Voyage-Air TransAxe Bel Air VER1 Folding Electric Guitar with Gig Bag

No longer available at zZounds
Voyage-Air continues to redefine guitar portability with the TransAxe Bel Air VER1. This limited-edition travel guitar folds in half to fit in tight spaces.

What's special about this item?

Feature: What it does:
Folds in half Great for travel, converts to carry-on size
Alder body Light weight with a wide tonal range
Rosewood fretboard Open, warm tone and smooth playing feel
Limited run production Collectible and unique

Based on the overwhelming response by the public at the recent NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) Show in Anaheim, California, Voyage-Air Guitar kicks-off the new TransAxe series solidbody electric guitars with a very special instrument: the Voyage-Air Belair Limited Edition. There will only be 250 of these amazing instruments made.

Capturing the vibe from the earliest days of the electric guitar, this Limited Edition guitar has a stunning semi-transparent high-gloss "TV Yellow" finish, and wears a deeply-patterned tortoise pickguard. For the period-accurate tone, this guitar is fitted with two custom "Vintage 90 Soap Bar" pickups, and a three-position toggle switch. The tone is warm yet articulated, and has punch and sustain that is more than surprising. This guitar screams with TONE!

Fitting its Limited Edition status, this guitar sports deluxe features ordinarily found on much more expensive instruments: solid Alder wood body, solid Canadian Maple neck topped with a solid Rosewood fingerboard, mother-of-pearl fret position dots, and a bridge that's adjustable for individual string intonation and height. Only 250 of the Voyage-Air Belair Limited Edition guitars will be produced, and each will have a special, sequential serial number to reflect this special edition. These are instant collector's items: the first full-size folding electric guitars, and the first Limited Edition guitars from Voyage-Air!

Of course, like all Voyage-Air guitars, it folds in half read more to fit into the included Dura-Trans case. read less

- TransAxe Series: Belair Limited edition (250 only)
- Body Shape: HGL-Single Cutaway
- Neck Material: Canadian Maple
- Body Material: Alder
- Fingerboard Material: Rosewood
- Finish Color: Gloss T.V. Yellow
- Scale Length: 24 3/4 in.
- Number of Frets: 20
- Position markers: Mother of Pearl Dots
- Pickguard: Classic Red/Brown Tortoise
- Tuners: 3 on a side, diecast, button
- Hardware plating: Chrome
- Strings: Daddario 10's
- Case Included: DuraTrans Semi-Hard
- Pickups:
- 2 TONERIDER Vintage 90 Soapbar
- Alnico II Magnets for sustain
- USA-made vintage connecting wire
- Internal coils bound with fabric tape
- Internal coils scatter-wound on CNC winding machines
- Internal coils wax-potted to avoid feedback at high gain settings
- Pair is RWRP (reverse-wound, reverse polarity) to cancel noise in mid setting
- DC Resistance: 8.0k (neck) 8.5k (bridge)
- Inductance: 7.2H (neck) 7.7H (bridge)

Reviewers gave this product an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. (2 ratings)
Submitted January 9, 2012 by a customer from lusfiber.net

"Not just a nice travel guitar... nice guitar, period."

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I don't see my getting tired of this guitar. It's a keeper. However, if something happened to it I'm not sure if I would immediately replace it unless I really were travelling a lot with it by air. If that were the case though I would definitely replace it.

Sound
I was pleasantly surprised by the tone of this instrument. The pickups are higher gain than the humbuckers in my PRS Standard 22 (not SE) and much lower noise than my stock pickup Strat, so I get the best of both worlds here. I've played it live and it excels especially with crunch rhythm work.

Features
Obviously the fact that the case is perfect carry on bag size is its biggest plus. Our local airport is serviced by mostly small regional jets and turbo props, and even some carry on bags have to be gate checked because they are too fat to fit in the overhead bin. I haven't flown with this yet but it is narrow enough even to fit in the overhead bins or under the seats of even the smaller regional aircraft. Also, there is plenty of room in the bag for essential gear like a notebook or tablet, cords, toiletries, a change of clothes and the like. Looks almost exactly like a computer case.

Ease of Use
So far I have played it live several times in our church worship team as well as through my DAW at home. I can't play through an amp at church so normally I play through a VOX Tonelab LE (the 2 expression pedal version which read more is no longer available) and it sounds like a champ. Very easy to get nice tone and gain without a lot of noise when both pickups are selected. Average noise in single pickup mode through higher gain settings, but since I usually play through both pickups this isn't a huge issue for me. I also tested it ABed through one of my iPad amp sims (Ampkit) and no one knew when I switched between the VOX and the iPad. Since this is a travel instrument very nice to know that I can have all my gear in a bag without having to additionally drag along my much beloved but extremely bulky VOX. The only minus is that it seems to have tuning issues with lighter gauge strings than the .11s that it came with. I play .09s and even after breaking the strings in I have to take a little more time to tune than usual, and have to play it a bit and retune before it stabilizes. I'll play with the bridge setup a little bit to see if it helps (since it was obviously set up for heavier gauge strings) but I think this is instrinsic to the instrument. Anecdotally I heard that you can unfold it and it stays perfectly in tune but that hasn't been my experience.

Quality
The guitar is built like a tank. Neck locking hardware is very solid and high quality. Fit and playing finish are top notch. Nothing seems "cheap." However, even though I have been extremely careful with the instrument, there's already a small ding in the finish--it's gorgeous, but the finish doesn't seem as durable as some of my other instruments.

Value
$699 for a limited edtiion instrument of this quality is a steal.

Manufacturer Support
N/A

The Wow Factor
My son-in-law who is a professional traveling musician told me about the Voyage-Airs. I'm a total music geek--didn't really need it but it will be nice to be able to travel to visit family and bring my gear along since most of the members of my family are all musicians. This was the first instrument I've purchased for myself without playing it first, and I am pleased with it. I wouldn't have purchased it obviously other than the novelty of it being a pro-quality, full-scale travel instrument, but aside from the novelty it's just a very nice, good playing and sounding guitar.

Musical Background:
35 years, semi-pro, guitar and bass.

Musical Style:
Rock, funk, alternative, Christian
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