For bass players, the struggle is real: how do you maintain your practice and performance schedule when life takes you on the road? Traditional basses are bulky and fragile, making air travel and even local commutes a logistical headache. Enter the Travel Bass Guitar: a game-changing solution for musicians who refuse to be tied down. But not all travel basses are created equal. In this guide, we’ll dive deep into what makes a truly exceptional travel bass guitar, and why carbon fiber instruments, like the innovative OB660, are setting a new standard for portability, playability, and tone.
What to Look For in a Travel Bass Guitar
A great travel bass guitar isn’t just a smaller version of a standard bass. It’s designed from the ground up to address the specific needs of musicians on the move. Key considerations include:
- Portability: This is paramount. A travel bass needs to be compact and lightweight enough to easily fit in overhead compartments, car trunks, and even backpacks.
- Durability: Travel can be rough. Your instrument needs to withstand temperature changes, bumps, and jostling without damage.
- Playability: A travel bass shouldn’t sacrifice playing comfort or performance quality. It should feel familiar and inspiring to play, despite its smaller size.
- Tone: Just because it’s compact doesn’t mean it should sound thin or weak. A quality travel bass should deliver a rich, resonant tone, both acoustically and when amplified.
Carbon Fiber: The Future of Travel Bass Guitars
While traditional travel basses are often made from wood, a revolutionary material is transforming the landscape: carbon fiber. Carbon fiber composite offers a unique combination of benefits that make it ideal for travel instruments:
- Unmatched Strength and Stability: Carbon fiber is incredibly strong and resistant to changes in temperature and humidity. This means your travel bass will stay in tune and maintain its structural integrity, even in challenging environments – from dry deserts to humid rainforests.
- Lightweight Design: Carbon fiber is significantly lighter than wood, making travel much easier without compromising strength or tone.
- Exceptional Resonance: Contrary to some misconceptions, high-quality carbon fiber, when expertly crafted, can produce a surprisingly warm, resonant, and articulate tone that rivals or even surpasses traditional tonewoods.
The OB660 Carbon Fiber Travel Bass: A Deep Dive
The OB660 carbon fiber travel bass guitar stands out as a prime example of how advanced technology and innovative design can create a truly exceptional travel instrument. Hand-crafted with a proprietary blend of premium pre-impregnated carbon fiber fabrics, the OB660 is built for serious musicians who demand the best, whether they’re on stage or on the go.
Superior Carbon Fiber Construction: Beyond the Surface
Many cheaper instruments claim to be “carbon fiber,” but often contain only a small percentage (around 5%) of carbon fiber in injection-molded plastic. The OB660 is different. It boasts all-carbon components, including the neck, fingerboard, body, and bridge. Using a blend of actual carbon fiber fabrics results in a woven carbon fiber content of 65-75% for the body and neck, providing unparalleled strength and resonance.
This high carbon content translates to real-world benefits for traveling musicians:
- Temperature Resilience: Leave it in the car trunk or take it on a desert adventure – the OB660 can handle higher temperatures without components warping or coming apart.
- Enhanced Sustain: The superior resonance of high-carbon fiber construction results in a noticeably longer and richer sustain compared to instruments with lower carbon content or traditional materials.
- Adjustable Neck: The OB660’s neck features a dual-action truss rod for maximum adjustability, ensuring perfect playability in any climate.
Ergonomic Design: Play Comfortably, Anywhere
Ergonomics are crucial, especially for a travel instrument that you might be playing in less-than-ideal conditions. The OB660 is designed with several features to maximize playing comfort:
- Manzer Wedge: This innovative body shape angles the bass, allowing the weight of your fretting arm to naturally apply pressure to the fretboard, reducing wrist stress and fatigue. It also optimizes the angle for your picking hand, minimizing shoulder strain.
- Beveled Edges: Arm and rib bevels eliminate sharp edges, making the bass incredibly comfortable against your forearm and ribs, even during long practice sessions.
- Scoopaway Cutaway: The scooped cutaway provides easy access to the upper frets while maintaining a generous internal volume for a full, resonant tone, similar to a non-cutaway bass.
Playability and Scale: Compact Size, Full-Scale Feel
The OB660 travel bass guitar features a 27-inch (685 mm) scale length, similar to a Gibson Les Paul guitar. This scale offers a sweet spot: it provides good acoustic volume while maintaining comfortable string tension and easy fretting, suitable for players of all hand sizes. The 1.75-inch (44 mm) nut width and shallow C-shaped neck profile further enhance playability, making it feel familiar and comfortable for a wide range of bassists.
Patented Removable Neck: Travel and Versatility Combined
One of the most ingenious features of the OB660 is its patented removable neck design. This innovative mechanism allows for super-fast assembly and disassembly in under 20 seconds, making packing and travel a breeze. But the benefits go beyond portability:
- Fine-tuning Neck Angle: The removable neck allows for precise adjustments to the neck angle. You can easily customize your action for different playing styles – lower action for lighter playing, or higher action for aggressive slapping, all with a simple twist of a knob on the back.
- Adaptability for Multiple Styles: This feature is invaluable for musicians who play diverse genres and require varied string setups.
Premium Appointments: Quality You Can Hear and Feel
The OB660 collapsible carbon travel bass is equipped with premium components typically found on high-end instruments, ensuring exceptional sound and reliability:
- 18:1 Precision Tuners: For accurate and stable tuning.
- Authentic Bone Nut and Saddle: Enhance tone and sustain.
- Ebony Bridge Pins: Contribute to a richer, warmer sound.
- D’Addario Phosphor Bronze Strings: Industry-standard strings known for their warm and balanced acoustic tone.
Exceptional Tone: Small Size, Big Sound
Tone was a central focus in the design of the OB660 carbon fiber travel bass. 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 bridge and fretboard materials, is carefully orchestrated to deliver a surprisingly full and resonant tone from such a compact instrument.
When amplified through its passive piezo pickup system directly into a PA, the OB660 sounds remarkably like a full-sized acoustic bass, even without EQ adjustments.
Built-in Electronics: Ready for the Stage
The OB660 features exclusive upgradeable JourneyTek™ passive piezo pickups. Engineered with high-output German-made piezo elements, these pickups provide a balanced and transparent representation of the bass’s natural acoustic tone without the need for batteries. They are also incredibly durable – as proven by the artist who accidentally submerged his OB660 in a canal for hours and was still able to perform live with it that evening! For bassists seeking even more control, an active stereo bass pickup upgrade is also in development.
The Overhead™ Travel Case: The Perfect Travel Companion
To complete the ultimate travel bass package, the OB660 comes with the patented BG001 Overhead™ collapsible travel bass backpack case. This premium case is designed to fit within standard carry-on dimensions (22*14*9 inches / 55.5*23*35.5 cm) and offers ample space for pedals, cables, laptops, tablets, and other essential accessories. Traveling with the OB660 and its Overhead™ case elevates the entire travel bass experience to a new level of convenience and sophistication.
Upgrade Your Musical Journeys with a Carbon Fiber Travel Bass
If you’re a bassist who values both exceptional tone and true portability, the carbon fiber travel bass is a game-changer. Instruments like the OB660 demonstrate that you no longer have to compromise on quality when you choose a travel-friendly instrument. Once you experience the freedom and performance of a high-quality carbon fiber travel bass, you might just find it becomes your go-to instrument, wherever your musical journey takes you.
