NGD: RainSong DR-BI 12 fret dread in Black Ice - updated after using for gigs

[mikealpine]

The X30 has plenty of power. If you find yourself in lower NY, especially on Long Island, I’d be happy to let you play mine.

[Methos1979]

Wow - I was surprised at all the comments after my update. To the guy looking for CF for bluegrass jams, I thought the same thing as others commented on about walking into a BG jam with a CF guitar! And that was just with the RainSong V-DR which at least sort of looks like a Martin D18! Unless they are a really accepting and fun bunch I would think an Emerald would go over like a fart in church!

But as to the guitars in question, here are my opinions:

RainSong V-DR - this is the Vintage dread. It's nice because it looks the most like a real wood acoustic dread. It's loud and has plenty of bottom end. The only thing that the wood infused top imparts tonally is a little bit of warmth, taming the oftentimes bright and chime-y highs of most all-CF guitars. It wouldn't be as loud as a full on D18 but it could certainly hang with them and if you go amplified you get the excellent Anthem StagePro system.

Any Emerald - I've owned 5 Emeralds over the years and at one time had all Emeralds including an X20, an X10 and an X7. They are great guitars and certainly conversation starters. 4 of the 5 were 'woody' tops (a bit like the RainSong Vintage offerings) and I found all of them to be darker tonally (also like the RS V) but I think a lot of that is just in the design. But wood-infused tops always seem to add warmth to the CF tone at the cost of a little volume.

I've never played an X30 but I would think that would be the best way to go for Bluegrass jams if you thought you could get the wildly modern design by the stoic BG crowd. But I think the RS V-DR would be a safer bet all the way around over any Emerald. My biggest problems with the Emeralds is I could never get an amplified tone that I loved with any of them. All the ones I had were either K&K pickup systems or the Baggs Element V-TC.

[SpruceTop]

Let me once again remind us that for almost 15 years, Tim Stafford of Blue Highway has been playing a Composite Acoustics Tim Stafford Signature Model with its Onboard Fishman Matrix/Aura pickup/preamp system. I had one of these but returned it as I just couldn't get along with the neck profile and neck-width flare. Otherwise, it was a wonderful-sounding guitar both acoustically and plugged in.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Let me once again remind us that for almost 15 years, Tim Stafford of Blue Highway has been playing a Composite Acoustics Tim Stafford Signature Model with its Onboard Fishman Matrix/Aura pickup/preamp system.

Well, I'm sure if Molly Tuttle or Billy Strings showed up with a CF dread to a Bluegrass jam no one would say anything to them either!! If I didn't loathe Bluegrass so much, I'd actually go to BG jams regularly with my RainSong Black Ice dread just to annoy as many as I can! But fortunately for me (and them) I don't have the chops to play Bluegrass!!

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

Sorry for drifting off topic - the comment about bringing an X20 to a bluegrass jam made me think of that night. I think we all had some fun, and made some effort to adjust to each other's music. I have an X20, and it would hold it's own in any setting. Oh, and for the record: the big guy with the bibs was playing an old Taylor dread.

It's all good. I appreciated you sharing your experience. You have a great way of telling us the story Jim.

[zeeway]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

My biggest problems with the Emeralds is I could never get an amplified tone that I loved with any of them. All the ones I had were either K&K pickup systems or the Baggs Element V-TC.

You know, I am impressed with your guitar playing, but I am even more impressed with your guitar reviewing. You put into words some ‘feelings’ I have about guitars that bother me, but somehow do not make it into words I can express. Yes, it confuses even me.

But here goes…I have an Emerald X20 which I love…when I play it acoustically…lush, rich tones…it’s great. However, I struggled through various pickups, to make it so I could play it to get a balanced sound without feedback. A Tonedexter finally tamed it, and I gigged with it that way for a while, but I resented having to mess with the extra stuff…guess I am too lazy. About four weeks ago I bought a near-mint four year old Rainsong CH-OM 12 fret with a Stage Pro Element barn door pickup…this thing is friggin awesome…great tone amplified, and no feedback, and easy to play with the 12 fret neck. I am in love again.

I still give the slight edge to the X20 when played acoustically, but the Rainsong is my new gigging guitar.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by zeeway

You know, I am impressed with your guitar playing, but I am even more impressed with your guitar reviewing. You put into words some ‘feelings’ I have about guitars that bother me, but somehow do not make it into words I can express. Yes, it confuses even me.

But here goes…I have an Emerald X20 which I love…when I play it acoustically…lush, rich tones…it’s great. However, I struggled through various pickups, to make it so I could play it to get a balanced sound without feedback. A Tonedexter finally tamed it, and I gigged with it that way for a while, but I resented having to mess with the extra stuff…guess I am too lazy. About four weeks ago I bought a near-mint four year old Rainsong CH-OM 12 fret with a Stage Pro Element barn door pickup…this thing is friggin awesome…great tone amplified, and no feedback, and easy to play with the 12 fret neck. I am in love again.

I still give the slight edge to the X20 when played acoustically, but the Rainsong is my new gigging guitar.

Hi Angie!

First of all let me say thank you so much for the lovely comments on both my playing and reviewing. I don't consider either to be all that great but I get by as a player enough that people pay me to do it and it has become a fun retirement 'side-hustle', as the saying goes. As for reviews, I sometimes cringe at mine when I go back and watch them especially when I compare them to the many more well-produced ones. But, like my playing, my reviews are meant to be more 'everyday-workman' or 'guy-on-the-street' types meant to get real feelings from an average guy that just buys and uses gear (and is not trying to sell something!) so I really appreciate it when fellow AGF members find them useful.

Now, as to your comments and experiences with the Emerald and RainSong guitars, yes, that mirrors my experiences. I never tried the Tonedexter because these days we are all about taking the less-is-more approach to our gear and have for years now. I used to have all kinds of pedals along with the snake-like mess of power cords and when I finally realized that for my level of playing and what we do I really didn't need them we 'cut the cord' (pun intended) and now I don't think I could even go back if I wanted to. I love being able to carry everything we need for a gig in one trip along with our 5 minute setup and teardown.

I've said it before that while I really love the look and feel of Emerald guitars I just couldn't get the amplified tone I wanted out of them. Part, if not most, of that was the K&K pickups I always opted to install and I should note that I had the same issue with all the wood guitars I put K&K's into. And a big part of that is the need to add more pedals to really get the best out of the K&K and tame the feedback. And while I know many people eschew barn door systems in fine wood guitars (and I agree with that), in a carbon fiber guitar I think a barn door system is fine and even works with the modern look of CF.

The LR Baggs StagePro pickup system is just fantastic. You get all the function of one or more outboard pedals right at your fingertips. We played a large, loud gig last night and for the first time I had an issue with feedback at a low frequency due in part to the volume we needed to play at as well as the location of the (fantastic) Evolve 30M stick PA we use. As soon as I bumped the volume a bit for the first fingerstyle number in the set list I started to hear the low end begin to swell. A very quick mid-song dialing back of the low EQ tamed it enough to get through the song and then after the song was over a very quick turn of the notch knob dialed out the offending frequency without any drama or time-consuming tweaking.

I'm glad you have found a system that works for you. I have said many times that if Emerald would go back to putting a StagePro system into their guitars (I know they have in the past) I would almost certainly order another custom short scale X20 woody as I do love the look. I've never had so much interest from the public, both players and non-players alike, in any guitar I've gigged with and I loved that attention as I love (shocking, I know) to talk about guitars!

[jricc]

Originally Posted by zeeway

You know, I am impressed with your guitar playing, but I am even more impressed with your guitar reviewing. You put into words some ‘feelings’ I have about guitars that bother me, but somehow do not make it into words I can express. Yes, it confuses even me.

But here goes…I have an Emerald X20 which I love…when I play it acoustically…lush, rich tones…it’s great. However, I struggled through various pickups, to make it so I could play it to get a balanced sound without feedback. A Tonedexter finally tamed it, and I gigged with it that way for a while, but I resented having to mess with the extra stuff…guess I am too lazy. About four weeks ago I bought a near-mint four year old Rainsong CH-OM 12 fret with a Stage Pro Element barn door pickup…this thing is friggin awesome…great tone amplified, and no feedback, and easy to play with the 12 fret neck. I am in love again.

I still give the slight edge to the X20 when played acoustically, but the Rainsong is my new gigging guitar.

Hi Angie, congrats on finding a good gigging guitar. I too have the CH-OM 12 fret with StagePro Element and it's my main gigger. It just plain sounds good. I believe that the Element pickup plays well with Carbon Fiber, moreso than wood. It definitely sounds better than my Taylor with ES2.