guitar. Proven design now offered in wood with a GA size is a good choice. Too late for me as I already have a Voyage-Air VAD04 full size dread.

I don't see any competition until there's some audio of the guitars and their sound quality is established.

Depends on what’s most important to you. If sound quality of an acoustic is your main metric, absolutely agree.
If, like me, your main concern is ability to fit within strict airline carry-on limitations and also squeeze in clothes + computer for a 3-4 day trip (without having to check a bag), then size/weight and physical playability (neck feel/ergonomics of body shape) become key.
Obviously, different uses drive choices. The first makes sense if you plan to perform or play with others. The second to be able to play alone or practice while traveling.
I think a lot of the discussion tends to focus on the first category when there are many of us who live in the second. There are other guitars - not Voyager or Journey - that serve this market.

Apparently there are two wood choices, Sapele/Sitka and PauFerro/Sitka.
I'm assuming laminate back and sides with solid top.
An arm bevel, Manzer Wedge body and factory built in pickup are included.

Below is some information direct from James at Journey.


FF412C Solid Sitka/Spruce Top & Back with Sapele sides.
Cutaway and arm bevel.
Upgraded bag includes retractable handle and wheels.
MSRP 1007.39 Street Price: $729.99

FF422C Solid Sitka/Spruce Top & Back with Pau Ferro sides.
MSRP $1186.79 Street Price: $859.99


June arrival is anticipated.
I'm very interested.

This is from Rob:

"On the new First Class - this series will be solid top/solid back with laminate sides. Reason being laminate sides are way more stable for humidity and temp variances (and impact resistance), and tonally there’s about the same tonal variance between two all solid guitars of the exact same specs as there would be for laminate sides. What this does is let me get a retail price point of around $800 for a full sized guitar that sounds as good as a Taylor 814, but is better suited for travel.

These should arrive in June - FYI. I’ll have a professional video of Thomas Leeb playing one live in 4 weeks.

Take care,
Rob"

I musnt have read the OP's post very well as indidmt notice the reference to full sized! Yes the brunner outdoor guitar (or its newer incarnation the B-Compact model) is a parlor sized guitar and so will never spund lole a full sized guitar.

Having said that, my guitar teacher and guitar tech wwre impressed with how much sound and responsiveness that little guitar was giving, so i would say that despite its small size, it is proportionatsly a lot of guitar even relative to its size.

My parlor-sized OF420B provides a pretty impressive amount of volume (perhaps due to the extra body volume resulting from the Manzer Wedge construction), but is enough for me. My major concern is being able to carry it on a plane, and the current overhead series is about as big as you can get, so I’ll stick with that. However, I can see the bigger First Class instruments being useful for folks who just want a full-size guitar that they can stow out of the way in a small apartment, etc.

My voyage Air is a full size dread. My Journey OF660 is small.

I don’t think this is new, they’ve been around for a while and were on Sharktank in 2012. I think they even had a deal with fender for a second, but that didn’t succeed.

What IS NEW is the Journey First Class models,
the FF412C and FF422C.

And what is clear to me now is that they come with Solid Top AND Solid Back.
Only the sides are laminated.

I've long been a fan of the Journey removable/collapsible neck design, and have owned a couple of them.
But preferring the larger size and tone of the VoyageAir guitars (with folding neck design) I've opted to travel with them.
I've had 5 of them over the years and currently have 2, an OM-02 and OM-06.

The new Journey models are certainly giving me reason to re-think my VoyageAir loyalties.
I am very interested in hearing how they sound.

I have the Journey Instrument - FF422 Sitka / Pau Ferro (Bolivian Rosewood) full sized grand auditorium (16" Lower Bout) with collapsible neck guitar coming my way soon. I have just ordered one. The Pau Ferro version, I was told is limited edition and and only has 3 left after I already took one. The one I ordered is a non-cutaway full gloss version.

I will review and provide update when I get mine. It will take a while as it will have to come all the way to Australia.