CF Guitar with Wood Top?

[PTL]

At the risk of being banned from this forum....

I still prefer a fine wood guitar tone over CF though CF does play and sound wonderful. With a wooden guitar:
1. Everything expands and shifts from humidity changes including the neck, body, and top.
2. Supposedly 80% of a guitar tone comes from the top.

So got to wondering if anyone built an entire guitar from CF and just left the top using traditional materials? Yes, it's a compromise but could possibly be a good compromise ? The entire guitar is stable and only the top will shift from humidity changes which will limit the amount of shift as it takes the rest of the guitar out of the equation. At the same time, it will have a more wooden tone as the most important part of tone production is wood.

Love to hear any thoughts.

[kramster]

Originally Posted by PTL

At the risk of being banned from this forum....

BANNED...Oops darn auto response when I am driving

[kramster]

Originally Posted by PTL

So got to wondering if anyone built an entire guitar from CF and just left the top using traditional materials? .

So let me get this straight.. Entire guitar Cf.. yet the top is wood... Hmmmmm interesting .. Sorta like ...oh...uhhh...I got nothin..

[bsman]

Maybe an Ovation would work for you? Other than that, I got nothing!

[Matt McGriff]

Not really sure the CF would serve any purpose if the top was still wood. The issues with heat and humidity will still be there. I’d be afraid of the static nature of the body and neck and the dynamic nature of the wood may case issues with the stability of the fixation of the top to the body. The nice thing about CF is that it can be tuned (manipulated) to sound close to wood.

[steelvibe]

Wasn't this RainSong's approach in the early days? The Presentation Series??

Don't know for sure but I think RainSong discovered a better product in all CF with an indication of such in sales and increased popularity/ awareness.

Tone is subjective anyway. I like the merits of both.

[jonfields45]

Here is something that I think makes sense. Take an otherwise CF guitar and add a two layer spruce top where the not visible layer is some small angle off of what you can see. Then X-brace with a strong glue such as cyanoacrylate with a fairly tight radius by wood guitar standards (to give it some room to flatten out at high temps or low humidity without cracking). The top will look like spruce, the overall performance will be spruce, but the grain will cross between the inside and outside and make it fairly impervious to cracking under temperature or humidity stress.

Or another thought along the RainSong V-DR idea. Take those two layers of spruce and put a very thin layer of CF twill between them.

[guitararmy]

I had one of these, which is the opposite of what the OP was describing...

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/rains...jectseries.htm

A bit subdued in sound, but interesting.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by PTL

At the same time, it will have a more wooden tone as the most important part of tone production is wood.

I would, most respectfully, completely disagree. Guitars are very complex systems. The whole is way more than the sum of the parts.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Matt McGriff

I’d be afraid of the static nature of the body and neck and the dynamic nature of the wood may case issues with the stability of the fixation of the top to the body.

This was my first thought too.

You'd have a wooden top that will inevitably shrink and swell to some extent attached to a body that doesn't.

[Shaneh]

Sort of like a Gibson J-25

[Explorer]

Originally Posted by PTL

I still prefer a fine wood guitar tone over CF though CF does play and sound wonderful. With a wooden guitar:
1. Everything expands and shifts from humidity changes including the neck, body, and top.
2. Supposedly 80% of a guitar tone comes from the top.

Perhaps a better question would be, is it possible to get a woody tone from a CF top?

In which case, I highly recommend, if you are actually committed to the idea beyond armchair speculation, that you find a Composite Acoustic Legacy model. It used unique bracing to get a woody tone.

[Captain Jim]

There are some things that are just better together: peanut butter and jelly, cake and ice cream, Fred and Barney, toes and a warm sandy beach... a lovely wood veneer on a carbon fiber guitar brings a unique aesthetic. But an all wood top on CF back/sides/neck? Well, I did have an Ovation for 14 years. But that was before I got on any guitar forums and learned the "error of my ways." Back then, I used to think one acoustic and one electric was enough!

It is good to be evolved.

[ManyMartinMan]

Originally Posted by PTL

At the risk of being banned from this forum.... I still prefer a fine wood guitar tone over CF though CF does play and sound wonderful. With a wooden guitar:

If that's the tone you prefer, and many do, you should probably stick to all-wood guitars. Ovation provides what you're asking for so there is always that. I see no benefit to a half-and-half guitar. In that situation you lose a lot of the "woody" tone you're seeking and actually increase the possibility of a split top. You're losing the all-CF characteristics sought by CF players, and (IMO) gain nothing in the end.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Shaneh

Sort of like a Gibson J-25

Gosh - haven't seen one of those for years. Laminated top, I believe.