Quote:
Originally Posted by Carbonius
I think you mean CA GXi. There's a GXi and an Xi. The GXi is simialr size to the other ones you mentioned, but it's no longer made. The Xi is only about 3" thick and so the tone will be far from the WS and X20. I think they make the Xi more for playing plugged in live, thin body.
I haven't played the Emerald X20 or Rainsong WS, but I have played a GXi. It was very bassy and warm, but also very muted in the mid-highs and trebles. It was like someone put a blanket over the whole high end of the guitar. I tried strumming some basic chords well moving melodies lines on the high E string and you could barely hear hear the changes if at all. The strings sounded crisp, they were fresh. Nice attck in the lower strings, just out of balance. You could hear the highs a bit better when doing fingerstyle, but it was still muted in the mid-highs and treble. Quite a dark guitar, not my thing. Darker than a hog topped guitar. MAYBE 80\20's would bring more out of it... but it was pretty dark.
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I owned an ‘08 GXi (gloss tobacco burst) ordered new back then after having bought a Cargo RT earlier that year and being super impressed with it (still am). I had the GXi for four years before selling it to help fund my Emerald Chimaera 6/12 doubleneck. I quite liked the GXi (not as much as the Cargo for various reasons, as odd as that might seem), but I kinda agree with Carbonius.
Thinking about it now, given the range of guitars that have emerged since, I would not consider a GXi (nor the GX which Peavey still offers). It sure was a looker of a guitar though, and like the Cargo, has my favorite neck profile. That said, CAs don’t have truss rods in a composite guitar world where most other builders have recognized that players prefer having a truss rod to fine tune their setup preferences, so they are installing them. I speculate that if CA were to begin installing truss rods, the neck profile would change significantly, adding weight and balance issues to a lineup of guitars that are already on the heavier side compared to the competition.
Although I do own the Emerald doubleneck, I don’t think my impressions will necessarily translate to the X20, so I really can’t comment on it or the Rainsong. Although I won’t be ready to buy a guitar for a while, at this point my personal contenders will be the X20, Rainsong CH-OM, and the Blackbird Savoy (realizing that the Savoy is smaller and a lot more expensive).