Am I the only one that thinks the klos (and other) carbon guitars are gimmicky?

[steelvibe]

You can play them in a moat,

You can play them on a boat!



You can play them in the heat,

You can play them eating meat!



You can play them in the cold,

You can play them getting old!



I do subscribe sub-forum fam,

I do so like steelvibe I am!

[Captain Jim]

You can't argue with that logic!

[Robin, Wales]

You'd probably want a plywood guitar rather than a carbon fibre guitar if you were playing on a mountainside, singing to the goats and rabbits, and an electrical storm rolled in!

[AZLiberty]

I'll admit that I have not really looked at Klos guitars in a while.

When the kickstarter came out, I was not impressed with the design. The initial ones used a wood neck, so it seemed actually the worst of both worlds, the cost of Carbon, but the neck would be no more stable than a wooden instrument.

I see they now cost about 4 or 5 times what they used to, and some now have a CF neck as well. The necks appear to bolt on with screws like a Fender Strat, which can't be good for a consistent neck angle.

For the prices they are asking now, I'd rather hunt down a used Rainsong.

[Sarah1F]

Originally Posted by steelvibe

You can play them in a moat,

You can play them on a boat!



You can play them in the heat,

You can play them eating meat!



You can play them in the cold,

You can play them getting old!



I do subscribe sub-forum fam,

I do so like steelvibe I am!

[Acoustic_Mouse]

This past summer I caught the Sam Grisman Project (David Grisman's son) outdoors. He plays a standup bass and his band plays a lot of wooden instruments. The temp (even after sunset) was about 105-110 degrees. That show, they played almost all electric. He even apologized to the crowd, saying, the temps were wreaking havoc on their wood instruments. It was his intent to use them, but they chose not to due to the elements. He probably thought things would cool down after sunset (went on stage before dark), which wasn't the case. So they changed things up. The elements are definitely much rougher on all wood guitars than cf.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Acoustic_Mouse

This past summer I caught the Sam Grisman Project (David Grisman's son) outdoors. He plays a standup bass and his band plays a lot of wooden instruments. The temp (even after sunset) was about 105-110 degrees. That show, they played almost all electric. He even apologized to the crowd, saying, the temps were wreaking havoc on their wood instruments. It was his intent to use them, but they chose not to due to the elements. He probably thought things would cool down after sunset (went on stage before dark), which wasn't the case. So they changed things up. The elements are definitely much rougher on all wood guitars than cf.

Brings up an old memory of seeing Stephen Stills play at a fundraiser for Arcosante out in the Arizona desert in October 1978. The desert can still be brutally hot in October, and it was. And he could not keep any of the three or four really nice Martins he had with him in tune during the show. He was constantly tuning in the middle of songs, complaining about the weather’s effect on his guitars, even working some “out of tune” jokes into the lyrics of a couple songs, which suggested this wasn’t his first time at that rodeo. I’m wondering if carbon fiber guitars were around in those days if he’d have had one or two for occasions like that? Maybe, maybe not, but I’ll bet he’d have thought about it at least.

Unfortunately, that was not the biggest downer about that show. It was an all day and evening concert with lots of really fine acts from several genres. Again, brutally hot and, as always, dry. They had people parking in this large field full of desert grasses, someone sparked a joint or tossed a not quite finished cigarette butt, the whole parking lot caught fire, and cars were catching fire left and right. In the amphitheater we started hearing these loud explosions as car’s gas tanks would ignite. Then they started making announcements, telling us what was going on and not letting anyone out until the fire was under control. It was a huge mess. It happened while the show was still going on, so I don’t believe anyone was seriously hurt or killed, but a lot of folks lost their cars that day. Somehow my ‘68 VW that blew engines on the regular in the desert, didn’t catch fire and we were able to go on our merry way that night.

The Wikipedia page for Arcosanti even has this little blurb in their “history” tab:

“1978: During a festival held at the site on 7 October, a grass fire ignited in the area being used as a parking lot and over 180 cars were damaged or destroyed. This had the practical effect of ending the possibility of future music festivals at the site, due to the massive cost in damage payouts.”

I remember there were concerns that the experimental/educational community might not survive the financial impacts of the payouts they had to make from that debacle. Fortunately, they got past it eventually and are still functioning today, but some “fundraiser” that turned out to be!

-Ray

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Brings up an old memory of seeing Stephen Stills play at a fundraiser for Arcosante out in the Arizona desert in October 1978. The desert can still be brutally hot in October, and it was. And he could not keep any of the three or four really nice Martins he had with him in tune during the show. He was constantly tuning in the middle of songs, complaining about the weather’s effect on his guitars, even working some “out of tune” jokes into the lyrics of a couple songs, which suggested this wasn’t his first time at that rodeo. I’m wondering if carbon fiber guitars were around in those days if he’d have had one or two for occasions like that? Maybe, maybe not, but I’ll bet he’d have thought about it at least.

Unfortunately, that was not the biggest downer about that show. It was an all day and evening concert with lots of really fine acts from several genres. Again, brutally hot and, as always, dry. They had people parking in this large field full of desert grasses, someone sparked a joint or tossed a not quite finished cigarette butt, the whole parking lot caught fire, and cars were catching fire left and right. In the amphitheater we started hearing these loud explosions as car’s gas tanks would ignite. Then they started making announcements, telling us what was going on and not letting anyone out until the fire was under control. It was a huge mess. It happened while the show was still going on, so I don’t believe anyone was seriously hurt or killed, but a lot of folks lost their cars that day. Somehow my ‘68 VW that blew engines on the regular in the desert, didn’t catch fire and we were able to go on our merry way that night.

The Wikipedia page for Arcosanti even has this little blurb in their “history” tab:

“1978: During a festival held at the site on 7 October, a grass fire ignited in the area being used as a parking lot and over 180 cars were damaged or destroyed. This had the practical effect of ending the possibility of future music festivals at the site, due to the massive cost in damage payouts.”

I remember there were concerns that the experimental/educational community might not survive the financial impacts of the payouts they had to make from that debacle. Fortunately, they got past it eventually and are still functioning today, but some “fundraiser” that turned out to be!

-Ray

It is interesting that nobody in attendance wrote "Smoke On the Desert" and made a big hit from it.

Tony

[Acoustic_Mouse]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Brings up an old memory of seeing Stephen Stills play at a fundraiser for Arcosante out in the Arizona desert in October 1978...

Yikes, if anyone back then was tripping at that show, it probably started to resemble "Apocalypse Now."

[gbesson]

Originally Posted by Acoustic_Mouse

Yikes, if anyone back then was tripping at that show, it probably started to resemble "Apocalypse Now."

HAHAHAHAHHA....."if".

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Acoustic_Mouse

Yikes, if anyone back then was tripping at that show, it probably started to resemble "Apocalypse Now."

I love the smell of exploding cars in the afternoon...

OTOH, Apocalypse Now didn't come out until the following year...

There were no doubt a few people tripping, although the concert lineup wasn't all that psychedelic. I looked it up and it was a Thursday through Sunday festival. I was just there Saturday and the lineup was Kenny Rankin, Ralph Towner and Oregon (he played solo and with Oregon IIRC), Richie Havens, Shawn Phillips, Sam Rivers Trio, Anthony Braxton (he was on the main stage the next day, but he played informally on a staircase the day I was there), and Stephen Stills. Jackson Browne, David Lindley, Todd Rungren, Gary Burton, Tom Rush, Bernard Purdie, and many others played other days. But the day the cars blew up was Saturday. The "Carbeque". Evidently Stills was drunk and made some crack about 'the fire sale on your cars' which had happened earlier in the day - he was the headliner. I don't remember all of those details, but I do remember him fumbling with his guitars to try to keep them in tune. To get back on topic...

-Ray

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by raysachs

I’m wondering if carbon fiber guitars were around in those days if he’d have had one or two for occasions like that? Maybe, maybe not, but I’ll bet he’d have thought about it at least.

Likely, an Ovation would’ve worked well enough.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Likely, an Ovation would’ve worked well enough.

Yeah, good point…

-Ray