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Old 09-02-2017, 02:02 PM
Bax Burgess Bax Burgess is offline
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Default Impression of new Rainsong nylon parlor.

Standard tuners may find these notes useless - I tune very low (CDAdgc or CFCfac) with standard strings.

I have the non-pickup model. It is so light in weight that it feels like cardboard. It's loud enough, but what are the particular qualities? It shipped with D'Addario Pro Arte EJ44 Extra Hards, tusq saddle and nut. The body has lively resonance, but it was sounding slightly hollow/thin, little to no depth, unless lightly plucked. I wanted to achieve a more filled-out sound at medium levels, certainly. With the Pro Artes I also tried bone and corian saddles, but none of the three saddle materials notably affected the characteristics of the guitar. I put on a set of La Bella 2001 Hards with the bone, corian, and tusq, but nothing changed, other than the rounder character, and loudness, of the new strings. An overall disappointment. I would have leap-frogged all of this, if I had initially inserted a micarta saddle, and that is what has worked. What I have at this moment is a distinctly different guitar. Now that I've settled the Rainsong's foundation of sound, what remains are the explorations of different strings.

Last edited by Bax Burgess; 09-02-2017 at 02:17 PM.
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Old 09-02-2017, 03:33 PM
Dogsnax Dogsnax is offline
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Bax, thanks for the review....I was tempted to try one of these, living in the hot/humid deep south, but then I noticed the 1.75" nut width and decided I'm way too used to 52mm at this point in time. Are you going to keep the guitar?
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Old 09-02-2017, 05:29 PM
Dave T Dave T is offline
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A 1-3/4" nut and nylon strings just wouldn't work for my blunt fingers. I'd be deadening strings with every fingering.

To the OP, if you like it more power to you. Enjoy!

Dave
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Old 09-02-2017, 09:46 PM
hesson11 hesson11 is offline
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You might experiment with lighter-tension strings. I don't know anything about the Rainsong, but with lightly built guitars, hard-tension strings can sometimes actually exert so much force that they, in essence, limit the movement of the top. So on some guitars, lighter-tension strings can actually increase the responsiveness/volume.
-Bob
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Old 09-02-2017, 10:35 PM
Bax Burgess Bax Burgess is offline
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I will be keeping it. I'm pretty lucky with medium-sized hands - 53mm down to 1.75" works well. As for hard strings, with my uber low tuning I might do well to stay with a firmer string. Who knows, I may be getting rounder notes out of them than if they were pitched to standard.
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