Most popular CF guitars???

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by JackDaniel

I knew emerald would come out first but what surprises me is that so many people own rainsong.did not realize they were that popular!

I’m not surprised - Rainsong has been there, consistently, for longer than any of the other makers.

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by Nama Ensou

Nope



Yep, multiple choices allowed and surprisingly enough, many have more than one.

Yup I surprised myself when I realized I need to check 4 as I currently have a BlackBird El Capitan, a Journey RT660 an Emerald x7 nylon and a Klos travel hybrid.

The BlackBird and the Emerald I would not have heard of were it not for this forum and I picked up from other members through agf classifieds.

[Frettingflyer]

Originally Posted by JackDaniel

I knew emerald would come out first but what surprises me is that so many people own rainsong.did not realize they were that popular!

I was surprised Rainsong didn’t have many more than Emerald. While Emerald is popular on this forum, Rainsong has been in business over 20 years I believe, with a fairly large dealer network. A Reverb search for Rainsong brings up 4 pages of results(some not really related) but a search for Emerald yields 5-10 total results. I have owned both but currently own neither, just surprised by the results.

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by Frettingflyer

I was surprised Rainsong didn’t have many more than Emerald. While Emerald is popular on this forum, Rainsong has been in business over 20 years I believe, with a fairly large dealer network. A Reverb search for Rainsong brings up 4 pages of results(some not really related) but a search for Emerald yields 5-10 total results. I have owned both but currently own neither, just surprised by the results.

The Reverb situation makes sense to me: RainSong has dealers, dealers post things for sale on Reverb. Not unusual to see brand spankin' new RainSongs or McPhersons on Reverb, but you will only see the occasional used Emerald on there. A guitar dealer who used to be on this forum frequently related that "RainSong sells more guitars than any of the other CF makers." Since none of the manufacturers regularly release sales figures, we can only interpret what we see, here and on other media. The Emerald Friday shipping videos might lead one to determine 15+ guitar sales per week... but, we don't know what might not make the shipping video. Going by Reverb will only tell you what the majority of listings (from dealers) are being pushed at any particular time.

A poll like this one has a pretty small sample, only taking into account CF players (who participate here) favorites (or currently owned). I don't think we should infer that the results here can be used to determine "who sells the most." And, in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn't matter... each person picks (and stays with) the guitar that wins their own "popularity contest." It really doesn't matter who sells more, as long as you get the guitar(s) that pleases you.

I'm glad we have options.

(And for the record: Alistair from Emerald celebrated his 20th anniversary of making guitars in 2018.)

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

I'm glad we have options.

Yup. Makes the world go round.

And it’s not a competition.

(And for the record: Alistair from Emerald celebrated his 20th anniversary of making guitars in 2018.)

True, but there was something of a gap in that 20 year stretch. Not that it really matters that much.

We’re a pretty self-selecting bunch here. It’s pretty hard to justify any conclusions from any poll without realizing that. There’s a CF group on Facebook, and, as far as I can tell, there’s very little crossover with the AGF - which is not surprising, as the AGF demographic seems to be, in general, not congruent with FB.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

Since none of the manufacturers regularly release sales figures, we can only interpret what we see, here and on other media.

Rainsong's serial numbers are sequential, so we can work out roughly how many they are making a year. (or at least past performance)

My AGF Shorty from 2012 is #126xx
My CH-P from 2017 is #175xx

That makes it about 1000/year from 2012 through 2017.