Rainsong vs Composite Acoustics Video Comparisons
 

We're fans of both the Rainsong and CA guitars and customers ordering them from afar often ask us how they compare, so we recently made these videos.

If we had to sum it up briefly, we'd say that the Rainsongs offer a truer acoustic guitar tone and are superb for fingerstyle - a very balanced instrument for serious players.

The CA's are a lot more bassy - and fun to play (the CA's tend to swing both ways between acoustic and electric, like a crossover: overdrive a Cargo through a tube amp to make it sound like a Tele). Since Peavey bought the company a few years back, they've made some great improvements to them, like intonating the bridge and re-setting the neck angle.

Here's a couple of quick demo's recorded with a Zoom camera about 6 feet away:

Rainsong 12 Fret Parlor vs CA Cargo: http://youtu.be/vVOCY_7dAt8

Rainsong Shorty SG vs CA Ox Raw: http://youtu.be/pOJzZAzxD0Y

Cool ...I know all those guitars well

Nice to hear them back to back. Thanks for the link!

I give the nod to the Rainsong Parlor for sound.

While they both look interesting, I prefer a black or burst look. I do know there are many in the market who like the theme schemes.

Carbon Guitars are hard to beat, that's for sure. :D

The Parlor sure does well in this comparison, having had one for all summer it really is a great travel guitar, took it everywhere. And to be honest my JM1000 does not get the play it used to, it's arguably the better guitar but the Parlor can win you over and you don't give up much. I even took it to Praise band and dual sourced with a Fishman Rare Earth mag. That was very good through the system. Felt like a mini David Wilcox.

To me, both the Rainsongs have a slightly more metallic sound than the corresponding CA, and therefore i give the nod to the CAs for sounding closer to wooden acoustic.

+ 1 for Composite Acoustics
The brightness of Rainsong is simply too large a jump for my current auditory preference
maybe next time …

I respect your opinions....but if either of my Rainsongs had a "metallic" sound or were "bright"...I'd run from them screaming. Both are sounds that I seem to be very sensitive too. Could be the recordings I guess???

How do you rate your X20 OS for brightness compared to Rainsongs and then CAs

My CAs sound more bass-y than the X20-OS
My Blackbird Super OM sounds brighter than the X20-OS
I think the Rainsongs sound brighter than the Super OM, right ?

Note: this auditory observation is from an agressive strummer (80% of the time) & finger-style picker (20% of the time)

I see the Emerald between the Rainsong and CA as you do. I prefer that middle ground.

I agree with this assessment.

I tend to agree as well, CAs to me are just a little too dark. Rainsong while in the past was a little too bright, their latest models have kind of tamed that. Obviously not in this video I think Emerald and the lastest voicing of Blackbirds Lucky 13 are a very nice middle ground between the two.

"we'd say that the Rainsongs offer a truer acoustic guitar tone"

I would have to ask what you mean by this. If you mean "sounds most like what people expect an acoustic guitar to sound like" (in other words like a wood guitar), I would have to disagree. CAs provide the closest sound to that of wood guitars of any of the CF manufacturers and is the only manufacturer that made that a stated goal. There is no CF guitar that sounds more like a traditional wood guitar than the CA dreads (Legacy, Vintage Performer, etc.).

I know that both Emerald and Rainsong have made changes so that they have models that sound much closer to wood than they used to, but I believe CA still gets the closest. I'm not saying that makes CAs sound better, just that they sound closest to what most guitarists expect an acoustic guitar to sound like.

Several years ago I would have totally agreed with you, but I think during CAs long absence other makers went to school on their success. Though, none state as CA does that woody was their goal. That's where they went, no doubt. New versions of Emerald and Blackbird were shocking to me when I first heard them. Rainsongs Parlor I started to expect it.

Is that THE blue dog we hear in the background? :D