The biggest disadvantage of Carbon Guitars

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

I agree, I think CA has seen the need to offer this which is probably what I would like, but I have never seen one in a store.

Neither had I. I decided to order one online from a place with a no-questions money back guarantee. I figured if I didn't like it, I'd be out the shipping, but that was better than being stuck with a $2800 guitar I didn't want. I thought of it as a "rental" fee, plus I got to try the guitar in a variety of real situations, not just strum for 10 minutes in a noisy store. Just a thought, if you're willing to go that route.

[Doubleneck]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

Neither had I. I decided to order one online from a place with a no-questions money back guarantee. I figured if I didn't like it, I'd be out the shipping, but that was better than being stuck with a $2800 guitar I didn't want. I thought of it as a "rental" fee, plus I got to try the guitar in a variety of real situations, not just strum for 10 minutes in a noisy store. Just a thought, if you're willing to go that route.

And what did you think of the neck? For me I'm just not in the market for another guitar, my question was more for discussion given a previous post on CA necks. I would love to try the CA thin just for my own curiosity.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

And what did you think of the neck? For me I'm just not in the market for another guitar, my question was more for discussion given a previous post on CA necks. I would love to try the CA thin just for my own curiosity.

I actually got the wide neck, as my other main guitars have 1-11/16" necks and I was looking for something better for fingerstyle. But overall I thought the neck shape and feel was more similar to a Taylor than my Martin or Yamaha that have more of a V. It was very "fast", almost electric-ish, and comfy as least to me. I imagine the narrow neck might be more like the lower-end Taylors (1xx or 2xx) which have 1-11/16" nuts.

[sirwhale]

I've just bought a nylon string crossover with a 48mm nut and I can still thumb over easily on the 6th string.

But, ironically, I now prefer the 48mm nut, so this backs up Steve's original post.

[Strumalot]

I have the thin neck GX and it is most similar to my strat and perhaps my old Taylor 710.

Out of all my guitars, which include a Les Paul, Strat, and CFs from Emerald and Rainsong, the thin neck on the GX is my favorite. The 1 3/4 necks aren't a deal breaker for me, but I am surprised that the GX is the only production model with the thinner neck option. CF is a perfect material for making acoustics for people who have mostly electric guitar backgrounds and want that same feel in their acoustics.

I also have a CA Blade. I had expected the neck to be similar to the GX, but the profile is fuller. I prefer the GX profile, and that is perhaps a more important difference than the width when comparing guitars.

[Doubleneck]

Originally Posted by Strumalot

The 1 3/4 necks aren't a deal breaker for me, but I am surprised that the GX is the only production model with the thinner neck option.

I am not surprised because it would be a separate guitar mold for the thinner neck and they would only do that for their best selling guitar. That kind of demonstrates the point I was making.

I looked at a bunch of UTubes from factory tours. They show Taylor and McPherson making necks totally on a CNC machine. Martin shows a CNC machined neck but final finishing my hand. (to me that's a bit of marketing) Bottom line given the manufacturing process, it is just cheaper and easier for wood makers to offer multiple neck options. It then becomes more of a marketing issue how many are worth selling.

[Carmel Cedar]

Originally Posted by Doubleneck

Bottom line given the manufacturing process, it is just cheaper and easier for wood makers to offer multiple neck options.

Certainly that's true based on what we assume the manufacturing changes are (between cf and wood guitars) to do a custom vs standard neck. But I wonder whether the future could be different. If I wanted a thin carve neck profile on a Kevin Ryan guitar, it's a $200 option. For an Emerald, it's $350. Certainly cheaper for wood (and even more as a % of guitar value for the Ryan), but not as big a difference as I would have guessed. For my upcoming Emerald build, it's also not a 'pick from these choices' deal - it's anything I want. That suggests there may be cheaper ways to customize carbon fiber guitar necks than we assume.

Could be dead wrong here. But I wonder if manufacturing innovations could change the carbon fiber market vs what it is today. Thinking about how Bob Taylor's manufacturing innovations transformed the wood guitar market...

Personally, I'm really liking a model that enables more customized carbon fiber guitars!

[Doubleneck]

Originally Posted by Carmel Cedar

Certainly that's true based on what we assume the manufacturing changes are (between cf and wood guitars) to do a custom vs standard neck. But I wonder whether the future could be different. If I wanted a thin carve neck profile on a Kevin Ryan guitar, it's a $200 option. For an Emerald, it's $350. Certainly cheaper for wood (and even more as a % of guitar value for the Ryan), but not as big a difference as I would have guessed. For my upcoming Emerald build, it's also not a 'pick from these choices' deal - it's anything I want. That suggests there may be cheaper ways to customize carbon fiber guitar necks than we assume.

Could be dead wrong here. But I wonder if manufacturing innovations could change the carbon fiber market vs what it is today. Thinking about how Bob Taylor's manufacturing innovations transformed the wood guitar market...

Personally, I'm really liking a model that enables more customized carbon fiber guitars!

There always seems to be magic in the Emerald City.

For Martin and Taylor it's not really in most cases a custom neck. Multiple necks are standard offerings, maybe not on every guitar but on many of them.