Played a CA Cargo today....

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by Eugenius

side note: I think CA could do alot with the painting/colour of these beauties (patterns, designs, vivid colours etc). Charcoal is nice, but show me a wicked electric blue, or canary yellow, or maybe a theme guitar and maybe I'd order one online!

sky's the limit.

Good point, and one that also crossed my mind. For an upcharge, I'd bet CA could create downloadable body part templates (for any of their models) where the buyer could design their own graphic image to CA specs (e.g resolution) which could then be uploaded to CA and applied to the guitar. You could get pretty funky with that!

[mckejoel]

How about this... just some thoughts!

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by mckejoel

How about this... just some thoughts!

Hey Joel. The blue body is beautiful. I'm sure all you were playing around with is the body color because the heatstock is wine. IMO, a blue body and wine headstock looks

[mckejoel]

I haven't got the body quite right yet. The headstock will be Navy Blue with a "Red Pearlized" CA logo. I just don't have the "Blue Sunburst" quite the way I want it yet!

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Hey Joel. The blue body is beautiful. I'm sure all you were playing around with is the body color because the heatstock is wine. IMO, a blue body and wine headstock looks

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by mckejoel

I haven't got the body quite right yet. The headstock will be Navy Blue with a "Red Pearlized" CA logo. I just don't have the "Blue Sunburst" quite the way I want it yet!

Shouldn't the headstock color be the same as the body? Personally, I think that'd look best. I'd have to see a red pearlized CA logo, but I sense that if the blue/wine doesn't appeal to me, I'm not sure red/blue would either. Not sure of the best complement -- maybe simply white or a pale blue pearlized? And what about the AGF (incl. logo) even the AGF blue color might be a nice match against the blue you've chosen. All JMO.

[mckejoel]

All suggestions are welcomed. The idea of the color scheme is a "Navy Blue to Black Sunburst". I just haven't got the sunburst to look right yet. JR has an idea for the AGF Limited Edition Logo (secret...), but I like your idea of a "white pearlized" CA logo. The back, neck, and headstock will be Navy Blue with the Black/Navy (or lighter blue) sunburst. It's in the planning stage, but it is being planned!

Originally Posted by Acousticado

Shouldn't the headstock color be the same as the body? Personally, I think that'd look best. I'd have to see a red pearlized CA logo, but I sense that if the blue/wine doesn't appeal to me, I'm not sure red/blue would either. Not sure of the best complement -- maybe simply white or a pale blue pearlized? And what about the AGF (incl. logo) even the AGF blue color might be a nice match against the blue you've chosen. All JMO.

[mhs]

Regarding "two not the same" way back in this thread: I've never really experienced two cars that are identical and those come off an assembly line. That's as true of Honda or Toyota as it was of old Detroit cars.

It might be the little things (like saddle fit/shape) that sound big in this respect or it might be that there is variance in the process of putting these things together.

I must be really busy lately because I purchased and got a CA Cargo with pickup yesterday morning and didn't even open the box until 2 hours ago. The form-factor is perfect for a number of things, the most obvious and important to people buying one of these being that it'll easily fit in an overhead rack, and I'll be doing that with it next week.

The other thing I like is the small scale. I've always preferred the 'Gibson' (24.7?) type scales to the 25.5 but I never knew how much and that my preference would actually "scale with the scale" . I wouldn't like it any smaller but this suits my hands and I've been told for many years that I've got huge hands. I'm 6' tall. I've had hand problems over the last year so I was also after something that wasn't too tough during long stretches (finger stretches and time stretches) and this is it.

I thought the sound was a bit muffled and was also like that through the amp. Of course it was time to change things slightly.

Nothing comes out of a box or falls into my hands and is setup the way I like it and this was no exception. I think I had the saddle out of this thing in the first 10 minutes. I realized that the saddle was fit too tightly. I could easily get it out with a needle nose, but with a piezo sitting underneath, it needed a little off the sides to produce an even sound amped or not.

However:
I'd purchased 2 spare saddles with it for $5 each, but I realized that a Taylor saddle - 1/8" length is the same and is compensated the same. I had a bone saddle from Bob C. that I didn't use on my Taylor but I'd shaped it to have quite low action (probably 1/64" lower than the Cargo ships) so I shortened it and installed that.

Yikes! That fixed everything to my liking, although I'll also change the strings to uncoated ones when I have a chance. I think they're elixir (the one's someone here described as "soapy"). I just loosened them for the saddle change. The balance is great now, there is no muffled sound, and I'm looking forward to trying to wear this baby out. (or vice versa).

Someone mentioned intonation problems (at least I saw that somewhere in the forum). My ears don't detect any problems with intonation. Tuning isn't easy with the Gotoh 381's because I think they are a fairly low ratio, but once the guitar is tuned, it is pretty much .. tuned.

Mick

[mckejoel]

Thanks for the update and review Mick.
The information will really be appreciated.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by Papol

Regarding "two not the same" way back in this thread: I've never really experienced two cars that are identical and those come off an assembly line. That's as true of Honda or Toyota as it was of old Detroit cars.

It might be the little things (like saddle fit/shape) that sound big in this respect or it might be that there is variance in the process of putting these things together.

I must be really busy lately because I purchased and got a CA Cargo with pickup yesterday morning and didn't even open the box until 2 hours ago. The form-factor is perfect for a number of things, the most obvious and important to people buying one of these being that it'll easily fit in an overhead rack, and I'll be doing that with it next week.

The other thing I like is the small scale. I've always preferred the 'Gibson' (24.7?) type scales to the 25.5 but I never knew how much and that my preference would actually "scale with the scale" . I wouldn't like it any smaller but this suits my hands and I've been told for many years that I've got huge hands. I'm 6' tall. I've had hand problems over the last year so I was also after something that wasn't too tough during long stretches (finger stretches and time stretches) and this is it.

I thought the sound was a bit muffled and was also like that through the amp. Of course it was time to change things slightly.

Nothing comes out of a box or falls into my hands and is setup the way I like it and this was no exception. I think I had the saddle out of this thing in the first 10 minutes. I realized that the saddle was fit too tightly. I could easily get it out with a needle nose, but with a piezo sitting underneath, it needed a little off the sides to produce an even sound amped or not.

However:
I'd purchased 2 spare saddles with it for $5 each, but I realized that a Taylor saddle - 1/8" length is the same and is compensated the same. I had a bone saddle from Bob C. that I didn't use on my Taylor but I'd shaped it to have quite low action (probably 1/64" lower than the Cargo ships) so I shortened it and installed that.

Yikes! That fixed everything to my liking, although I'll also change the strings to uncoated ones when I have a chance. I think they're elixir (the one's someone here described as "soapy"). I just loosened them for the saddle change. The balance is great now, there is no muffled sound, and I'm looking forward to trying to wear this baby out. (or vice versa).

Someone mentioned intonation problems (at least I saw that somewhere in the forum). My ears don't detect any problems with intonation. Tuning isn't easy with the Gotoh 381's because I think they are a fairly low ratio, but once the guitar is tuned, it is pretty much .. tuned.

Mick

Congrats Mick, and thanks for your observations! I very much like the sound of mine out of the box, especially what I was comparing it to (Baby Taylor). I'm not much of a tweaker beyond strings (I like Elixir PBs on my Taylor, and like the sound of them on the Cargo, as shipped) when it comes to what you've done, but I can imagine how very subtle nuances can be fine-tuned to one's ear. One fabulous little beast, eh?

[mhs]

Thanks Joel and Acousticado,

If I didn't mention it while I was blathering up there, it is one cool little guitar ..

Mick

[leeasam]

I had mentioned how the intonation on the baby Taylor stunk and was wondering how these cargos were. I had a feeling they would be good.

lee

[mckejoel]

The Cargo's are like the other CA guitars, once you tune them, they pretty much stay tuned. It's something hard to believe unless you have one. I have the CA Legacy Performer. They are an amazing guitar.

Originally Posted by leeasam

I had mentioned how the intonation on the baby Taylor stunk and was wondering how these cargos were. I had a feeling they would be good.

lee

[leeasam]

Originally Posted by mckejoel

How about this... just some thoughts!

here are some photos of the 7i series from CA website. the finish is NOT the RT on these but high gloss.

http://www.compositeacoustics.com/7i%20Series.aspx


http://www.compositeacoustics.com/7iphotos.aspx

[mckejoel]

Thanks Lee,

We are trying to take advantage of the blue color by using a "sunburst style" pattern on the Cargo's top.

Originally Posted by leeasam

here are some photos of the 7i series from CA website. the finish is NOT the RT on these but high gloss.

http://www.compositeacoustics.com/7i%20Series.aspx


http://www.compositeacoustics.com/7iphotos.aspx

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by leeasam

here are some photos of the 7i series from CA website. the finish is NOT the RT on these but high gloss.

Crap! Ya did have to post that, didn't ya?! Those are beautiful. I bet they sound and feel great! This is tempting...