Carbon fiber and conductivity

[ejbpesca]

I understand carbon fiber is conductive to electricity so is it the binder/finish for the fiber that makes the surface of a guitar made of such non conductive? I will run a test on my Rainsong inside and out yet thought maybe someone here has some knowledge on the question.

[jdinco]

[IMG]electrocuted by John Davis, on Flickr[/IMG]

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by ejbpesca

I understand carbon fiber is conductive to electricity so is it the binder/finish for the fiber that makes the surface of a guitar made of such non conductive? I will run a test on my Rainsong inside and out yet thought maybe someone here has some knowledge on the question.

I have to wonder why you might be concerned about this.

You mean I can plug into my CF guitar and power my amp? Where do I sign up?

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

I have to wonder why you might be concerned about this.

Maybe that would allow a person to jump start a car with two CF guitars instead of cables? CF guitars are already great for those situations when you are up a creek without a paddle.

Tony

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by ejbpesca

I understand carbon fiber is conductive to electricity so is it the binder/finish for the fiber that makes the surface of a guitar made of such non conductive? I will run a test on my Rainsong inside and out yet thought maybe someone here has some knowledge on the question.

I think the thing to be interested in is carbon fiber's ability to efficiently transmit vibration, especially to a UST or SBT pickup transducer. My experience with several RainSongs that had the Fishman Matrix Plus T system is that the Matrix UST not only senses the string vibration but also, to an enhanced degree, it senses the guitar's top, and back and sides vibration. This turns the Matrix into a kind of hybrid UST/SBT combination when rendering the amplified tone of the guitar.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by jdinco

[IMG]electrocuted by John Davis, on Flickr[/IMG]

+1! LOL!

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by ejbpesca

I understand carbon fiber is conductive to electricity so is it the binder/finish for the fiber that makes the surface of a guitar made of such non conductive? I will run a test on my Rainsong inside and out yet thought maybe someone here has some knowledge on the question.

Carbon fiber is conductive (not a great conductor). Epoxy and polyurethane are insulators. I'm pretty sure a meter probe would end up only touching epoxy or polyurethane and read as an open connection.

To make epoxy conductive you can use a metal filler. Silver filled epoxy is what we used for semiconductor die attachment when we wanted electrical connectivity (at least back before I retired). There are also metal coated versions of various fibers (not sure if carbon is offered that way) for conductive woven materials.

[ejbpesca]

Not knowing much, I figured what you say is true. I saw a demo of the components of a carbon fiber drone. The simple test found that upon the shiny finish of the carbon fiber body of the drone, no complete circuit yet at the cut, raw edged to the fiber yes..conduction. It made me me think about my Rain Song wondering how in the world do they make a guitar with electronics in it and the whole thing is conductive to electricity. Well..it is not..only raw, non sealed/bonded/no epoxy carbon fiber is conductive. Got it.thanks for the reply.

I mainly was wondering how the butt jack could operated if it is mounted upon conductive material. Well..the CF is sealed so the metal jack touches nothing that is conductive.

[jonfields45]

If the end pin jack does make an electrical connection to the CF weave, then to the extent that the entire guitar conducts electricity it acts as a shielding ground. Fender paints the insides of their guitars with conductive paint to get that feature. Possibly a RainSong, with an end pin jack, might be lower noise with a single coil magnetic pickup than a wooden guitar. Still for the rest of the electronics, they are shielded and insulated and are going to work fine regardless of whether the guitar conducts or not.

[ejbpesca]

Are RainSong pickups magnetic? I was thinking piezeo.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by ejbpesca

Are RainSong pickups magnetic? I was thinking piezeo.

Whether the UST is an LR Baggs Element or a Fishman Matrix, they're both piezo. RainSong seems to be now offering the option of ordering either brand's pickup/preamp system.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by ejbpesca

Are RainSong pickups magnetic? I was thinking piezeo.

No, they’re piezo. You might want to reread Jon’s post

[Steve Hamill]

Can they make the top photovoltaic so it charges the 9 volt when I play outside?