Thread: carbon fiber?
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Old 12-26-2022, 04:06 PM
Captain Jim Captain Jim is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Arizona (from island boy to desert dweller)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpruceTop View Post
I wonder when wooden-guitar-only aficionados will ever accept and respect carbon fiber guitars for what they bring to guitar tone and durability.
"Hey, my mind is made up - don't try to muddy the waters by using facts!"

Acoustic guitar players tend to be traditional. And there's nothing wrong with that. Except for the fact that they might be missing out on some great guitars.

About a decade ago, I bought a carbon fiber guitar to be my "travel" (from living on a boat to being in an RV in the desert southwest) guitar. Even though I had some nice wood guitars, I was immediately hooked on the crisp piano-like tone of that RainSong Shorty. Two things I didn't care for: the chunky NS neck and the "compression" when you played harder (seemed to be all mid-tones, dropping the lows).

Then came an Emerald X7 - smaller than the Shorty, more comfortable neck, better bass, and the most comfortable ergonomics I'd ever experienced in an acoustic guitar. You could play it soft, you could dig in, it sounds great acoustically, kicks butt when plugged in. Tone-wise, it was so far beyond the Taylor GSmini that had been my travel guitar (for those who say "buy three laminate guitars for the price of a carbon fiber"). I love this compact (previous generation) guitar.

Then, another Emerald. And another. Each bringing different tones and sizes. Yeah, kinda like buying different wood guitars. I have a nice Rosewood and Spruce wood guitar (Taylor 814ce) and an all mahogany 522ce 12-fret. I appreciate the tone of each of those. Recently added a maple and spruce 12-string (Taylor 652ce WHB Builder's Edition). All these guitars, wood and carbon fiber, bring their unique tone. To my ear, there isn't one "wood tone" that represents all wood guitars, and there isn't one "carbon fiber tone" that represents all the CF guitars.

I don't play out much anymore. I always wanted a guitar that sounds good to my ears in my music room and can handle a crowd when plugged in. To my ears, I have a lot of tolerance for what works plugged in. In 58 years of playing, I have yet to have someone listening say, "I don't care for the tone of your guitar." Fortunately, most of them are too polite to say, "Your playing reminds me of two cats fighting in an alley." All that to say: I have never gotten into the nuance of "rosewood vs sapele"... I like a guitar that sounds like a guitar. All of my guitars fulfill that.

Wood vs Carbon Fiber is something else for people to talk about on guitar forums. Buy what you like. But trying to convince someone that their opinion on any guitar or material it is made from is wrong is like discussing politics on Facebook: you will find people who agree with you and people who don't... but no one's mind gets changed and it is wasted effort that, at best, pisses people off.

Bottom line: carbon fiber is a viable option. For some of us. Not for others. If it works for you, you are going to find it real easy to live with.
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Some CF, some wood.

Last edited by Captain Jim; 12-26-2022 at 04:25 PM.
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