[gerardo1000]

At Huber and Breese, in Fraser, Michigan. I drove there on purpose. I was an early adopter of carbon fiber guitar, several years ago (when CA guitars still had the fretboard made of wood !). Had Rainsong, CA, Emerald. In the past years, however, due to the fact that I do not travel anymore as often as in the past, and that I play always at home, I switched back to traditional acoustic guitars in the price range of $ 300 to $600, which is still a price range that CF guitars cannot reach. But the carbon fiber idea still intrigues me, and I was very interested in the new Custom Hybrid series from Rainsong (a brand that I know very well, had several of their guitars) that I find beautiful and well priced (for a CF guitar). At Huber an Breese they had the parlor and the OM. They also had several other more expensive Rainsong, the Studio and the classic series. I tried the two CH guitars unplugged. Both sound very well and are extremely playable, with a perfect factory set up, low action with no strings buzz. The parlor is a bit quiet, and the bass is well defined but of course not very powerful. The OM is a better all around guitar in my opinion. Good bass, medium, trebles, all well balanced, good volume although - even if it is louder than the parlor - I can't say it is as loud as some Martin OM guitars that I have played.
The sound of both guitars is very defined and pleasant, but -compared to a traditional wood guitar- a tiny bit different, with more sustain and a more "metallic" tone (but not too much to hear the difference with a traditional guitar unless you compare one against the other at the same moment, which I did comparing the Rainsong OM with a Martin OM GT16 that had a comparable price).
I found that both the Rainsong CH parlor and OM excel as fingerstyle guitars, however I was surprised (negatively) that the strings spacing at the saddle is quite tight (54.5 mm) even tighter than other brands. This is weird because the strings spacing at the neck is almost 38 mm which is great for finger picking. Why a 1 3/4 neck width at the nut and then an almost "Yamahaish" tight strings spacing at the saddle ? A mistery to me.
The two guitars compared very well with other Rainsong non CH that I played in the store, I frankly cannot see a good reason to spend several hundred dollars more for the non CH models. In conclusion, two great guitars at a very competitive price for the CF market, however unless you have a passion for CF guitars or really need the superior durability - I still think that most traditional guitars still sound slightly warmer in the same price range. But of course, nobody established that a CF guitar MUST sound like a wood one. This is really a matter of personal opinion.