We use maple grown in the northeastern part of Canada.The colder climate in this region makes for a shorter growing season, which in turn results in a much dense grade of maple. Canadian maple necks provide a couple of significant advantages; the first being excellent frequency response and sustain. The second advantage comes from the incredible stability that these necks provide.

It’s impossible to discuss alder without making reference to the first CA made solid body guitars which first used alder prominently in the late ’50s and early ’60s. It’s a medium-weight wood. Alder has a strong, clear, full-bodied sound, with thick, rich mids and excellent lows. Its highs sizzle, but are never harsh, and it offers a wonderful amount of sustain. Alder is most often used on its own as a body wood.

Available Models

• VET-1 Black w/ Rosewood neck and White Pickguard
• VET-2SBB Sunburst w/Maple Neck and Black Pickguard

Rosewood

Native to the tropical regions of Brazil and India, Rosewood is the tone wood of choice for the back and sides of high-end guitars. Noted for its depth of resonance, guitars built with Rosewood back and sides have a distinctive sound signature. Solid Rosewood affords an extra presence to bass notes and their related harmonics, giving an acoustic guitar a full, rich sound.

Fretboard

The Fretboard is the wood behind the frets of the guitar. All Voyage Air guitars use Solid Rosewood for the Fretboard. The Fretboard of all Voyage Air guitars feature easy-to-see position markers, so you can quickly determine your playing position as you form chords and notes up the neck of the instrument.

Bridge

The Bridge is the component where the strings attach into the body of the guitar. All Voyage Air guitars use Solid Rosewood for the Bridge. When used for the bridge, Rosewood provides strength and beauty to the instrument.

Saddle

All Voyage Air guitars feature a “compensated bridge.” This preserves the intonation of each individual string, so all notes remain in tune as you play higher notes up the neck. The Voyage Air Premier Series guitars feature a natural Bone saddle for the best possible tone and resonance.

The Solid Mahogany used for Voyage Air Transit and Songwriter Series is from East Africa. Mahogany is noted for its strength, stability and warm rich tone when used as a guitar neck tone wood.

The Fingerboard is the wood behind the frets of the guitar. All Voyage Air guitars use Solid Rosewood for the Fretboard. The Fretboard of all Voyage Air guitars feature easy-to-see position markers, so you can quickly determine your playing position as you form chords and notes up the neck of the instrument.

The Bridge is the component where the strings attach into the body of the guitar. All Voyage Air guitars use Solid Rosewood for the Bridge. When used for the bridge, Rosewood provides strength and beauty to the instrument. All Voyage Air guitars feature a “compensated bridge.” This preserves the intonation of each individual string, so all notes remain in tune as you play higher notes up the neck. The Voyage Air Premier Series guitars feature a natural Bone saddle for the best possible tone and resonance.

Spruce has characteristics that make it ideal for the “top” of an acoustic guitar (the part with the sound hole and bridge). Spruce is a straight-grained wood, and is very strong for its weight. In fact, Spruce was the wood used in early 1900s aircraft because it was very strong, yet still very light. For a guitar, this means a thin sheet of Spruce can be strong, yet easily transmit the resonance of the strings. It’s this top-wood resonance that contributes the most to the sound character of a guitar. Three types of Spruce are used for Voyage Air guitars: Select Spruce, Solid Spruce, and Sitka Spruce. All three make for a great-sounding instrument, and all have various considerations in terms of price, durability and performance.

Select Spruce is an engineered, high-technology laminate that uses thin layers of Spruce, bonded under heat and pressure. Because of the lamination process, Select Spruce is more flexible than a solid, single layer of Spruce. It is also more temperature resistant, and it holds up better to the occasional ‘dings’ and ‘bangs’ that occur when traveling with a guitar. For a travel guitar, Select Spruce is strong, inexpensive, durable and sounds really good. Select Spruce is used in the Voyage Air Transit series guitars.

X- Bracing: Consists of two braces forming an X shape across the soundboard below the top of the sound hole. The lower arms of the X straddle and support the ends of the bridge. Under the bridge is a hardwood bridge plate which prevents the ball end of the strings from damaging the underside of the soundboard. Below the bridge patch are one or more tone bars which support the bottom of the soundboard. These abut one of the X braces and usually slant down towards the bottom edge of the soundboard. The top tone bar butts against a portion of the bridge patch in most instruments. Above the sound hole a large transverse brace spans the width of the upper bout of the soundboard. Around the lower bout, small finger braces support the area between the X-braces and the edge of the soundboard.

Back Binding: Acoustic guitars have the edges bound to create stronger joints between the top, sides, and back of the guitar. The binding acts almost as a brace around the outside of the guitar. It protects the fragile, grain edges of the top and back while helping attach them to the sides. Binding is important structurally and aesthetically.