RainSong Composite Guitars - article
 

uhm, fascinating:

http://www.physicscentral.com/people/2006/decker.html

Very cool. Made cooler by the fact I am a science geek. He is obviously a scary smart guy...MIT and cambridge are ok schools I've heard. :p

I found it interesting that they only sell about 700 guitars a year. Wonder what kind of net they can bring in with all that overhead. Hawaii isn't exactly a cheap place to operate either.

Rainsongs are very nice guitars. The "graphite" sound is truly as clear as the proverbial bell. However, it is a sound that some folks don't favor or wood. I had a WS1000, and it was an excellent instrument. Extremely clear and loud. I sold it because I perfer the "wood" sound. There was not a thing in the world wrong with the guitar. I simply like the "wood" sound more than the graphite. Yet, I will not rule out the possibility of purchasing another Rainsong some time in the future. We all like varying things about guitars and all of our opinoins are just that: opinions. Graphite guitars give us one more thing to be subjective about and to enjoy about guitars.

I found it interesting what was said about the high frequency response...

"
Compared to a traditional wood guitar, a graphite guitar sounds clearer and brighter, especially at high frequencies. Above about a kilohertz, wood is highly damping, meaning that vibrational energy goes into heat instead of audible sounds, so the guitar sounds “muddy,” Decker explains. “By the time you get to high harmonics on the high E string, what you hear is the attack, because the vibration of the top only lasts a few cycles, then damps out almost immediately.”
Graphite, on the other hand, is much less damping, giving a graphite guitar a clearer sound. In addition, because wood is so lossy, it’s inherently nonlinear, resulting in a very complex structure of missing, enhanced, and mixed overtones. Graphite is a lot less lossy, so the nonlinearities are a lot less. The result is a very crisp, well defined treble, and clarity of sound that a wooden guitar doesn’t have, says Decker. "

The Rainsongs I have played at Elderly have been overly bright for my taste, and now I perhaps know why ( I tend to prefer the sound of the Composite Acoustics )

I smile at the irony of Decker now attempting to make wooden guitars with the sound qualities of composites...:)