Solid Sitka Travel Guitar – PJ410N Traveling Acoustic Guitar with Collapsible Patented System – Portable Backpack Case (African Mahogany)

Ok. I’ll get to it. I own Taylor, Martin, and Zager guitars. All immaculate instruments, but I’ve found I play one in particular 95% of the time… my Solid Mahogany Baby Taylor. It sits by my desk, and has been my go-travel guitar. I’m sure I play it the most because I don't feel bad for not cleaning it after each use, or not storing it in a humidity and climate controlled environment. I’ll play it by campfires, on the couch, throw it in the Jeep… very user friendly. That said, you can only get so much volume from a small body like that, and it isn’t as travel friendly for planes as they claim. Where the neck “can” detach with screws, it is not designed to be taken apart and reassembled. Over time you will split the wood and compromise the structure.There’s my background and the reason why I was so curious about this Journey Puddle Jumper. About the same price point as the baby Taylor, but with a significantly larger body and detachable neck… while still providing a solid sitka spruce top and layered mahogany back and sides… (the layered is a good thing as it is stronger and less susceptible to humidity and climate change when traveling).I’ll be completely honest. I thought it would be garbage. I bought it on prime to try it and fully anticipated being underwhelmed and returning it. Let me be clear… the quality of the instrument matches that of my Taylor’s. The case and design I are exquisite. The sound is REMARKABLE… prior to receiving I watched the YouTube video where a guy compared the Taylor Baby to the Puddle Jumper side by side. You really cannot tell from the sound on the video. In fact, I thought the Taylor sounded better… but I was 100% wrong. When you hear this guitar in person, I would stack it up next to my larger bodied Taylor Koa GS mini. So far superior to the baby Taylor. The highs are more pronounced, the lows actually fill the room with bass… the fret layout and neck design is more comfortable for me. Where you do lose a couple of frets on the shorter scale, the vast majority of what I play is 1st - 10th fret so I haven’t missed it.Suggestion - I went ahead and upgraded the tuners to the Grover Mini Lockable ones. They were about $70 and a direct fit replacement. Smart move considering breaking the guitar down for travel will impact the tune. Don’t be mislead… every time you break it down and put it back together you will need to touch up the tuning. I also replaced the bridge pins with bone. I do hear more sustain.Great job, Journey. Best travel guitar for the price by a mile.I’ve listed the baby Taylor for sale. This guitar is awesome. Truly impressed… and I’m fairly picky.

Easy to put together. You have to detune it pretty good to loosen the strings up enough to click it into place. But if you’re comfortable tuning your guitar pretty often like a guitar player needs to be anyway, it’s totally fine. I was surprised at the build quality of this. Very nice weight to it. Solid made. Mini head stock to cut down on length. Smooth, routered edges. Tight and strong tuners. Solid nut. Very nice sounding especially with these elixirs on here that it comes with. It sounded a little dull when I had it a few steps down but most acoustics do. Tuned up to standard or a half step down, it’s sounds really nice and clear and full. It does come with a nice case, but I have a decent size LL Bean “locker” backpack that this fits completely into so I can still throw more clothes and whatnot into for plane ride carry on. This thing is legit and I’m pretty picky.

Have travelled all over the world with a Washburn Rover, but was worried about an upcoiming Asian trip with lots of connections, small planes etc. So I bought one of these, the most basic model, and I've been playing it everyday and truly enjoying its sound and feel. Worth it.

I bought the Journey Puddle Jumper for airline travel because I don’t like to go a day without playing. It’s perfect! Sure, higher end guitars will sound more nuanced, but this little guy sounds fantastic. Perfect sized neck, too. It fits in the overhead bin just like a carryon. You can put it under your airplane seat, too. Definitely a very well thought-out product.

I was honestly not expecting much. I did some quick searching for a travel guitar and found this one. I needed something quick as I travel in two more days. The guitar arrived on time packed in its little backpack. I was supriseed at how small a package it was that it came in. I followed the assembly instructions and made sure that the neck was seated properly. The string action is very nice. Its small size is comfortable. It was already damn near in tune on the first strum and through the tuning pegs are a little tight it tuned easily and stayed in tune as I played it for the next hour and a half. It is loud for its size. It plays very nicely and I am very happy with this guitar. The tone is the only negative aspect of this great little guitar but this is for me not an issue as I intend to use this to stay in practice during some long TDYs. It will definitely not replace my Zager as my main guitar but it will serve very nicely on my trips.