My Voyage Air guitar is a Premier Series VAOM-1C which I bought in Hilo Hawaii last April when I was there for the 50th anniversary Merry Monarch festival. It has been with me since then to Australia, California, Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Holland, France, Greece, Switzerland, California, Hawaii, Australia, Hawaii, California, Argentina, Uruguay, Falkland Islands , Antarctica, Argentina, Chile, Peru, California, Louisiana, New York, California, Hawaii, and now back to Australia. 18 unique countries on 4 continents in 11 months.

I principally play finger-style and have been intrigued by the concept of a ‘Zero fret’ for a while. I found the action a bit high for me so took it down a bit and ramped the string exit at the pegs to relax the guitar too. It is not only playable but I feel it has a sweet sound which has merit on its own, not just a ‘travel guitar’. I had pretty much given up on travel guitars because I like to play for the sound, not the exercise and had given away all previous attempts. My next task is amplification which I will likely do using 4 passive K&K pickups with one for the back running to a stereo jack and external use an LR Baggs Mix-Pro stereo in belt preamp.

Picture of me and guitar off the Chilean Research station on the Antarctic peninsula in January.

Great guitar – outstanding value – true to its name!

Regards,
Bob

website: http://www.worklifeessentials.com
blog: http://blog.worklifeessentials.com
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/WorkLife-Essentials/269702063064199?ref=ts

*Editor’s Note: Bob Smith is CEO of WorkLife Essentials. WorkLife Essentials® is a family owned business which provides users with information and support on a variety of issues including managing stress, balancing work and personal life, child care, elder care, and parenting issues. Largely online offering services in 122 countries, translated and culturally adapted to many.

July 2023 Update

Hi,
Here I am playing my Voyage Air Dreadnought guitar at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, the “Cradle of Humankind”. We are archaeologists working here, and designed and built this educational monument featuring giant 5,000 lb sculptures of Olduvai’s most famous fossil skulls, both dating to 1.84 million years ago.
Left: the smaller-brained Paranthropus boisei (“Zinjanthropus” or”Nutcracker Man”), a proto-human lineage that goes extinct by one million years ago. 
Right: our tool-using ancestor, Homo habilis (“Handy Man”).

Cheers,
Nicholas Toth, PhD
Indiana University & The Stone Age Institute (www.stoneageinstitute.org)

---

Here are a couple of photos of me playing my VoyageAir guitar at Olduvai Gorge, northern Tanzania (“The Grand Canyon of Human Prehistory”.) This guitar travels well and plays great (even in the extreme tropical arid conditions on the Serengeti Plain), and is one of my very favorite guitars. The children are local Maasai from the nearby boma (village), who came over to hear me play.

You can see me playing the guitar on  “Zinjanthropus Blues”.  You can see Bill Kaman (former president of Ovation) playing my guitar if you search “Safari Blues, Tanzania” (Bill is a good friend and great guitarist; he joined us on a 10-day safari to Tanzanian game parks last June).

You can listen to our songs about evolution at our web site http://www.stoneageinstitute.org  under “Music Projects”. Our good friend Seymour Duncan (the pickup guy) is our lead guitarist.

Yours very truly,

Nicholas Toth, PhD
Co-Director, The Stone Age Institute
Professor, Anthropology Department and Cognitive Science Program
Adjunct Professor of Biology and Geology
Indiana University, Bloomington
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science

“Zinjanthropus Blues”

“Safari Blues, Tanzania”