James and Rob at 2018 Winter NAMM Booth

Journey Instruments is an Austin, Texas company specializing 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, Elixir® 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!

Journey Instruments began back in 2011 by Rob Bailey who ran a supply chain management company called Convergent Sourcing. At that time he was practicing guitar daily, but had to travel frequently for consulting. Turns out traveling with a full-sized guitar on consulting trips got old fast.  After spending 300+ hours of market research on guitar forums, Rob worked with his team of in-house mechanical and carbon fiber engineers to design and patent the Overhead collapsible travel guitar system. James Brawner, his good friend and former colleague, joined the project as a partner in late 2012 and they brought the product to market at NAMM in 2013.

Journey now has a team of 3 stellar staff headed by James Brawner in our Austin,TX location. Rob manages a team of 9 in our own in-house assembly and inspection line in Asia. We’re a small team, but passionate about bringing fellow musicians the best travel instrument solutions possible. Over the years, we’ve created collapsible steel string guitars in wood and all carbon, collapsible classical wood guitars, collapsible bass guitars, ergonomic small body guitars, and great instrument cases.

*Convergent Sourcing Limited remains the procurement company for Journey Instruments’ international orders (outside of the USA)