If you’re playing the guitar frequently, you can keep it assembled. If you’re not playing it frequently, we recommend keeping it stored in the original case.

If your climate is dry and you have a collapsible wood model, you can use a humidifier and store the guitar in the original case, and then seal the case in the plastic bag that came with the original guitar (or large trash bag). Be sure to check the guitars’ humidity in a month to be sure it’s not over-humidified. If you have a carbon guitar, it should be worry free.

If you keep the guitar assembled, be aware that if you have swings in humidity the wood may swell from the increase in moisture and thus require more force to unscrew the main bolt. To make it easier to unscrew, you can press against the neck while grabbing it near the headstock for leverage, and untwist the bolt with the other hand.

We ship saddles as blanks, meaning they’re not sanded to the correct height for a specific guitar. The reason for this is because every guitar has slight variations in neck angle, nut height, string height, neck curve, etc. Additionally, saddle thicknesses vary well in terms of fractions of a millimeter, and saddle slot depths and widths vary from changes in humidity, and temperature. This means that for every guitar, the saddle needs to be sanded down for that guitar’s specifics to the proper fit. Here’s a video on how to sand down your saddle for the proper height: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjWHDHZcGoo Here’s a video to show you how to sand down the saddle height and width using straight edges and sandpaper without the use of a sanding belt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL52mKu414I

If the spare saddle included in your guitar is too high, we recommend you use a straight edge and sand paper to sand down your saddle to your desired height, referencing the videos above. Reason being, it’s impossible for us to sand it down remotely without the guitar in our shop, and every guitarists preferred string height is different.

(All measurements are at the 12th fret unless otherwise stated. First measurement is for Low string,

• Carbon or wood acoustic guitars: 2.6- 2.2 mm
• Electric guitars: 2.4- 2.0 mm
• Classical guitars: 3.8-3.3 mm
• Carbon bass guitars: 3.8-3.3 mm
• Carbon fretless bass guitars: 3.8-3.3 mm
• Ukuleles: 2.5-2.2 mm

All of our wood steel string guitars have a 92mm diameter sound hole. The OC520 and OC522 has a 92mm sound hole as well, but the FC522 has an 86mm sound hole. (give or take 0.8mm). All carbon guitars have irregular sound holes.

The zippered laptop compartments on the front of our Overhead, First Class, and Puddle Jumper cases easily fit a standard 14″ laptop. If you have a larger laptop between 15-16 inches, these should fit in the slot on the backside of our Overhead BG001 backpack case. However, to access this slot you may need to unclip a backpack strap. The BG001 backpack case is the default backpack case used in all OF*** and OC*** series guitars – OF660, OF312, OF410, OF882C, OC520 etc…

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

Because our guitars are engineered to collapse we over-engineer the latch mechanism with stainless steel components. This adds weight to the areas of attachment in the neck and body. Additionally, for acoustic guitars, we need to reinforce the block area by 3-4 times that of a normal acoustic neck block. While our guitars are a bit heavier, because they’re “over engineered” you can be sure your Journey Instruments guitar will remain stable and in tune for thousands of assemblies.

If your neck is not latching into position before twisting the bolt to fully tighten, first try the instructions here to make sure you’re pressing the neck properly into place against the body: https://journeyinstruments.com/journey-overhead-assembly-instructions/

If the latch catch is not attaching to the neck mechanism, use a pair of needle-nose pliers to bend the latch catch in the neck closer towards the center of the hole that houses the neck latch catch. Do this by 1mm increments so as not to over-bend the latch catch. See picture below:

For our collapsible steelstring acoustic and electric guitars, there’s no need to detune before disassembly or assembly. However, for nylon stringed guitars (like OC660M or OC520), we recommend you tune down at least two semitones so that the tension is reduced before disassembly. This increases string life and reduces unnecessary wear on the nylon strings where they contact the nut and saddle.

If you’re playing the guitar frequently, you can keep it assembled. If you’re not playing it frequently, we recommend keeping it stored in the original case.

If your climate is dry and you have a collapsible wood model, you can use a humidifier and store the guitar in the original case, and then seal the case in the plastic bag that came with the original guitar (or large trash bag). Be sure to check the guitars’ humidity in a month to be sure it’s not over-humidified. If you have a carbon guitar, it should be worry free.

If you keep the guitar assembled, be aware that if you have swings in humidity the wood may swell from the increase in moisture and thus require more force to unscrew the main bolt. To make it easier to unscrew, you can press against the neck while grabbing it near the headstock for leverage, and untwist the bolt with the other hand.

We ship saddles as blanks, meaning they’re not sanded to the correct height for a specific guitar. The reason for this is because every guitar has slight variations in neck angle, nut height, string height, neck curve, etc. Additionally, saddle thicknesses vary well in terms of fractions of a millimeter, and saddle slot depths and widths vary from changes in humidity, and temperature. This means that for every guitar, the saddle needs to be sanded down for that guitar’s specifics to the proper fit. Here’s a video on how to sand down your saddle for the proper height: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjWHDHZcGoo Here’s a video to show you how to sand down the saddle height and width using straight edges and sandpaper without the use of a sanding belt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL52mKu414I

If the spare saddle included in your guitar is too high, we recommend you use a straight edge and sand paper to sand down your saddle to your desired height, referencing the videos above. Reason being, it’s impossible for us to sand it down remotely without the guitar in our shop, and every guitarists preferred string height is different.

(All measurements are at the 12th fret unless otherwise stated. First measurement is for Low string,

• Carbon or wood acoustic guitars: 2.6- 2.2 mm
• Electric guitars: 2.4- 2.0 mm
• Classical guitars: 3.8-3.3 mm
• Carbon bass guitars: 3.8-3.3 mm
• Carbon fretless bass guitars: 3.8-3.3 mm
• Ukuleles: 2.5-2.2 mm

99% of the time this is due to one of two reasons: 1) An increase in humidity causes the wood to swell, which makes the latch hard to press down. and 2) the string force just makes it hard to press down.

For a quick solution try grabbing the neck near the headstock with one hand and pressing the neck against the guitar body. With your other hand, use your THUMB to press down on the button. Pressing against the neck helps add a little distance between the latch pin and latch catch so it can disengage, and using your thumb gives you more force to depress the button.

If these don’t work, you can reach out to us via the contact form for direct support. Less than 0.1% of the times is there a need to change a latch or do a major repair.

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.  

All of our wood steel string guitars have a 92mm diameter sound hole. The OC520 and OC522 has a 92mm sound hole as well, but the FC522 has an 86mm sound hole. (give or take 0.8mm). All carbon guitars have irregular sound holes.

The zippered laptop compartments on the front of our Overhead, First Class, and Puddle Jumper cases easily fit a standard 14″ laptop. If you have a larger laptop between 15-16 inches, these should fit in the slot on the backside of our Overhead BG001 backpack case. However, to access this slot you may need to unclip a backpack strap. The BG001 backpack case is the default backpack case used in all OF*** and OC*** series guitars – OF660, OF312, OF410, OF882C, OC520 etc…

1. Firstly, when you remove your existing strings, you don’t want to scratch or damage the string retainer. (The string retainer is the black piece that holds the string in place)  So before you take off your existing strings, you should first cut them with string or wire cutters. You can do this with the neck assembled or disassembled – just make sure strings are loose if you keep the neck on. You can cut the strings either behind (towards tuners) or before (towards the guitar body) the string retainer. You then pull the straight strings through the string retainer and remove string pegs to remove strings from the bridge. DO NOT PULL CURLY STRING ENDS THAT WERE WRAPPED AROUND THE TUNING PEGS THROUGH THE STRING RETAINER,  OTHERWISE YOU MAY SCRATCH OR DAMAGE THE STRING RETAINER. 
2. Secondly, when you install new strings:
   1. We recommend your first secure the neck to the body, and take time to polish the frets or clean the fretboard if needed. Installing strings is very similar to installing on a normal guitar with the following additional two steps:
   2. We recommend installing one string at a time. When you insert the string ends (usually a ring or ball) into the bridge pin holes and put the bridge pins in place, make sure the strings are exiting the bridge in a straight line towards the bridge. If the strings come out at an angle, it may impact string spacing on the white bone saddle when you assemble the guitar. If the strings are spaced evenly at the saddle when you assemble the guitar after tuning, you’ve done it right. If they’re uneven, it’s an easy fix –  just remove the neck, pull out pins and reposition the strings so that they come out straight and evenly spaced on the saddle.
   3. After you’ve inserted the string end and secured the bridge pin, pass the string through the string retainer. Once you’ve passed it through the string retainer, you can then insert them through the hole in the post of the tuner and tighten the string. If you have a newer guitar with our locking tuners, make sure the tuner lock is loose so the string can pass through easily. We recommend wrapping the strings a single wrap, and pulling it tight, then tightening the locking knob clockwise on the back of the tuner – then you can tune to pitch. If you have non-locking tuners (like Grover), you’ll want a minimum of 3 wraps per string as you normally would on a traditional guitar tuner.

Summary: With strings loosened, cut the old strings before removing, and don’t pull curly string ends through the string retainer.  When installing new strings, first install the neck.  Make sure strings come out straight from bridge pin holes. For locking tuners: do one wrap, tighten the lock screw knob on the back, then tune to pitch.  For normal tuners (like Grover) get 3+ wraps before tuning to pitch – just like a normal guitar.

All of our saddles are compensated – which means they have an adjustment under the second string to “compensate” for the change in string diameter from the wound strings and the non-wound strings. (strings 3-6 have a wire core and another wire wrapped around it so that they’re thicker, whereas strings 1 and 2 are just two thin wires)

If your saddle falls out and you need to place it back, simply put it back in place with the compensating “notch” under the second string. The second string is the B string, or second highest-pitch string using standard EADGBE tuning.

Usually a saddle height is taller towards the bass strings and lower towards the treble strings – so if you incorrectly put the saddle in, you’ll likely find that the string hight is too low in the bass strings and too high in the treble strings. See pictures below:

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

However, here are a few things to clarify:

1. If you’ve recently removed the neck, then assembled it, it’s usually much closer to being in tune than if you’ve removed it a month ago and just assembled the guitar.
2. Our carbon fiber guitars are VERY close to being in tune after assembly, while our wood guitars may take 5-15 minutes of playing to settle fully after assembly. This is because carbon fiber is very consistent in all temperatures and humidities and is more precise material.
3. For all collapsible guitars, usually after you’ve played a guitar for a bit, the strings have settled and intonation should not change significantly. Remember, you’re removing the neck of a guitar – so the strings go slack. When you re-assemble the neck, the strings loose some tension around the tuning posts, which is the main reason for the pitch to go down after they have been played for a while.
4. Some of our newer models have locking tuners – these really help minimize the amount you need to retune after assembly. This is because part of the reason the guitar is out of tune is because the strings become loose around the tuner posts when removing the neck. Since a locking tuner requires less than a single wrap around a post the string is tight around the post and the tone doesn’t change much.
5. If you’re playing live, we recommend you play for 15 minutes and adjust the tuners before playing live to prevent any need for retuning during your performance.
6. If there are big swings in temperature or humidity, you can expect the action to change, so you may need to retune or re-tighten the neck joint. Note – all wood guitars will experience changes in neck relief under large variances of temperature or humidity.
7. Our necks are also adjustable – you can use the knob on the back of the guitar to adjust the neck angle to raise or lower string height. However, keep in mind that this will slightly affect your intonation as it would with any neck adjustment.

If you’re experiencing undesirable action (string height) on your collapsible Journey Instruments Travel guitar, this can be addressed quickly with one of the first two steps in most cases.

1) Firstly, please check to see that the knob on the back is fully tightened. Fully tightening the main knob on the back will resolve 95% of any high action issues. To tighten fully, there’s two effective methods:

a. Placing the body of the guitar between your knees, Twist the knob with one hand while pressing the headstock downward against the guitar body – this makes it easier to twist fully.

b. Alternatively, you can grab the neck of the guitar near the headstock and angle the guitar soundboard facing down at about a 45degree angle against a floor, table, desk, chair or flat surface. Now tighten the knob while applying downward force against the guitar back until it’s tight.

c. If you experience high swings of humidity and have kept your collapsible wood guitar assembled during this time, it’s likely that the bolt may be very tight. Apply force to the neck in one of the above two methods while twisting the knob to loosen the bolt. (this is not an issue for carbon models as the material does not swell and contract with humidity or temperature changes.

2) Secondly, check your truss rod adjustment. After confirming the neck mechanism is fully tightened – if you still find string height is too high or two low, this may also be due to changes in temperature or humidity causing changes in the neck of the guitar. Usually in high humidity and a wood guitar neck will have a more forward bow (causing high action), and in low humidity it will have a backward bow (causing low action and buzzing). Here’s a great video by Tony Polecastro that clearly explains how to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlIFN8oPDw

a. Start by evaluating the neck bow. There should be a very slight neck bow (nearly flat) to achieve proper string height.

b. If the neck bow is high, causing high action – remove the truss rod cover and use the included hex wrench to tighten the truss rod. Turn the truss rod clockwise a quarter turn and then evaluate the neck curve. Repeat this process

c. If the neck bow is backward or too low, causing low action – remove the truss rod cover and use the included hex wrench to tighten the truss rod. Turn the truss rod counter-clockwise a quarter turn and then evaluate the neck curve. Repeat this process

*Note OC660 carbon nylon neck has no truss rod.

3) Thirdly, you can file down the saddle. Here’s a great video from StewMac that shows how to file down the saddle, change nut slot depth, as well as adjust the truss rod. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DpLRfbv9ok

4) Fourthly, we can provide you with precision shims to adjust the neck angle if needed. This is rarely needed, but can be done within 5 minutes if needed.

From our experience, tightening the neck fully and adjusting the truss rod if necessary usually fixes 98%+ of string height issues. Steps 3 and 4 are rarely needed.

Sustain: Actually sustain is better on our guitars than on a normal traditional acoustic guitar. The main reason is that we use premium grade Mahogany for our necks, and we embed stainless steel latch and bolt components. The neck plate connector is also stainless steel. As energy transfer is primarily horizontal (from nut to saddle through the neck), our design makes for very efficient energy transfer, hence prolonged sustain.

Intonation: Our guitars have intonation in line with premium brand guitars in the US market – which is very good. Moreover, because our necks are detachable, you can quickly add shims behind the neck connector plate to compensate for any intonation issue that may occur over time. (Though we don’t have a single report of this being done to date)

Our shim kits are basically 2-3 shims of wood that are laser cut to fit the slot of our collapsible guitars, and are used to adjust the neck angle. Before you consider installing a shim kit, we recommend you first 1) make sure you’ve fully tightened the main bolt on the guitar. 2) Adjusted the saddle if needed and 3) Adjusted the truss rod if needed. If you’ve done these things and your string height (action) is still high, you can use a shim kit to quickly lower the action. Here’s a link to the FAQ with pictures on how to do the above steps.

Shim kits can be installed permanently with all purpose wood glue, or temporarily. Here’s a link to the installation process.

Here are the links to our shim kits if you need one. Please note the shim kits are precision cut for the necks of the corresponding model, so make sure you order the shim kit for your precise guitar.

Shim Kit for Puddle Jumper

Shim Kit for Overhead and First Class Parlor

Shim Kit for First Class Grand Auditorium

Nope. We’ve been producing our collapsible guitars for years and our guitars are played by some of the best guitarists on earth. We’ve personally been on hundreds of flights with our collapsible guitars. Not a single complaint to date about string life.

HOWEVER, if you play your guitar daily, and you’re a tone freak, you should change your strings at least once every 3 months or every 300 hours – whichever comes first. This assumes you’re using coated strings, and is recommended for all acoustic guitars – regardless of if they’re collapsible or not.

There is no crack in your string retainer (the plastic component above the neck that holds your strings in place when you remove your neck). Our string retainer is made from two parts that come together like two jigsaw puzzle pieces. We designed the retainer in two components so that a luthier or guitar technician can remove this piece and have access to file down the nut without removing the strings. Click the image below to order a replacement. NOTE: We have Two sizes one NARROW 1 11/16″ and one STANDARD 1 3/4″. If your Guitar ends in the letter “N” you need the narrow version, otherwise you can order from clicking the image below.

Click here to see a picture of this component, or to order one if yours is broken.

We recommend the following strings for our bass guitars. To install, we recommend assembling the guitar, installing the entire untrimmed string (through the string retainer), and making 2-3 wraps to tune to pitch. After tuning, then trim the strings.

Flat Wound: D’Addario ECB81S Chromes Bass Guitar Strings, Light, 45-100, Short Scale
Round Wound:D’Addario EXL170S Nickel Wound Bass Guitar Strings, Light, 45-100, Short Scale
Tape WoundD’Addario ETB92S Tapewound Bass Guitar Strings, Medium, 50-105, Short Scale

We recommend the following strings for use in our instruments:

For Collapsible Steel String Guitars (All Carbon and Wood Overheads, Carbon RoadTrip, First Class) we use:
D’addario EXP16 Coated Phosphor Bronze Lights

*For collapsible wood guitars (with the exception of the Puddle Jumper series) , we recommend only light gauge strings. Using medium or heavier gauge strings on our collapsible wood guitars will void the warranty.

* For Puddle Jumper Series, because of the shorter 23-inch scale, we use D’Addario EXP17 Coated Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings, Medium, 13-56. This is the only collapsible wood guitar for we recommend medium gauge strings.

Our carbon fiber steel string guitars (OF660, RT660) can use up to medium gauge strings.

For Journey Junior and Puddle Jumper Series we use:
D’addario EXP16 Coated Phosphor Bronze Lights

For our Classical Guitars: All OC520, OC522, FC522, JC520, OC660M we use:
Savarez 520 White Card Traditional Series classical guitar strings for our OC520, OC522, and FC522.

*we do not recommend high tension nylon strings on our collapsible wood classical guitars, but they can be used on the OC660M carbon model.

Here’s a concise overview of our collapsible classical guitars and their main differences:

• OC520 – solid top only, matte with sound port, full scale, backpack case that fits on all airlines, even prop jobs. 80% of a full-sized classical sound.
• OC522 – same as OC520 but with solid top and back. 90% of a full-sized classical guitar sound with great sustain.
• FC522 – solid top/back, all gloss, standard Torres size, full scale (not short scale like the one he demoed), figured binding, arm bevel, gold tuners, and a roller case. Fits in most airlines, but maybe not smaller pro-jobs. I’ve compared this to $2000 Alhambra and Yamaha classical and it sounds just as good and way more comfortable.
• FC522LTD – same as FC522 but with the figured American Redwood top.
• OC660M – All carbon fiber with no truss rod, same body format as our OF660M, and same scale as our OC520 but with a narrower nut.
• JC520 – our budget travel classical guitar with standard classical scale and nut width, solid top, wedged body.

Here’s a good summary of which models are best for which purposes:

• If you want this for just a nice holiday guitar – go for the OC520.
• If you want it for lots of travel and like best tone with no risk – go for OC522.
• If you want a guitar that travels great with wheeled-carry-on, and sounds and plays like a standard classical go for the FC522.
• If you want premium guitar with the eye candy, go for FC522LTD.
• If you want a go-anywhere with no-stress classical guitar and don’t mind the narrower nut, go for the OC660M. Sounds great on stage with the passive or add-on active pickup as well.
• If you want a smaller travel-friendly classical with a narrower nut, try the JC520 Journey Junior – this guitar sounds great for its size, has a full scale, and is super comfy.

All of our classical and nylon gutiars come with our passive piezo system preinstalled.

Firstly, it’s a way to increase the volume inside the guitar which give a little louder and deeper sound. Secondly, it’s super ergonomic. The design angles the guitar against your body so that when you strum, the movement of your arm is more ergonomic and causes less fatigue on your shoulder. It’s also a bit easier to play barre chords as it causes the fretboard to be more naturally angled – which helps gravity add a little extra pressure with your barred finger on the fretboard – the weight of your arm naturally adds more force against the strings. For guitarists with shoulder issues or injuries, this asymmetrical design makes guitar playing much more comfortable.

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