About Us
Journey Instruments Australia is the official franchise for Journey Instruments across Australia and New Zealand. Our parent company, Journey Instruments is an Austin, Texas company specialising in travel guitars and instruments that are engineered for the best overall travel experience possible for artists and musicians on the go. Our instruments, cases, and accessories are developed after hundreds of hours of research and testing to meet the real-life needs of traveling and touring musicians. We aim to empower artists to create and perform with instruments and gear perfectly designed for their travel and performance needs.
This means we strive for the perfect balance of ergonomics, playability, tone, and travel size. Our instruments employ patented and proprietary technology, and are made with premium materials such as premium grade woods, Grover® tuners, nano-coated phosphor bronze strings, and premium grade carbon fiber materials. Our cases are ergonomic and functional, comprising quality fabrics, foams and YKK zippers that are tested and environmentally friendly. And our proprietary electronics are balanced and designed for the most natural tone possible. The end result is an overall instrument experience that’s a joy to play and a dream to travel with. Once you get a Journey, you won’t want any other instrument for your travels.
Hand-Made with Premium Sustainable Woods
The Overhead™ acoustic travel guitar is hand-made premium woods and solid top or solid top/back construction. We use woods that are CITES compliant and sustainably cultivated including North American Sitka, real African Mahogany, Ovangkal, and Pau Ferro Rosewood. We use real Mahogany for our necks and supporting structures, and these travel guitars even come standard with Ebony bridge pins.
Ergonomics
The Overhead™ acoustic travel guitars are some of the most ergonomic acoustic guitars you’ll ever encounter. The Manzer© wedge angles the guitar to allow the weight of your fretting arm to naturally add pressure to the fretboard, so it reduces stress on your wrist. The resulting angle also creates a more comfortable strumming angle for your strumming arm, thus alleviating shoulder strain and fatigue.
Scale and Playability
The Overhead™ acoustic travel guitars feature a 24.5 inch (622 mm) scale – similar to that of a Gibson Les Paul, which makes for great acoustic volume, yet with lower string tension and more comfortable fretting. The shallow C neck shape make it suitable for all sizes of hands and it comes standard with a 1.75 inch (44.5 mm) nut. An optional 1 11/16 (43 mm) nut neck is also available on some models.
Patented Removable Neck Design
Our improved carbon fiber reinforced quick-assembly mechanism enables assembly or removal of the neck in less than 20 seconds, as well as fine-tuning of the neck angle. This means you can assemble the guitar in a snap for finger style playing, and then change your action for heavy strumming with a simple twist of the knob on the back! This is a huge advantage for guitarists who play multiple styles and need a variety of string setups.
Premium Appointments
Overhead™ wood collapsible acoustic travel guitars feature premium appointments found in much higher-end guitars as well. We use either Grover 18:1 precision tuners, or our own proprietary 1:21 precision tuners. Authentic bone nuts and saddles, ebony bridge pins, and Elixir® coated phosphor bronze strings help make for a traditional warm and balanced acoustic tone.
Tone
Tone was one of the main considerations when we designed all of our Overhead™ collapsible acoustic travel guitars. The solid tonewoods, mahogany neck, block, and even bridge, and even fretboard and appointment materials are all orchestrated to bring you an amazing full-sounding tone in an amazingly small and comfortable package. When amplified with our passive piezo pickup system, the Overhead™ acoustic travel guitar sounds like a full sized guitar on the stage.
Electronics
We install our exclusive upgradeable JourneyTek™ proprietary passive piezo pickups in our Overhead™ collapsible travel guitars. Engineered to be maintenance-free with high-output German made piezo elements, these are balanced and battery-free, and create a transparent representation of these amazing sounding travel guitars. Moreover, for guitarists who need more control, our newest installed EP001K pickups are easily upgradeable to our EPS001-15 within minutes - and with no need for tools.
The Travel Case
Our Patented BG001 Overhead™ collapsible travel guitar case brings your travel guitar experience to a whole new level. The case features premium materials and fits exactly into carry-on dimensions of 22*14*9 inches (55.5*23*35.5 cm), and can accommodate multiple pedals, cables, laptops, tablets, and other accessories.
Once you travel with an Overhead™ collapsible acoustic travel guitar, you’ll never settle for a plain travel guitar again… and you might not settle for any other guitar either. ;)