In stock Rainsong Nashville

[Kindness]

OMG, they are available!

https://www.laguitarsales.com/index....jm1100n2t.html

https://www.laguitarsales.com/index....vdr1100n2.html

[GuitarLuva]

I think the dreadnought looks amazing. Like I said in the other thread the black back and sides seems to make the spruce "pop" even more. Not a big fan of the burst on the jumbo though. One more critique, which is more of a personal thing, I'm not a fan of strap buttons on the neck heel. On non-cutaway models it wouldn't be as much of an issue but on a cutaway guitar they always make upper fret access more difficult.

[RP]

Yeh, they arrived last week....

[SpruceTop]

The pickguard has got to go or be resized to a smaller less intrusive size.

[jdinco]

I think they both look pretty nice...but that SFT must be something for that price. I shouldn't judge without playing one, but too expensive for me. Does Kramster have his yet?

[kramster]

Originally Posted by jdinco

. Does Kramster have his yet?

Ill guess NO ..and throw in darn it !!

[Methos1979]

Yikes! Pretty pricey for stock models with no electronics. It will interesting to see how they do. I'm looking forward to the reviews.

[casualmusic]

Rainsong is a mature and methodical company that is very careful about its partnership with its dealers.

They are now providing existing dealers with Nashville and Vintage samples, information, and marketing materials needed to sell to customers.

And perhaps providing early samples to a handful of halo performers. The Nashville and Vintage models will do especially well with performers (and casual players) of country, bluegrass and old timey music.

Rainsong is probably building towards demonstrations and a general roll-out at the Winter N.A.A.M. trade show. And celebrating of its 20th year at N.A.A.M.

Which will by supported by new info on the Rainsong web site, including additions to the posted price list.

Expect tinkering with the product as a result of dealer and user feedback. And expansion to other body shapes and series based on customer requests.


Carbon fibre guitars sales are so low (under 5-7000 annually total of all makers) that only a few dealers regularly stock them which means that many Rainsongs are ordered through dealers.


When ordering you can ask for (and probably get) the usual small variations:

* neck scale N2 25 1/2" 14 fret, or NS 24 3/4" 12 fret

* no electric pickup, or a choice of pickups

* pick guard loose not installed (I'm guessing the pickup is standard because the spruce half of the soundboard is much softer than the carbon fibre part)

* neck button not installed (or just remove it yourself)

* we heard here that Ted at LAGUITARSALES.com was able to arrange for an AGFer to obtain a gig bag for an H-WS instead of a hard shell case


Initial high pricing reflects some combination of development cost recovery, production costs and early adopter premium.


I'm eager to hear if the new soundboard is a minimum thickness veneer (as guessed by some AGFers), a Spruce-spacer-CF sandwich similar to the CF-spacer-CF double top used in other Rainsong series, or Spruce-CF directly bonded.

Will be interesting to see if Rainsong will evolve various combinations of Spruce thickness and CF thickness to achieve different tones.


The Vintage Spruce+CF combination sure got my attention.


Cheers.

[AZLiberty]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

The pickguard has got to go or be resized to a smaller less intrusive size.

Yeah, it looks.... bad.

The one on the dread is fine, but the one on the Jumbo is just weird.

[jonfields45]

I can't imagine the Nashville is anything more than a thin veneer as no RainSong has the conventional braces that a weaker heavier substantially spruce top would require.

RainSong has a long history of replacing the outermost visible CF layer with something more cosmetically pleasing (Concert and Black Ice).

If you hold your Concert guitar (I've got two) at the right angle you can see the 3x3 twill pattern underneath the unidirectional layer (both on the same side of the spacer).

Since I'm the kind of guy that doesn't really buy the nuances of different species of spruce, I'm not much for marketing this as more than a really nice cosmetic option.

In my RainSong experience and prejudice the big RainSong tone drivers are:

1. Body selection
2. 12 vs. 14 fret neck (bridge placement)
3. The fiberglass core of the Hybrid guitar bridgeplate

[kramster]

Originally Posted by casualmusic

Rainsong is probably building towards demonstrations and a general roll-out at the Winter N.A.A.M. trade show. And celebrating of its 20th year at N.A.A.M. .

If they go..they did not go last year..just sayin’.

[RP]

I'm the guy mentioned in casualmusic's post who asked for and got a Rainsong gig bag instead of the standard Access case. I should add that my H-WS1100W2T was a special order in that it had a tobacco burst finish but no electronics. Ted made the request for a gig bag (based on my request) from Rainsong, and they shipped the guitar (as far as I know) in a gig bag. In other words (as far I know) it was not just a matter of Ted having the gig bag in stock and swapping out the case.

But to casualmusic's point, there are "adjustments" that Rainsong will make if one knows to ask and also works with a dealer like LA Guitar Sales who has a good working relationship with Rainsong. Those are a couple of big "ifs" for any potential Rainsong customer. I've owned a bunch of Rainsongs and love the guitars - both the ones I own and most of the ones I've sold. (I say most because the exception would be the early Studio model whose scratchy top was just not to my liking.) One thing I don't understand is why Rainsong doesn't use space on their website to make it known that they do and will offer adjustments or options on special orders. I have never seen a Rainsong in a store so I have to assume that most Rainsong purchases are done from a distance. While I don't believe that Rainsong is trying to go toe-to-toe with Emerald, I do believe that Rainsong would do well to look closely at Emerald's extensive emphasis on ordering/choosing options...

As for the new Vintage and Nashville models, they look really cool and I'd love to own a dreadnought Vintage, but like others am scratching my head at the MSRP. I'm kind of hoping that as production gears up and more of these hit the streets (or probably more precisely, the internet), we'll see a price adjustment that brings them more in line with other offerings from Rainsong. We'll see.....

[casualmusic]

Originally Posted by jonfields45

I can't imagine the Nashville is anything more than a thin veneer as no RainSong has the conventional braces that a weaker heavier substantially spruce top would require.

RainSong has a long history of replacing the outermost visible CF layer with something more cosmetically pleasing (Concert and Black Ice).

If you hold your Concert guitar (I've got two) at the right angle you can see the 3x3 twill pattern underneath the unidirectional layer (both on the same side of the spacer).

Since I'm the kind of guy that doesn't really buy the nuances of different species of spruce, I'm not much for marketing this as more than a really nice cosmetic option.

In my RainSong experience and prejudice the big RainSong tone drivers are:

1. Body selection
2. 12 vs. 14 fret neck (bridge placement)
3. The fiberglass core of the Hybrid guitar bridgeplate

Hi Jon

Thanks for the very clear description of how RainSong makes their soundboards.

I'm guessing that the basic layup is a CF single layer of the right thickness on each side of the spacer? (Plus the visible layer where used)?

Cheers.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by casualmusic

Hi Jon

Thanks for the very clear description of how RainSong makes their soundboards.

I'm guessing that the basic layup is a CF single layer of the right thickness on each side of the spacer? (Plus the visible layer where used)?

Cheers.

It seems that would be the minimum. The bridge plate area is thicker and all CF with no spacer (CF plus fiberglass for the Hybrids). For a single layer of CF to work in this application it would need to be some form of twill with strength in both along and across the guitar top. Clearly the Concert and Black Ice need another layer of twill CF underneath what you can see. It is impossible to know if that is also true for the Standard and regular Hybrid series.

Here is where it gets complicated... 4x4 twill is stronger than 3x3 which is stronger than 2x2 which is stronger than 1x1. Every time the CF fiber bends in the twill a little bit of tensile strength is lost.

1x1 is the best choice for cosmetics since it holds its pattern better than the other alternatives.

Then all the different fabric types are available in different weights (thicknesses, strengths) which clearly matters in this application. So they might use two layers of lighter CF cloth if the outer one is to be chosen for cosmetic reasons.

Finally, I think RainSong uses prepeg for the body and raw CF fabric for the neck. Some manufacturers (I think CA and McPherson) use raw fabric everywhere which ends up much heavier as more epoxy is needed to make that work.

RainSong is very tight lipped about what they are doing. Though I suppose some shop must specialize in destructive reverse engineering. I hired a few in my days working in semiconductors (fond memories of visiting Quadic in Portland Maine :~).

[casualmusic]

Originally Posted by RP

I'm the guy mentioned in casualmusic's post who asked for and got a Rainsong gig bag instead of the standard Access case. I should add that my H-WS1100W2T was a special order in that it had a tobacco burst finish but no electronics. Ted made the request for a gig bag (based on my request) from Rainsong, and they shipped the guitar (as far as I know) in a gig bag. In other words (as far I know) it was not just a matter of Ted having the gig bag in stock and swapping out the case.

But to casualmusic's point, there are "adjustments" that Rainsong will make if one knows to ask as well as works with a dealer like LA Guitar Sales who has a good working relationship with Rainsong. I've owned a bunch of Rainsongs and love the guitars - both the ones I own and most of the ones I've sold. I say most because the exception would be the early Studio model whose scratchy top was just not to my liking. One thing I don't understand is why Rainsong doesn't use space on their website to make it known that they do and will offer adjustments or options on special orders. I have never seen a Rainsong in a store so I assume that most purchases will be done from a distance. While I don't believe that Rainsong is trying to go toe-to-toe with Emerald, I do believe that Rainsong would do well to look closely at Emerald's extensive emphasis on ordering/choosing options...

As for the new Vintage and Nashville models, they look really cool and I'd love to own a dreadnought Vintage, but like others am scratching my head at the MSRP. I'm kind of hoping that as production gears up and more of these hit the streets, we'll see a price adjustment that brings them more in line with other offerings from Rainsong. We'll see.....

Hi RP.

Yes, I was surprised about the gig bag because my local dealer said hard case only.

I agree that RainSong should list out options on their website. The options of medium length neck, no electronics, and tobacco burst finish are deal makers for me.

Perhaps their marketing feedback and experience from decades of selling through dealers is that simplifying obvious choices reduces customer decision paralysis. And that savvy dealers will know when to mention non-obvious choices.

Example1: offering the same price for all body sizes in a series (a few exceptions) is brilliant. Example2: offering fewer stock combinations reduces potential errors at the guitar store, on the assembly line, and during delivery. Example3: there are pictures of earlier paint jobs that are more gaudy than dignified.

Yup the introduction price of woody is high. It looks great on those jumbos and dreadnaughts. But this point I'd be plenty happy with the $75 tobacco burst.

Cheers.