I recently purchased a Journey OF660 CF travel guitar and compared it to the Furch Little Jane in this thread:
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=650429
I decided to return the Journey, not because I didn’t like it, but mostly because the slot for the nut was cut poorly, allowing the nut to move around enough while installing the neck that the intonation could waft around quite a bit. I bought it from Amazon, so returning it wasn’t a problem.
But I did like the rest of the guitar, so I ordered another copy from Amazon, and decided to hang onto the first guitar until the second arrived so I could compare them. I’ve now spent a few days poring over every molecule of both of them and thought it would be useful to report back. I tend to think that carbon fiber guitars should have less copy-to-copy variation than wood, at least when one is careful in their construction. So this was a nice chance to have a look at that.
To refresh the memory, this is what the Journey looks like next to an Emerald X-20:
Journey, X-20.jpg
As one would hope, the second Journey (let’s call it #2...not meant to be a disparaging term) looks just like the first one (#1) shown in the above image, at least from this distance. But there were some minor differences between #1 and #2.
- The top and back of #2 had a few cosmetic dimples and wrinkles that the first one didn’t have.
- #1 had a nicer job done on the mechanism where the neck attaches. But these were just cosmetic, and wouldn’t affect how the guitar functions or my decision to keep one or the other.
#2 had the same sloppy nut slot as #1. But they did a better job of gluing the nut on #2.
There was also a difference between the two that I wouldn’t call good or bad because it’s a matter of personal preference. The earlier thread mentioned that the Journey is on the quiet side. Out of curiosity I tapped the bridge area with my finger on both guitars. There was an obvious difference – #1 had a distinctly warmer sound than #2. Both had about the same volume. So I did the more reproducible saddle tap test on both guitars (see earlier thread) to look at the frequency spectra. Here is a comparison of #1 (blue line) to #2 (orange line):
Two Journey Spectra.jpg
The main air resonance is the peak at 95 Hz. The two guitars sit right on top of one another, which isn’t surprising since #1 and #2 presumably came from the same mold and so have the same volume and shape. On the other hand, the main resonance of the soundboard differs between the two guitars - shown by the peaks between 165 and 210 Hz. The main top resonance for #1 is lower in pitch than #2 by about 15 Hz, which is easily detected – at least by my not-so-great hearing. That range of frequencies is in the ballpark of frets 2 though 6 on the D string. And it’s close to the second harmonic of notes played on the first several frets of the bass E string. So it undoubtedly colors the bass notes. I noticed a difference in tone between the two guitars when playing those bass notes, even with the same strings on both guitars. It’s hard to describe, but #1 sounded warmer to me. There was a distinctly different timbre in the two guitars, at least at the bass end. #1 sounded better to me, but I’m sure others might go the other way.
So there was a difference in tone between these two carbon fiber guitars. I wouldn’t say it was huge – but it was noticeable. And it’s probably related to differences in the two soundboards as indicated by the spectra from the thump tests.
Who knows if that would happen with more expensive guitars, like Emerald, or Sable, etc. I’d imagine it’s less likely in those cases. It's pretty clear that more effort went into the finish work and QC on my X-20 compared to the Journey. But the Journey was less than 1/2 the cost of the X-20.
There were a couple of differences that were not so much a matter of preference. First, when looking at the fretboard of both guitars, it was obvious that the treble e string on #2 was inset more than on #1. Here’s an image that compares the string spacing for both – up around the 15th fret:
String Spacing Old (1) vs New(2) Fret 14.jpg
I checked the spacing at the nut. Both guitars were right at 1.50” between the centers of the E and e strings. But at the saddle, the spacing on #1 was a little over 0.1” more than on #2. So there is some variation when they drill the pin holes.
The second difference is in the placement of the pickup transducers beneath the bridge. I stuck my phone inside guitar #1 through that convenient sound hole. This is where the transducers are located:
Guitar #1 SBT.jpg
Seems reasonable. But look at number #2
Guitar #2 SBT.jpg
Yikes, the transducers are shifted way past the treble end of the bridge. It's not easy placing them, blind through the sound hole, but I'd think they would have made a template. It ends up having a pretty negative effect on the plugged-in sound. The D string on #2 really jumps out and the E and A strings have kind of a weird sound to them.
BTW, the weight of #2 was within an ounce of #1.
And so, while I’d hoped #2 would be a keeper, I’ve decided to return #2 because of the string spacing and the transducers. In the meantime, I’ve grown to like the sound of the first one, so I’ll hang onto it. I’ll probably order a Graphtech blank and make my own nut, and see if I can tweak the strings outward a little bit.
Despite all the nits I’ve brought up, I think the OF660 will turn out to be a nice travel guitar. It has a really big warm bass, surprising for a small guitar, and fairly balanced mids and highs. The mechanism for removing/attaching the neck works really well. And it shrinks down to fit in a fairly small pack, though not as small as the Little Jane. But it does sound quite a bit bigger than the Little Jane and, of course, will do better in hot/dry places.