For musicians who are constantly on the move, the challenge of bringing a full-sized bass guitar can be daunting. This is where the Travel Electric Bass Guitar steps in, offering a compact and portable solution without compromising on sound quality and playability. Among the innovative options available, the OB660 carbon fiber travel bass stands out, engineered with advanced materials and thoughtful design to redefine what a travel instrument can be.
Unleashing the Power of Carbon Fiber
The OB660 travel electric bass guitar is meticulously hand-crafted using a unique blend of premium pre-impregnated carbon fiber fabrics. Unlike many instruments marketed as “carbon fiber” which often contain minimal carbon content through injection-molded plastic, the OB660 boasts a substantial 65-75% woven carbon fiber composition in its body and neck. This superior construction results in a significantly stronger and more resilient instrument, capable of withstanding higher temperatures. This is a crucial advantage for musicians who frequently travel, whether it’s enduring the heat in a car trunk or exploring diverse climates. Beyond durability, the high carbon fiber content enhances the instrument’s resonance, delivering a noticeably longer sustain and a richer tone that defies its compact size. The neck is further reinforced with a dual-action truss rod, ensuring maximum adjustability and stability, even in fluctuating environments. Because every component is carbon fiber, the OB660 eliminates the common issues of parts warping or detaching in extreme temperatures, a frequent concern with traditional travel instruments.
Ergonomic Design for Comfortable Play
The OB660 travel electric bass guitar isn’t just about portability; it’s designed for exceptional playing comfort. It incorporates several ergonomic features that set it apart. The Manzer© wedge design subtly angles the instrument, allowing the natural weight of your fretting arm to assist in pressing down on the fretboard, reducing wrist strain. This angle also optimizes the picking hand position, minimizing shoulder fatigue during extended playing sessions. Furthermore, the inclusion of arm and rib bevels softens the edges of the bass, providing a comfortable contour against your forearm and ribs. Finally, the scooped cutaway, while providing excellent access to the upper frets, is carefully shaped to maximize the internal volume of the instrument, maintaining a full and resonant sound despite its travel-friendly dimensions.
Scale and Playability: Perfect Balance
Balancing portability with playability, the OB660 travel electric bass guitar features a 27-inch scale length, similar to the comfortable scale of a Gibson Les Paul. This scale provides a pleasing acoustic volume while maintaining a comfortable string tension, making fretting easier and more enjoyable. The 1.75-inch (44 mm) nut width and shallow C-shaped neck profile are designed to accommodate a wide range of hand sizes, ensuring comfortable playability for almost any bassist.
Revolutionary Removable Neck System
A standout feature of the OB660 is its patented removable neck design. This innovative mechanism allows for incredibly fast neck assembly and disassembly in under 20 seconds, significantly enhancing its portability. Beyond speed, this system also enables fine-tuning of the neck angle. Musicians can adjust the action for different playing styles – setting it lower for lighter playing or raising it for heavier styles like slapping with a simple turn of a knob on the back. This level of adaptability is invaluable for bassists who play various genres and require diverse string setups.
Premium Components for Superior Sound
The OB660 travel electric bass guitar is equipped with premium components typically found on high-end instruments. These include precision 18:1 tuners for accurate and stable tuning, authentic bone nuts and saddles for optimal string vibration transfer, ebony bridge pins, and D’Addario® round-wound phosphor bronze strings. These high-quality appointments work together to deliver a traditional, warm, and balanced acoustic tone that belies the bass’s travel-friendly size.
Unparalleled Tone in a Travel Size
Tone was a paramount consideration in the design of the OB660 travel electric bass guitar. Every element, from the unidirectional carbon fiber top to the mixed twill and proprietary layup of the back and sides, the offset soundhole, and even the materials of the bridge and fretboard, is carefully chosen to create a surprisingly full and rich tone in a compact package. When amplified through its passive piezo pickup system into a PA system, the OB660 sounds remarkably like a full-sized acoustic bass, even without extensive EQ adjustments.
Electronics Ready for Performance
The OB660 travel electric bass guitar incorporates proprietary JourneyTek™ passive piezo pickups. Engineered with high-output, German-made piezo elements, these pickups are balanced, require no batteries, and faithfully capture the instrument’s exceptional acoustic tone. Their robustness is even demonstrated by a remarkable anecdote of an artist who submerged his carbon fiber travel guitar in a canal for three hours, drained the water, and successfully performed a live amplified set with it that same evening! For bassists seeking even greater tonal control, an active stereo bass pickup upgrade is also anticipated soon.
The Ultimate Travel Companion: Overhead Case
Completing the travel electric bass guitar experience is the patented BG001 Overhead™ collapsible travel bass backpack case. This premium case is crafted from high-quality materials and precisely sized to meet carry-on dimensions (22*14*9 inches or 55.5*23*35.5 cm). It offers ample space for pedals, cables, laptops, tablets, and other essential accessories, making it the perfect companion for the traveling bassist.
Once you experience traveling with an Overhead™ collapsible carbon fiber travel electric bass guitar, you may find yourself questioning the need for any other bass, travel or otherwise. It truly sets a new standard for portable musical instruments.
