Review: Fojill Electric Silent Travel Classical Guitar

[@kermyta]

I just got back from an extended trip and the Fojill did very well. I carried it on board the plane, stashing it in the overhead bin. In the hotel it was nice and quiet. I did end up using the headphones once or twice to drown out the sound of the TV in the room next door. But the guitar accomplished exactly what I hoped it would, giving me a lightweight, compact guitar that let me play while I'm on the road, with a similar "hand-feel" experience to a more traditional guitar. I would definitely recommend this if that's what you're looking for.

[@h.s.4508]

Thank you very much for the excellent review. It seems to be a reasonable choice for travel or just practice quietly.

[@kermyta]

Yes, I had it on a three week trip earlier this year and did the job. I've been keeping it in my office lately, where I can slip in a quick bit of practice without bothering anyone.

[@h.s.4508]

On Amazon they have a video playing this guitar. There seems the 5the and 6th strings sound very buzzy, electric and unnatural. Is that true? I’m very tempted to buy this, but am also thinking about Yamaha silent guitar which is $500 more expensive.

[@kermyta]

@@h.s.4508 I haven't experienced any buzz with the strings. There is a truss rod, so you should be able to adjust the relief somewhat. (Though probably not as much if the neck were a separate piece of wood from the body.)

[@picker63028]

Thanks for a thorough and interesting review. I love classical guitar and like others look for a portable way to carry on travels. One point is the travel styles like this are less affected by weather and outdoor enjoyment. I am concerned with tone and playability because of the lack of body mass. Otherwise it seems like a neat product. Hopefully the cheap electronics hold up. Replacement may be an issue.

[@kermyta]

If you're looking for great tone, a plank of wood just isn't going to deliver. Any comparison between a "proper" guitar, with a wide, thin vibrating soundboard, is going to blow a solid body travel guitar out of the water. Of course, a "proper" guitar is much larger and more fragile than a travel guitar. The basic conundrum you face as a traveling guitarist is: durability, size, tone -- pick two out of three.

[@juanmiguelsuarez]

Nice Kermyt! I’d love to have one of those just to play around!

[@kermyta]

I figure I will get enough time with it over the summer when I’m traveling so I’m resisting for now the urge to play Villa-Lobos with the distortion and delay cranked up to 11.

[@juanmiguelsuarez]

@@kermyta 😁

[@patrickhawley1392]

I enjoyed your review, thanks for doing it! A few months ago I got interested in the Cordoba Stage guitar after watching Lucas Brar doing his jazzed up version ofTarrega's "Capricho Arebe" on KZbin. If you haven't seen this, it's worth looking up. So I went to a music store and tried one out. I came away from that realizing that I am far, far away from being a Lucas Brar, lol, but also that I would probably be better off building my own slim body nylon string guitar (I should add that I build acoustic guitars, you can Google my name along with "guitars" to see a few if you are interested) so that I could make one with a standard classical guitar 52 mm neck width. From there my mind got onto silent, travel guitars and what I ended up building was a guitar similar to yours (without the side tubing as of yet; I just use a strap) but in addition, it folds between the 16th and 17th fret using a SOSS hinge. It's overall length when folded is about 16.5 inches so it easily fits inside a standard carry-on bag for air travel. The pickup/pre-amp is the one you see the most of if you Google silent guitar pickup. I ended up getting mine for $20 from Walmart. It works OK, about as good, as I now realize, as can be expected for a piezzo pickup, which is to say, the sound is not great. I wasn't really satisfied and I was still intrigued with the idea of a silent guitar so then I got the urge for the Yamaha Silent guitar which you mentioned a few times in your review. I figured the Yamaha must have much better electronics since they all sound pretty good on KZbin reviews. You may be interested to know that, in my opinion, the Yamaha doesn't sound that much better than the guitar I built. Even Yamaha could not overcome the limitations of a piezzo pickup and the sound comes nowhere close to that of a real classical guitar (in my opinion). And, while it looks like a work of art, the side rails are actually beveled where your arm rests and where it hits your chest so those contact points are quite sharp. Its as though Yamaha went out of their way to make it a painful instrument to hold. If I really liked the sound, I would have found a way to pad those areas however, between the unsatisfactory sound and the pain of playing it, I will be returning the Yamaha to the store. The bottom line for me from this experiment is that, regardless of instrument quality, I do not like the piezzo sound for a nylon string guitar and effects such as delay and reverb really don't hold any interest for me. So I doubt I will ever actually use the travel guitar that I built. I will always find a way to bring the classical guitar I built for myself or, I will just do without practicing for the time I am travelling. You seem like a fairly dedicated classical guitar player so I wonder if you will find the same. The other thing is that I am now back to thinking of building a slim bodied nylon string guitar in which I could install the classical version of the K&K pure mini pickup. I've installed a few of them on regular classical guitars that I have built and they sound great. Those guitars, when amplified, still sound like a classical guitar, just louder. That's what I am after but in a near silent version that I could use for quiet practice.

[@kermyta]

Thanks for your comment (a veritable essay)! Yes, I’ve seen that Lucas Brier video with the Cordoba Stage. A great video. I’ve played a Stage and it’s a fine guitar for what it is, though it’s not what I’m looking for. (And I dislike narrower crossover necks.) I’m impressed you built your own silent travel guitar! I’ve seen pictures of other guitars with a hinge. While the advantages of reducing the size of the instrument are obvious, how does it impact the tuning? I’d be worried that you’d have to start almost from scratch every time you re-open the guitar, getting the strings to settle in. The piezzo pickup is what it is, I guess. I know many people don’t like it. My dad has one of the K&K pickups on his acoustic guitar and tells me it sounds great. Hopefully that will prove the ideal solution for you. I’m surprised the Yamaha guitar is so uncomfortable. It’s got a steep price tag so you’d think it would at least not dig into your body! I’m actually on an extended road trip now and have the FoJill guitar with me. It served its purpose well for the first several days of the trip. I generally don’t/won’t use the electric capacities of the guitar, though I did plug in my headphones one evening in the hotel when the neighbor’s TV was turned up too loud. Once I reached my dad’s place I borrowed one of his guitars, which is what I’ve been using since. I’ll resort to the FoJill on the final day of the journey, on the drive home. I do appreciate how compact it is. I’m afraid I won’t have room for a full sized guitar on a road trip unless I’m by myself. Best of luck with your future endeavors! And thanks again for your extended response!

[@patrickhawley1392]

@@kermyta You are quite welcome for the response. I happened to see your video just a few days after getting the Yamaha so it gave me the opportunity to vent a little. It seems Yamaha went for form over function on this one. It does look great hanging on a wall. The tuning on the fold up guitar I made does not seem all that affected by folding and unfolding. I even tried that trick I've seen done with other fold-up guitars where they are folded without first releasing any tension on the strings and then unfolded again and shown to be still in tune. This was almost the case with my guitar. I think once the strings are stretched out from being new, they stay pretty much settled. However here's something that is affected. There are two parts to the folding feature: the hinge just under the level of the frets and an adjustable toggle latch on the back that locks everything in place. What did surprise me is that the action is affected by how tight I make the latch. When I first set the guitar up, I had the latch quite tight so I decided to loosen it a half turn. After I did that the action went up by about one millimeter. So loosening the latch allowed the the neck to rise up a bit. Fortunately, it went down again when I re-tightened the latch. It would be an interesting challenge to see if I could get that hinge point hardened up so that this didn't happen (within reason). The other thing about the fold-up guitar is that I find it tricky to play from a stability point of view. I just have it on a strap and I find it moves around a lot compared to my regular guitar that sits on my leg with my arms around it. I guess this just takes some getting used to as millions of people are playing guitars with straps. How are you finding this with your Fojill? Best wishes for your travels!

[@picker63028]

I like your thought process and I'm glad to read a less than glowing review on the Yamaha. I too considered the Cordoba Stage and I still desire a solid top classical style guitar. I have the Stagg version of a solid top and it's quite good. My only issue is the control panel location will contact my body causing a movement in the slider controls. I have to fabricate a shield of some sort to fix that. Otherwise it plays and sounds great.

[@kermyta]

@@patrickhawley1392 I only use the strap with the Fojill, not my other guitars, so I'm still getting used to it. I find that the angle of the fretboard isn't quite the same with the strap as when it's balanced on my leg. I prefer the fretboard to be perpendicular to the floor, but it's titled slightly with the strap. But it's fine really. I haven't had a chance to use it in a gig, with the amp, but I suspect I will sometime later this year, in which case I'll spend more time practicing with this guitar so that I'm fully adjusted to using the strap.