Rainsong Vintage Series????

[Fixedgear60]

Hi Everyone,

Such an interesting thread!!! I had a chance to bring my trusty McPherson Touring down to Union Music and compare it to the Rainsong Vintage Parlor (no electronics). I won't comment on the N2 neck as this has been covered numerous times in other threads and have no trouble with it but prefer the Touring neck.

IMHO I found the Touring has more bass and warmer in tone. The Vintage Parlor had more mid-tone, punch, and volume all things being equal. I found this consistent both strumming and finger-picking. If I was playing in a group, I think the Vintage Parlor would be heard better. Since the Vintage Parlor had no electronics could not compare plugged in but assume would be the same across as carbon versions.

To my ears (your mileage may vary), I find the Touring more pleasing for my playing but am torn at the visual appearance. It is a good-looking guitar, easy to play and like, but at the street price 3200+, (all tech aside) you are moving into some gorgeous wood guitars like Lowden...etc. Higher-end wood guitars are not standing still with carbon fiber truss rods, exotic woods, amazing satin finishes, and bevels.

[Tøf]

I agree that aesthetically wise it still seems very expensive for an instrument that looks like made of plastic But if we want to be fair the Touring street price is more around 2700$, and it’s difficult to find an american-made guitar with premium tonewoods for that price. Lowden is way more expensive except if you go for a Sheeran model, but then it’s not the same quality either.

I would love to try one of these Rainsong Vintage, in particular the WS model. But it’s just too difficult to find one in Europe!

[Frettingflyer]

Interesting thread. I went thru Worcester on Tuesday and stopped by Union Music. Played the Rainsong with the N1 neck for my first time and really like that neck! I also enjoyed auditioning the Spruce top Rainsongs and was impressed. I think they do change the sound, at least to my ear.
Enjoyed the Parlor but for me it wouldn’t do anything my Lucky13 doesn’t do(lightwieght and small).
Now, a CO series OM with the N1 neck.....might just acquire some GAS for that.

[Methos1979]

Just a heads up for those following this thread - I ordered an custom Rainsong Nashville N-OM1000NS to A/B against my CH-OM1000NS. I should have it sometime late next week so I'll be posting a NGD with my thoughts the week after that on the differences between two very similar models but with different tops and also the differences between the Baggs Anthem and Element Stage Pro systems. Stay tuned.

[boneuphtoner]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Just a heads up for those following this thread - I ordered an custom Rainsong Nashville N-OM1000NS to A/B against my CH-OM1000NS. I should have it sometime late next week so I'll be posting a NGD with my thoughts the week after that on the differences between two very similar models but with different tops and also the differences between the Baggs Anthem and Element Stage Pro systems. Stay tuned.

Good for you! Since I just sold my red carbon X30 (to fund a Sable) I won’t have a chance to compare with and without the veneer when the woody X30 arrives in July - please do let us know your impressions. The poster earlier in this thread had some good numbers that would suggest that the spruce that RainSong is using is thick enough to affect the tone - I only was able to compare a carbon WS size RainSong to my Nashville jumbo, and the latter definitely was less mid-forward and warmer overall - whether that was the spruce or body size, or perhaps both, I can’t say. I would also guess that poster is also correct that Emerald is using thinner veneers - byudzai and Emerald both report that it doesn’t have an impact on the tone - this is a $600 up charge, so I’m inclined to believe them.