When we made the decision to take one year off life and travel the world I knew there was one thing I couldn’t go without. As a musician and guitar player I knew I needed to have a reliable guitar so that I could see to my jamming urges at any moment. In past trips, even just a week or two without my guitar would make me angsty.
When I first started looking for the best travel guitar I noticed most options out there consisted of those neck only styles, minis or Ukuleles. All which would have worked fine, but when I came across the Voyage Air guitar, it was a wow moment. A full size guitar the can fold in half, this is awesome! So I bought it online without much of a second thought and haven’t looked back.
Since then the guitar has been through a lot. It joined us on our one year of budget/adventure travel through Asia and it has lived to tell the story. So I thought why not write a review and let others know how functional this guitar is.
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Voyager Air Folding Guitar
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Voyager Air Travel Guitar & Bag
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General Overview:
The Voyage Air Guitar is a standard size guitar with a thin body and foldable neck which halves it size making it easy carry and transport for travellers or people who are on the road a lot. Once you open it and get use to clipping the neck in you soon forget it’s a folding guitar. The Fret board is straight and the guitar has quite a wide sound hole. The action of the strings against the fretboard is quite low which is good for ease of playing.
Staying in Tune:
The neck on the Voyage Air Guitar is reasonably thin and plays in tune quite well all the way up the fretboard. When you unfold the guitar you would think it would go out of tune quite a bit, surprisingly it seems to stay in tune pretty well, sometimes you might need slight adjustments, but that’s the same for most guitars really.
Sound:
This travel guitar has full bodied sound and with new strings it has a very bright tonality. The guitar manages to maintain its bass notes really well which is nice for playing fingerstyle.
I have used this travel guitar to record audio in many environments using various mics and it has shown good acoustic qualities that sounded great in the final product. You can see a couple of examples, one of our travel videos and here in a song I released. Overall it’s a great recording guitar, which is a real bonus if you have brought it solely as a travel guitar!
Durability:
When travelling durability is an important factor. Overall this travel guitar trumps on durability. I have extensively used this guitar for one year constantly taking it out of the case, folding it and unfolding and it and it has never failed me. It’s sturdiness has definitely proven itself over the one year of travel. The guitar has seen many falls and tumbles and has had a few scrapes and battle scars now, despite this it is a solid build and has proven that it’s of sound design and good quality.
The body and neck have shown zero signs of warping, even though it’s been on many flights, dragged through Rajasthani desert and traveled through South Indian monsoon humidity.
The part of the Voyage Air guitar where you might experience weakness or issues is the folding mechanism. You need to be careful to hold the neck in a straight line up and down perpendicular to the line down the back of the guitar. This method allows you lock the neck into the body more effectively without causing damage.
As for the machine heads they have have had a rough one year travelling and you can see visible signs of rust, but they still wind smoothly and keep the guitar in tune very well.
Travel Functionality:
One of the pros of having a foldaway travel guitar is that you don’t have a big clunky instrument to carry around. The Voyage Air literally folds down to the size of a large backpack, keeping it compact and discreet and easy to carry. It’s so easy to set up and dismantle so you can pull it out and play whenever and wherever you want, which is perfect for when you get the urge to jam.
The Case:
One of the biggest highlights with this travel guitar is the travel case that comes with it. It fits perfectly in the overhead compartments for all airlines and has never given me issues while travelling as carry on.
Not only does it carry my guitar but it also has an extra pocket that I use to carry my laptop two sketch books & pencils, an Akai LPD, USB extension and a secret little pouch that carried my USB powered omnidirectional condenser mic.
I took this bag on a 1 month adventure hiking in Nepal as an alternative trekking bag and it survived the 260km hiking journey through the Himalayas. Overall the Voyage Air carry bag is multi functional, sturdy and durable and most importantly provides good protection for the Guitar while travelling.
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Voyager Guitar Bag on Trekking Adventure in Nepal
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Voyager Air Guitar Bag in Nepal
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Where can I get one?
Voyager Air Guitars are available to purchase if you book through their website or on Amazon. If you purchase through the amazing link on this page we will receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which will help support this blog and our youtube channel.
I hope my review was useful, in all honesty, this guitar served me well and I am super stoked I had it with me on my travels. From one travelling guitar player to another, I give it a solidly high recommendation! If you have any questions about the guitar, hit us up in the comments section below and we will be happy top help where we can.
Cheers, Native Travellers
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