CA Cargo field test

[jbryant]

My CA Cargo came in Friday night and it was time to test it out. First of all...the hype about the acoustic tone is justified. It sounds great sitting on the couch and strumming. Very comfortable to hold but a big sound for such a small beast. The finish is strictly utility. Maybe some very fine steel wool would smooth it out a little. So...time for the real test for which I bought this guitar. I live in Austin Texas and most of my summer gigs are outside in the 98 degrees + 90% humidity that we had Saturday. Not optimum conditions for a fine handmade wooden guitar by any means. I have to say I wasn't thrilled with the electric sound of this guitar. It's very muddy, boomy. I had to crank in a lot of high end to get it sounding decent but finally it sounded pretty good. Not as good as my Thompson/LB6 but good enough. The light gage Elixer strings it comes with were pretty much like loose rubber bands so I put some GHS True-mediums on it yesterday and that helped a lot. I think a Colossi bone saddle might help also. One cool thing was that I usually sit when we play because my Thompson is a Grand Concert size and I'm just not comfortable standing and playing it but with this Cargo being so small and light I had a blast standing and being able to "Rock out" as it were.
So...the Cargo gets a 8 out of 10 from me. I have it in my living room and I can hardly keep away from it it's so much fun to play. I'll try to post a shot from the gig if I can.

Jim B

[ScottR]

Thanks for the review! I get mine tomorrow so this is fueling my anticipation. I cant wait to try this backpacking in the Sierras.....