Rainsong is Closing Their Doors

[Earl49]

I run a small engineering business (one-man practice) and have been successful for 34 years, so have some understanding of business and engineering. But I am not experienced with multiple employees and specialty manufacturing. Plus my goal is to retire fully about this time next year. IOW, I'm not in a position to actually do much to help other than pass along good wishes. I'm too tired to take on such a challenge at this point in life. But it would great if a White Knight came along and kept Rainsong going.

Here is a crazy idea: Blackbird just suffered a catastrophic total loss when their shop burned about two weeks ago. What if Joe & company bought Rainsong as a mode of recovery rather than rebuilding Blackbird from scratch?

[OnTheFidele]

Originally Posted by Earl49

I run a small engineering business (one-man practice) and have been successful for 34 years, so have some understanding of business and engineering. But I am not experienced with multiple employees and specialty manufacturing. Plus my goal is to retire fully about this time next year. IOW, I'm not in a position to actually do much to help other than pass along good wishes. I'm too tired to take on such a challenge at this point in life. But it would great if a White Knight came along and kept Rainsong going.

I hear you. I've been in business for myself for most of my adult life. I think it's important for people to understand just how much work running a business is, especially when you introduce the biggest x-factor of all: people, especially employees when there are complex processes involved. Finding a good manager alone is an art and a science that's as much a crap shoot as anything else.

Here is a crazy idea: Blackbird just suffered a catastrophic total loss when their shop burned about two weeks ago. What if Joe & company bought Rainsong as a mode of recovery rather than rebuilding Blackbird from scratch?

You might be on to something here. Doesn't just have to be Blackbird, but any company looking for a new market to break into. I saw yesterday that Cort's been working on a guitar with no front sound hole but 2 side ports, for example. Maybe they're looking to branch out.

But again, someone would probably have to engineer a deal like this, as they don't happen out of thin air. Brokering something like this won't be as hard as running the business, but it involves a lot of work (learning all the numbers, doing the footwork, strucuring the deal, etc.) and it won't work unless Rainsong is willing to cut a deal in the first place.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by OnTheFidele

I hear you. I've been in business for myself for most of my adult life. I think it's important for people to understand just how much work running a business is, especially when you introduce the biggest x-factor of all: people, especially employees when there are complex processes involved. Finding a good manager alone is an art and a science that's as much a crap shoot as anything else.

When I decided to quit my job and go off into solo practice, I was given this advice: "Being self employed is the best half-time job there is. What you do with the other 12 hours a day is up to you". You are never truly "off the clock".

There is the old statistic that after two years ~90% of new businesses have folded. The secondary statistic you never hear: Among those that survive, the same dropout rate happens again when a business begins to grow and add employees. I found that info sobering enough that I have never added staff, even though at times I have been busy enough to need help.

[Acousticado]

Maybe Ellis Seal could do something with it. For those unfamiliar, he was the designer and owner of Composite Acoustics until Peavey took it over. Peavey seems to have since ceased their production of CAs. Ellis became the designer of the McPherson Sable and Touring. Don’t know what he’s up to these days, but he certainly understands the CF game which seems to be a passion.

[AZLiberty]

Looking through the "on sale" listings.

They have a Baritone. Never knew they had even made a Baritone neck.

That's just another indicator of how poor their marketing has been in the past 2-3 years.

[Earl49]

Their baritone has been around for ~1½ years, given or take. Built on the JM body it is/was probably a monster for bass tone. They were over $4K when introduced, so are substantially discounted now on clearance. The 26.675" scale length is a little short for a baritone if you tune B-b with normal 70-16 gauge baritone strings. But the only way to know for sure is to try it. I had a Taylor baritone with 27" scale but actually like my Alvarez ABT60 with 27.8" scale a bit better.

The best way to know what Rainsong has been doing was to be subscribed to their email list. You would get an update every couple of weeks or so. That is how we all found out that they were closing earlier this week. Too late now.

[dgaemc2]

Does anyone have experience with the OM Nashville "Shorty" Custom??

Same as OM Nashville "Shorty" Tobacco Burst, but different color and appointments?

Basically the same guitar just more expensive due to aesthetics??

[Earl49]

Not that one specifically, but I recently acquired an APSE. APSE is basically the same guitar as the Shorty 12-fret with copper burst paint and upgraded electronics. I like that one a LOT and it gets almost all of my play time lately, except when going to the weekly bluegrass jam (an OM is not the right tool for bluegrass). It's very comfy to hold and play, and has a nice warm tone. In the case of the Vintage series they fuse a thin layer of spruce to the structural CF top that makes it look more like wood. Reports here are that the spruce veneer softens the sound to make it warmer and maybe a bit quieter. I have no first-hand experience though. Plus you get the burst paint.

At clearance, it is now marked down considerably from the original price. Like with any Rainsong you cannot go wrong. It might not ultimately fit your image of tone but it will be a finely crafted guitar.

[steelvibe]

I'm going to go on the contrary about keeping the RainSong train moving. I wish them all well and appreciate that they were the OGs, literal pioneers into the future of guitar making. I wish Ashvin and Dave (and another gal I spoke with over the phone once) well!


I don't want a "different" RainSong. I want to remember them for staying true to their roots. Why change what was working for them? Has Martin radically changed their game? Nope. RainSong's goal was never to crank out a 1000 guitars a day. They were already "forward" thinking just by even attempting to make a guitar out of something other than wood!

Were they really terrible marketers? Yes and no. I would have liked to see more than an ad in every month of Acoustic Guitar Magazine (which is facing it's own real time issues), and they could have and should have been done so much more just using free social media tools like Emerald has done. Heck, I learned about RainSong from Jarvis over at Guitar Spa and our very own Kramster than anything directly from the company.


Having said that, the only other thing they could have done would have been to hire a marketing director, but that person would have to sell expensive, American-made niche instruments in a massively saturated market. We are talking David and Goliath here, that said person would have to be so successful that their salary would be offset by guitar sales.


But marketing is effective, very effective. Just look at Emerald right now. I just got done watching their free shipping video.

[dgaemc2]

Originally Posted by Earl49

Not that one specifically, but I recently acquired an APSE. APSE is basically the same guitar as the Shorty 12-fret with copper burst paint and upgraded electronics. I like that one a LOT and it gets almost all of my play time lately, except when going to the weekly bluegrass jam (an OM is not the right tool for bluegrass). It's very comfy to hold and play, and has a nice warm tone. In the case of the Vintage series they fuse a thin layer of spruce to the structural CF top that makes it look more like wood. Reports here are that the spruce veneer softens the sound to make it warmer and maybe a bit quieter. I have no first-hand experience though. Plus you get the burst paint.

At clearance, it is now marked down considerably from the original price. Like with any Rainsong you cannot go wrong. It might not ultimately fit your image of tone but it will be a finely crafted guitar.

Thanks Earl, your feedback of the APSE (similar to shorty) is promising! It seems that the Nashville Series also fuses spruce top with the CF yes, the discounted price caught my eye... I certainly don't need it though! Lol

Anyone played the OM Nashville "Shorty Custom" or even the OM Nashville "Shorty" Tobacco Burst (Sold Out)?

[RP]

Originally Posted by AZLiberty

...That's just another indicator of how poor their marketing has been in the past 2-3 years.

I don't mean to pile on, but just to add my own dissatisfaction with their marketing was based on neither their website nor Facebook page doing a very good job of either showing all the possible options nor the cost of those options. I learned all I knew about Rainsong options from Ted @ LA Guitar Sales...

[Doubleneck]

It is a bit shocking. I have always thought the N2 neck was the stupidest neck design - profile ever made by a modern guitar company and they just couldn’t admit it. I love my JM1000 where that neck profile feels right on a huge 1950’s style Jumbo. Not that any one decision was to blame but this didn’t help.

[Earl49]

Without Ted promoting Rainsong as a dealer, few of us would ever have known about ordering custom options like the N1 or N2 or NS short-scale 12-fret neck on a given body. Basically they could put any of the necks on any of the bodies, but you would never know it from the website. It's nothing like the myriad options that Emerald provides, but Rainsong never did a great job of getting the word out on custom orders. That was all Ted.

As for the N2 neck, I believe that they simply got tired of people complaining about not having a truss rod, nd the original N1 neck did not have room. I'm sure that cost them a bunch of sales, hence the N2 neck - for better or worse. I also vaguely recall that their original mold was wearing out (or they had to change the layup process) so original N1 wasn't viable for a long time. That killed the WS-3000 twelve string with its own 1-7/8" neck for several years. I always wanted one of those but they came back on the market after I already had my Emerald X20-12. While I can play either, the N1 neck profile is my preference. Not everyone could adapt to the N2 neck.

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

It is a bit shocking. I have always thought the N2 neck was the stupidest neck design - profile ever made by a modern guitar company and they just couldn’t admit it. I love my JM1000 where that neck profile feels right on a huge 1950’s style Jumbo.

Absolutely agree Steve. I call it the “Space Cowboy” neck; fine if all you do is primarily stay in cowboy chords territory, and it is made from space age materials.

Well that and my very tongue in cheek reference for those in the know, and because somebody was far “out there” man!

[Marshall]

This is very sad.

I actually love the N2 profile. I have an NS neck RainSong. My gripe has been that all their necks have a 20" fretboard radius. Flatter than all the major brand guitars out there, which are usually 16" or less. Still irks me. In fact I was considering selling my RS. But now maybe I'll hold off. It could become a Collector's Item.