carbon fiber?
 

Had a friend, 98% electric guitar player (and a monster!), over the other night to our acoustic jam. Turns out he is also a monster on acoustic...no surprise there, he is a full time professional guitar player, and just a super guy.

He was playing a Kevin Michael carbon fiber guitar. It had a great sound, but seemed a bit on the quiet side.

Your thoughts on carbon fiber guitar? Is this the future that is here now?

You might want to spend a little time lurking in the CF subforum. There’s a wealth of knowledge, experience and opinion there.

Suffice it to say that for many of us, carbon fibre instruments tick a lot of boxes for sound, playability, durability and aesthetics.

I'll second David's thoughts. For many of us, that future is now...

I'm a recent convert to a CF guitar, having bought a used RainSong off another forum member. It won't totally replace my woodie acoustics. It's not as warm and mellow. But it's clear and clean. And it has sustain that goes on forever. I'm not used to that. But in certain points in a song, sustain is a nice thing to have. When I hit a final chord in a song, it rings on forever. I have to mute the strings to shut it off.

Carbon Fiber guitars are here to stay and they can sound great too when you go higher-end and get one that you enjoy! High-end is anywhere from $2000 to $3500 (more if you go into custom options). The best carbon-fiber guitars have a beautiful tone and can get LOUD!

Suggestions from my experience of ownership:
RainSong DR1000N2 dreadnought - $3100
RainSong Classic WS1000 N1 grand auditorium size - On sale now $1999 direct from RainSong
Emerald X20 - $2400 standard model grand auditorium size
Enya X4 Pro AcousticPlus grand auditorium/orchestra size - $600 to $900 depending on current deal on Amazon (this carbon fiber/composite guitar is a sleeper that sounds great and is rugged and good-looking)

I have yet to be impressed. I've played some in Sam Ash and owned a few Emeralds, but I've found them to be a bit meh. From my limited experience, they seem to manage the lows and the mids reasonably well but have a rather dull treble response. That delightful 'ring' we get from a wooden box hasn't been reproduced on the cf models I've played so far.

I find my Emerald X20 kind of woofy and dark in its lower-frequency range. From my experience, a RainSong Classic WS1000 has really nice upper midrange and treble tonal components. To me, this model defines all that I find desirable in carbon fiber tone.

If you're looking for 'ring', give a RainSong Black Ice a try. More trebles than you'll know what to do with! Definitely not dull.

I wouldn't call carbon fiber guitars the way of the future. It's been around for quite some time and there are many choices. Some 'purists' will never warm (pun intended) to the carbon fiber sound and that's fine. But you can't beat them for resistance to nearly every physical and environment force.

I had my backup gigging guitar in my trunk the other day (in freezing cold weather) and then torrential rains came through the area the next day and my trunk leaked as a small branch had become lodged in seal allowing water to leak in. When I removed the guitar the gig bag was soaked in one area.

With a wood guitar this would have been very concerning (not to mention leaving it a trunk in very cold weather!) but since it was a CF guitar, I just laughed as I removed it and then hung it back up on the wall of my non-humidified living room without a care in the world.

I tried a KLOS acoustic guitar recently, and it sounded pretty good. I think it was around 1K or so. They called it a hybrid, as it had some wood in its construction--the neck, the bridge, and maybe some internal bracing. It sounded a lot better than any other CF guitar I have tried out. mostly Rainsongs. But I hear good things about this maker in general, so check one out if you get a chance.

Carbon Fiber guitars make excellent travel guitars and some sound surprisingly good but carbon fiber will never be a better tone 'material' than Red Spruce
or East Indian Rosewood IMO.

CF guitars are like wood guitars in the sense that each model (or even another copy) sounds different, some darker, some brighter, some more resonant than others. And some, again like wood guitars, can be on the quiet side.

That about sums it up. Although I'd add ergonomics to the list as well. The construction methods for CF guitars lend themselves to more easily adding in bevels and curved surfaces that make a big difference in comfort. Emerald excels at this.

My guitars are tools and each has a purpose. My Rainsong H-OM sounds great across the range, is terrific through my Fishman amp and gets the lion’s share of the gigs because I don’t have to think about temperature or humidity. The Black Ice WS is the same, and the sounds overlap, so I will likely sell it when I’m not too lazy. My Emerald X30 is great when I want loud, bold and deep. These won’t replace my wood guitars, which I also enjoy. I can play and sing with any of them, and each has it’s place.

I’ve always had a thing for alternative materials in acoustics and owned a number of Ovation/Adamas guitars in the past. My first CF back in the early 2000’s was a CA COT and I’ve owned a CF guitar since (Rainsong and McPherson). I’ve always seen them as useful tools for their durability and resistance to environmental elements having lived and played out in Florida for 20 years. Now that we live in Tennessee and have to deal with the winter dryness and temperature fluctuations, I know I can keep my rainsong out on the stand while my solid wood guitars are snuggled up in their cases with humidifiers.

I’m kinda new the Carbon Fiber game. I played a McPhearson, just by happenstance, and that started my recent binge of searching info. I've also now had an hour or so with an X-20.

I suppose the discussions of "do they sound like wood or not" might go on Infinitum. I thought the McPhearson and the Emerald sounded very, very good and I do consider myself picky. My two go-to guitars (as a comparative) are a Martin OM-18 1933 Authentic and an original PRS Angelus. Certainly two very beautiful, albeit very different, sounding guitars.

The thing that mildly surprises me about almost all Carbon Fiber discussions here, is the oh-so-very little recognition of tuning and even more important intonation. For those that use alternate tunings or capos, I'd think the Emerald (or the McPhearson) would rule supreme. The Emerald was just dead-balls in-tune no matter what I threw at it. Tune up, tune down, re-tune, use a capo all the way up the neck, it just was spot on. More accurate than any electric guitar I've ever played, let alone an acoustic.

Obviously, it's up to the player to decide if Carbon Fiber will ever compete with wood. I certainly think it opens an entirely new world and the Emerald certainly competes sonically with my most traditional wood guitars. But, for me, I don't think it's possible to deny the Carbon Fiber guitars (at least the two that I played) are miles and miles ahead in terms of tuning and intonation, and again, for me, that's a big, big plus.

Just my 2 cents :)

All good points.

But the question of do they sound like wood has always seemed kind of pointless to me. They sound like guitars. They have certain sonic characteristics just as wood or metal guitars so. Whether or not a certain CF guitar appeals to someone is a matter of personal preference, just like wood.