To even out the finish, firstly we recommend you take the guitar to a local luthier to do this. However, if you’re good with your hands, you can try a process similar to these Youtube videos to even out the matte finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROkR8zql5bg or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjXYcUgvGgE. Alternatively, you can change the guitar to a glossy finish by a buffing and polishing process similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBQebH3OI9w. Please note, Journey Instruments is not liable for any finish modifications you do to your guitar. These videos are for reference only for you to understand how paint finish modifications work.

For general smudges and fingerprints, we recommend saline solution and a clean microfibre cloth.

If you have deeper scratches or dings, you can use polyurethane-friendly buffing compound or polish like you’d use for a boat or car. You should double-check the compound you use is nonreactive with polyurethane finishes.

The above approaches work for both our carbon fiber and wood guitars as all our finishes are polyurethane.

For cleaning fretboards on our wood guitars, we recommend the traditional lemon oil treatment. (Just search “how to clean a guitar fretboard” on YouTube.)

It sounds like your nut has fallen out. It is the piece of bone between the string retainer and the fretboard that positions the strings above the fretboard. 

Check in your bag – or in the slot area where the neck sits in the bag.  If not here, check around the last place you opened your guitar case and noticed the strings were too low on the fretboard.

To reglue the current nut, the easiest method is to remove the strings completely, then add super glue to the bottom of the nut, then position it with the flat side facing the fretboard so that the thicker slots match the thicker slots in the black string retainer. It is VERY important that you line up these slot as closely as possible so when you assemble the guitar the strings will naturally fall into these nut slots.

If you can’t find the original nut, our steel string guitars use standard 1 3/4 nut (OF422, OF310, OF660 etc..) unless they have an “N” at the end of the model number – in which case they use a 1 11/16 nut (Like PJ410N, OF312N etc..), so you can purchase one on our website or from a local guitar store. If you try to install a new nut, please note you’ll likely need to sand the bottom the nut to the proper height so that your action is not too high. 

Here’s a good video on how to sand down and install a new nut on a standard guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_0wAb7PZ0k

For a normal fixed-neck guitar, the nut may actually be unglued and you’d never know it until you removed your strings. It’s more common than you might think. However, if you’re frequently removing and attaching the neck of a guitar as you do with a collapsible guitar – it’s not uncommon for the nut to come loose due to the friction and change in pressure against the nut.

This is actually a very quick fix. To repair, simply remove the strings, add cyanoacrylate glue (super glue gel or gorilla glue gel) to the bottom of the nut and put it back in place – be sure to align the nut slots with the slots in the black string retainer. Hold it in place for around 3 minutes or until the glue dries, and restring your guitar – you should be good to go.

Our collapsible guitars use bridge pins to hold the strings in place. The strings need to exit the pin holes in a straight line over the saddle so that your string spacing is even. If you have a string (or multiple strings) exiting at an angle, then the spacing of your strings will be uneven. To resolve uneven string spacing, simply twist your bridge pins and re-allign your strings so that they exit the pin hole evenly over the saddle. In the pictures below, you see the “B-String” exiting at an angle in picture on the right with the red circle, making the string spacing uneven between the 3 higher strings. The picture on the left shows the strings properly exiting the bridge pin holes for even string spacing.

From our experience there are a limited number of factors that cause buzzing on our carbon guitars. Here they are in order of occurrence.

1) A loose tuning machine. When the hex nut on the tuning machine loosens the washer underneath ends up rattling against the carbon. This is by far the most common occurrence. Simply check the tuning machine nuts are tight and that there are no loose washers rattling. Then tighten if needed. 

2) A loose pickup endpin washer. This is the same principle as above. When the endpin nut loosens, the washer rattles against the carbon. Simply check the endpin nut is tight and tighten if needed. There’s a rubber bushing inside so it should be able to tighten snuggly. 

3) A Piezo pickup wire is rattling against the inside of the guitar. This is rare (less than 2% of complaints). To fix, you can take a flashlight and look inside the guitar and make sure the wires aren’t touching the soundboard. If they are, you can tape them together and it usually addresses the issue.

The above 3 issues account for the usual causes of buzzing on our carbon guitars. Other causes are as follows in order of the rate of occurrence.

4) The saddle is worn down. If the saddle is worn down, you can temporarily use a shim under the saddle, or just don’t tighten the bolt fully for higher string height – which should alleviate buzzing.

5) One or more nut slots are worn down (usually causes a buzz on one of the first two frets.) If a nut slot is worn down, you can try the baking soda (or chalk) and super glue trick to fill it in a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slCMkvEfK_U. This usually is a good fix until you can replace the nut.

6)You need to adjust the truss rod because there’s no proper neck curve. I’d say try this after earlier issues.  If you tighten the truss rod to add curve to the neck on a carbon guitar, we recommend removing the truss rod cover, and turning it clockwise 180 degrees to add relief – then test the frets. Repeat this with 180 degree turns until the relief is appropriate. (If adjusting relief on a wood guitar, we recommend 90 degree turns because wood is softer and adjusts more quickly than does carbon.

7) Frets are uneven and need filing. This is very very rare – less than 1%.  As long as you’re using newer strings you should be able to strum pretty heavily with no buzzing and an action around 2.7mm at the 12th fret on the low E string. If you play lightly or fingerstyle, you should be able to bring action to just under 2.5mm, but you may need to adjust the truss rod to achieve appropriate neck curve.

8) The latch or latch bolt springs are buzzing. This is literally the rarest occurrence as we’ve never had an issue yet. Our recommendation here is to check all the above issues. If the buzzing still persists, we can send you latch hardware to replace along with an instruction manual. It’s pretty straightforward.  

For general smudges and fingerprints, we recommend saline solution and a clean microfibre cloth.

If you have deeper scratches or dings, you can use polyurethane-friendly buffing compound or polish like you’d use for a boat or car. You should double-check the compound you use is nonreactive with polyurethane finishes.

The above approaches work for both our carbon fiber and wood guitars as all our finishes are polyurethane.

For cleaning fretboards on our wood guitars, we recommend the traditional lemon oil treatment. (Just search “how to clean a guitar fretboard” on YouTube.)

It sounds like your nut has fallen out. It is the piece of bone between the string retainer and the fretboard that positions the strings above the fretboard. 

Check in your bag – or in the slot area where the neck sits in the bag.  If not here, check around the last place you opened your guitar case and noticed the strings were too low on the fretboard.

To reglue the current nut, the easiest method is to remove the strings completely, then add super glue to the bottom of the nut, then position it with the flat side facing the fretboard so that the thicker slots match the thicker slots in the black string retainer. It is VERY important that you line up these slot as closely as possible so when you assemble the guitar the strings will naturally fall into these nut slots.

If you can’t find the original nut, our steel string guitars use standard 1 3/4 nut (OF422, OF310, OF660 etc..) unless they have an “N” at the end of the model number – in which case they use a 1 11/16 nut (Like PJ410N, OF312N etc..), so you can purchase one on our website or from a local guitar store. If you try to install a new nut, please note you’ll likely need to sand the bottom the nut to the proper height so that your action is not too high. 

Here’s a good video on how to sand down and install a new nut on a standard guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_0wAb7PZ0k

To even out the finish, firstly we recommend you take the guitar to a local luthier to do this. However, if you’re good with your hands, you can try a process similar to these Youtube videos to even out the matte finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROkR8zql5bg or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjXYcUgvGgE. Alternatively, you can change the guitar to a glossy finish by a buffing and polishing process similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBQebH3OI9w. Please note, Journey Instruments is not liable for any finish modifications you do to your guitar. These videos are for reference only for you to understand how paint finish modifications work.

Our carbon guitars are produced by hand with layered pre-impregnated carbon fiber resin cloth so the internal layup is naturally rougher than other plastic injection molded guitars as well as traditional wood guitars. We’ve found that while we can achieve a more pristine internal finish, it comes at additional cost and reduction in roundness/warmness of tone – hence we keep it as it is to keep the price lower and achieve a warmer tone.

For a normal fixed-neck guitar, the nut may actually be unglued and you’d never know it until you removed your strings. It’s more common than you might think. However, if you’re frequently removing and attaching the neck of a guitar as you do with a collapsible guitar – it’s not uncommon for the nut to come loose due to the friction and change in pressure against the nut.

This is actually a very quick fix. To repair, simply remove the strings, add cyanoacrylate glue (super glue gel or gorilla glue gel) to the bottom of the nut and put it back in place – be sure to align the nut slots with the slots in the black string retainer. Hold it in place for around 3 minutes or until the glue dries, and restring your guitar – you should be good to go.

Our collapsible guitars use bridge pins to hold the strings in place. The strings need to exit the pin holes in a straight line over the saddle so that your string spacing is even. If you have a string (or multiple strings) exiting at an angle, then the spacing of your strings will be uneven. To resolve uneven string spacing, simply twist your bridge pins and re-allign your strings so that they exit the pin hole evenly over the saddle. In the pictures below, you see the “B-String” exiting at an angle in picture on the right with the red circle, making the string spacing uneven between the 3 higher strings. The picture on the left shows the strings properly exiting the bridge pin holes for even string spacing.

From our experience there are a limited number of factors that cause buzzing on our carbon guitars. Here they are in order of occurrence.

1) A loose tuning machine. When the hex nut on the tuning machine loosens the washer underneath ends up rattling against the carbon. This is by far the most common occurrence. Simply check the tuning machine nuts are tight and that there are no loose washers rattling. Then tighten if needed. 

2) A loose pickup endpin washer. This is the same principle as above. When the endpin nut loosens, the washer rattles against the carbon. Simply check the endpin nut is tight and tighten if needed. There’s a rubber bushing inside so it should be able to tighten snuggly. 

3) A Piezo pickup wire is rattling against the inside of the guitar. This is rare (less than 2% of complaints). To fix, you can take a flashlight and look inside the guitar and make sure the wires aren’t touching the soundboard. If they are, you can tape them together and it usually addresses the issue.

The above 3 issues account for the usual causes of buzzing on our carbon guitars. Other causes are as follows in order of the rate of occurrence.

4) The saddle is worn down. If the saddle is worn down, you can temporarily use a shim under the saddle, or just don’t tighten the bolt fully for higher string height – which should alleviate buzzing.

5) One or more nut slots are worn down (usually causes a buzz on one of the first two frets.) If a nut slot is worn down, you can try the baking soda (or chalk) and super glue trick to fill it in a bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slCMkvEfK_U. This usually is a good fix until you can replace the nut.

6)You need to adjust the truss rod because there’s no proper neck curve. I’d say try this after earlier issues.  If you tighten the truss rod to add curve to the neck on a carbon guitar, we recommend removing the truss rod cover, and turning it clockwise 180 degrees to add relief – then test the frets. Repeat this with 180 degree turns until the relief is appropriate. (If adjusting relief on a wood guitar, we recommend 90 degree turns because wood is softer and adjusts more quickly than does carbon.

7) Frets are uneven and need filing. This is very very rare – less than 1%.  As long as you’re using newer strings you should be able to strum pretty heavily with no buzzing and an action around 2.7mm at the 12th fret on the low E string. If you play lightly or fingerstyle, you should be able to bring action to just under 2.5mm, but you may need to adjust the truss rod to achieve appropriate neck curve.

8) The latch or latch bolt springs are buzzing. This is literally the rarest occurrence as we’ve never had an issue yet. Our recommendation here is to check all the above issues. If the buzzing still persists, we can send you latch hardware to replace along with an instruction manual. It’s pretty straightforward.  

We use a hardened nickel alloy that is super durable on all of our carbon fiber guitars.

No.

The carbon OC660M collapsible nylon string guitar doesn’t have a truss rod built in the neck, and we haven’t tested steel strings, so we don’t recommend it. However, this guitar does handle hard tension and extra hard tension nylon strings with no problem.

There are countless situations in which acoustic guitars are played live or amplified, so it’s beyond the scope of our expertise to go into each one of these. So Firstly, we recommend you educate yourself on the factors that contribute to feedback, and some of the most common methods to deal with them. This will help you tremendously for future live events, regardless of the guitar you’re using. Here are a few guides we’ve found useful:

• Click here for Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s Guide (most thorough)
• Click here for Thomann’s Guide
• Click here for Reverb’s Guide

There are numerous videos on YouTube as well, so you can do a simple search on “guitar feedback” and see dozens of great videos as well.

For a quick and affordable fix for feedback on an acoustic guitar, you can try a sound hole cover – aka “feedback buster.” This is what we recommend most, and sooner or later you’ll come into a “feedbacky” environment and this will save a ton of time and headache.

For a more versatile but more expensive approach, you can try a preamp with a phase switch and notch filter included. This gives more customization for tone, and lets you dial out the offending frequencies.

For our carbon fiber OF660 guitars and OB660 basses, you can also try our YKG004 sound hole cover that’s custom designed for these sound holes. This is the simplest and most reliable solution for dealing with feedback on these models. IMPORTANT: This sound hole cover only works with the second generation of OF660 – see description for details.

If you’re using our EP001 upgradeable passive piezo pickup, you can try upgrading to our EPS001-15K dual source active module for our OF660 and OB660 sound holes, or the EPS001-05K module for traditional sound holes. These include a phase button and the ability to pan between two pickups as well as adjust treble and bass volume. Note that this is a powered unit.

NOTES: 1. You must use the newer upgradeable model that has a removable 2mm connector from the piezo elements to the pickup jack. 2. The EPS001-05K and EPS001-15K modules are not complete pickups, they require the EP001K, EP004K, or other passive piezo pickup to be previously installed or to be purchased and installed at the same time.

For general smudges and fingerprints, we recommend saline solution and a clean microfibre cloth.

If you have deeper scratches or dings, you can use polyurethane-friendly buffing compound or polish like you’d use for a boat or car. You should double-check the compound you use is nonreactive with polyurethane finishes.

The above approaches work for both our carbon fiber and wood guitars as all our finishes are polyurethane.

For cleaning fretboards on our wood guitars, we recommend the traditional lemon oil treatment. (Just search “how to clean a guitar fretboard” on YouTube.)

It sounds like your nut has fallen out. It is the piece of bone between the string retainer and the fretboard that positions the strings above the fretboard. 

Check in your bag – or in the slot area where the neck sits in the bag.  If not here, check around the last place you opened your guitar case and noticed the strings were too low on the fretboard.

To reglue the current nut, the easiest method is to remove the strings completely, then add super glue to the bottom of the nut, then position it with the flat side facing the fretboard so that the thicker slots match the thicker slots in the black string retainer. It is VERY important that you line up these slot as closely as possible so when you assemble the guitar the strings will naturally fall into these nut slots.

If you can’t find the original nut, our steel string guitars use standard 1 3/4 nut (OF422, OF310, OF660 etc..) unless they have an “N” at the end of the model number – in which case they use a 1 11/16 nut (Like PJ410N, OF312N etc..), so you can purchase one on our website or from a local guitar store. If you try to install a new nut, please note you’ll likely need to sand the bottom the nut to the proper height so that your action is not too high. 

Here’s a good video on how to sand down and install a new nut on a standard guitar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_0wAb7PZ0k

1. Our carbon guitars use pre-impregnated carbon fiber fabric, which translates into 10-20 times the amount of carbon fiber found in guitars that are injection-molded. There are a number of low-budget injection molded plastic guitars with around 5-7% carbon fiber.
2. All of our core components are made from pre-impregnated carbon fiber materials: the body, the neck, the fretboard, the bridge
3. Our carbon fiber guitars have dual-action adjustable truss rods to let you fine-tune curvature for maximum playability.
4. Our hardware is stainless steel and our mechanisms have been cycle-tested for 4000 assembly processes, so they’re super precise and reliable.
5. Our collapsible model necks are adjustable on the fly. With the OF660, with the twist of a knob, you can go from ultra low fingerstyle action, to heavy-handed cowboy strumming and maintain maximum comfort and playability for each style.
6. Our patented soundboard technology provides the tone of a full-sized acoustic guitar.
7. The benefits of pre-impregnated carbon fiber technology with our patented designs are:
   1. Longer sustain: The higher carbon content of our guitars make for a more consistant transfer of energy and thus a significantly longer sustain.
   2. General Durability: Injection-molded guitars are likely to crack in extreme cold temperatures, and warp under hotter temperatures. Our guitars have been played in Antarctica, the Sahara, and the Rain Forest, and we have a proven track record of durable, quality carbon guitars.
   3. More Stable Necks: injection-molded necks lack the reinforcement offered by actual woven carbon fibers and will warp over time. Using pre-impregnated carbon fiber in both the neck and fretboard makes our guitar necks the most stable in the business.
   4. Secure Components that don’t delaminate: Because all of our components are actually carbon fiber, our fingerboards don’t delaminate, and our bridges don’t pull off. Competing carbon guitars with wood or plastic bridges will frequently suffer from this problem as temperature and humidity will affect the different materials in various ways.
   5. Ultra Comfort: We conducted 2 years of research and testing in designing the ergonomics of our guitars and the result shows. The bevels, wedged body, and geometry of our guitars make them the most comfortable guitars you’ll ever play.
8. Transparent, Premium Quality Electronics: We spent years researching the best components for a transparent, reliable pickup that’s maintenance free and perfect for recording. Consequently the included EPS001K passive 3-piezo pickup provides one of the best clean sound reproductions of any pickup in the market. And our new EPS001-05 and EPS001-15 active modules give dual source capability with EQ and Phase adjustment as well. If you’re looking for a gimmicky, reliable pickup that sounds phenomenal, you’ll be satisfied with our electronics.
9. Ultra-portable Design: You simply won’t find a more portable travel-friendly guitar that feels and sounds like a real acoustic guitar.

We use medium jumbo white brass frets on our carbon fiber guitars. We chose this material over stainless steel because it helps the guitar have a softer tone. Our fretboard is all carbon fiber.

You can re-fret our guitars, but the process is a bit more involved because you must use epoxy resin and a jig to press and hold the frets in place. If needed we have clear instructions for this that have been used by a few luthiers already.

Nope. Carbon fiber guitar necks have a hollow foam core, so if you file down the carbon fiber, it’s possible you’d file down to the foam core. If a neck were solid carbon fiber it would be significantly heavier than wood – and impossible to achieve relief adjustment with a truss rod.

There are countless situations in which acoustic guitars are played live or amplified, so it’s beyond the scope of our expertise to go into each one of these. So Firstly, we recommend you educate yourself on the factors that contribute to feedback, and some of the most common methods to deal with them. This will help you tremendously for future live events, regardless of the guitar you’re using. Here are a few guides we’ve found useful:

• Click here for Acoustic Guitar Magazine’s Guide (most thorough)
• Click here for Thomann’s Guide
• Click here for Reverb’s Guide

There are numerous videos on YouTube as well, so you can do a simple search on “guitar feedback” and see dozens of great videos as well.

For a quick and affordable fix for feedback on an acoustic guitar, you can try a sound hole cover – aka “feedback buster.” This is what we recommend most, and sooner or later you’ll come into a “feedbacky” environment and this will save a ton of time and headache.

For a more versatile but more expensive approach, you can try a preamp with a phase switch and notch filter included. This gives more customization for tone, and lets you dial out the offending frequencies.

For our carbon fiber OF660 guitars and OB660 basses, you can also try our YKG004 sound hole cover that’s custom designed for these sound holes. This is the simplest and most reliable solution for dealing with feedback on these models. IMPORTANT: This sound hole cover only works with the second generation of OF660 – see description for details.

If you’re using our EP001 upgradeable passive piezo pickup, you can try upgrading to our EPS001-15K dual source active module for our OF660 and OB660 sound holes, or the EPS001-05K module for traditional sound holes. These include a phase button and the ability to pan between two pickups as well as adjust treble and bass volume. Note that this is a powered unit.

NOTES: 1. You must use the newer upgradeable model that has a removable 2mm connector from the piezo elements to the pickup jack. 2. The EPS001-05K and EPS001-15K modules are not complete pickups, they require the EP001K, EP004K, or other passive piezo pickup to be previously installed or to be purchased and installed at the same time.