NGD: Rainsong CH-OM1000NS - Demo Video added!

[Methos1979]

Review/demo video added - warning! If listening with headphones, be aware that when I amplify the sound might be LOUD!



Hey AGF CF'ers - I'm baaaacccckkkk!

Actually, I never left. I've been lurking and commenting/posting here and there. But I'm back as a CF guitar owner. To date I've owned 9 carbon fiber guitars. 5 Emeralds, 2 Rainsongs and 2 Journey OF660's. Carbon fiber is great, for those that might be lurking and wondering. Each of the above guitars was a fine guitar. I went from owning ALL CF guitars to none in about 2 months time. I won't bore you with the details other than to say that at that time I found my all-CF stable lacking in the ability to amplify my playing to my liking and after finding something I did like I whiplashed in that direction.

The wife and I are planning to do some busking this spring/summer/fall instead of jumping back into the gigging pond just yet. (We're still not fans of going indoors to crowded places just yet.) I didn't have a guitar that I was super comfortable with taking out into public areas and started thinking, carbon fiber. Having owned many brands I started looking around and a used Rainsong seemed to be the ticket. After the usual obligatory searches here and elsewhere I settled on the CH-OM1000NS, which is (was) a lower budget offering from Rainsong but seems to get a lot of love from their owners.

I found one on Reverb for a great price but when I went back the next day to make an offer, it was gone! So then I started negotiating on another one that was more expensive and then the original one popped back up so I snatched it up. It was advertised at being in 'Very Good' condition but upon receiving and inspecting closely I'd put it more in the 'Dead Mint' category! I played it a bit unplugged this morning and it sounds pretty much just okay. It's not bad but it's not great. Keep in mind that as of late I'm used to playing only my Froggy Bottom H-12 Deluxe so from an acoustic tone standpoint my ear is a little jaded these days. Regardless, the Rainsong certainly sounds good enough for busking.

The other thing I wanted this for is a backup to the Cole Clark Angel 2 for gigging amplified or taking to open mics when and if those ever come back. So I plugged it into the Bose S1, set everything flat on both (my go-to process for testing amplified tone) and took it for a spin. O.M.G.! Wow, does this little guitar sound awesome plugged in! And I play Cole Clark guitars so I'm jaded about plugged in tone. Anyway, there's no end of information about these guitars so I won't dwell on that other than to say it's an OM size body but not as deep. This affects the acoustic tone but also makes it more comfortable to play. The short scale is nice, the neck is comfortable and the nut and string spacing is perfect for me. The fretboard is a little flat but so is my Froggy Bottom so that works for me.

I love the tuners which are smooth and seem to have a high ratio. The onboard preamp/EQ/notch/tuner is great. It's an LR Baggs Element system. They made the soundboard top gloss with the rest being matte and I wish they'd gone all matte. I replaced the front strap button with my preferred Planet Wave brass button and also put on one of those MusicNomad Acousti-Loc strap buttons on the bottom so I can use the strap lock and not interfere with the jack. The only thing I'm not a fan of is the very large and somewhat heavy hard case. For this type of guitar I would think a gig bag is fine. I was planning to order one but then I remembered that I had a brand new one left over from a previous guitar that I never got around to selling off. The fit is perfect! Although there are some here that might consider this sacrilegious! See the photos farther below for the 'reveal' on this!

I was thinking about maybe ordering one of these from Rainsong in their woody top offerings and the LR Baggs Anthem as a custom order. But at a $3,500 price tag I think I'd probably go with a custom Emerald X20 non-woody. Time will tell. Stay tuned!

Photos to follow.

Update: I've now had a few days to really dig into this guitar and I'm SO impressed that I wanted to add these thoughts to the original post for those that are reading this for the first time (or coming back through!) since I know not everyone reads through all the posts in follow-on pages.

Anyway, my initial conclusion (from above) was that even though the acoustic-only tone was just okay at best it was still a decent guitar that will likely serve us well enough for our soon-to-be busking adventures. Plugged in this guitar was a revelation, for sure. I'm still shocked at how great this guitar sounds amplified straight into my little Bose S1 with everything set flat. That said, we'll not likely be busking amplified. While some towns do allow it, many do not. Especially the small oceanside resort towns that fill up with vacationers in the summer. Most of those towns have a strict acoustic-only policy that they enforce.

My initial feelings on the acoustic sound of the little Rainsong was, meh, it's okay. It definitely suffers a bit on overall volume especially on the low end. But now I've been playing only the Rainsong non-stop for several days and I'm a little more acclimated to its tone and a little farther away from the Froggy Bottom. We practiced for several hours yesterday and today. Yesterday was adding new material so a lot of starting and stopping. Today, however, was a full blown, hard strumming run through the busking set list. And WOW, did the Rainsong perform well acoustically! I've been so used to being delicate with the Froggy Bottom that at first I was playing the Rainsong the same way. But today I really dug in and went at it with some zest and power.

The low end is still lacking a little bit but what I found was that it really didn't matter. What I loved about playing the Rainsong hard was that I literally could not overdrive it. The harder I played, the better it sounded. And the volume never got so loud as to drown out my wife's vocals. Rather, I was able to really drive the guitar and get a whole lot more dynamics out of the songs than I ever could with something like the Froggy. I was able to really embrace the high-energy nature of the busking songs (think of songs like Brandy or Wagon Wheel) without the worry of being too rough on something delicate like the Froggy Bottom. It was quite a liberating feeling, to say the least. And the resulting performance was both fun and sounded excellent. Now I'm really chomping at the bit to get out there!

Anyway, I felt this was important enough to warrant an update to be shared here for those that find this thread in the future that are considering this guitar. Sure, the volume is not as loud and the tone not as wide as the WS, Jumbo or Dread models, but if you're not afraid of really digging into it (and you shouldn't be) then the OM size Rainsong is capable of producing an excellent performance for live acoustic play. And if you're going to amplify, then you're golden. The lows that are missing acoustically magically appear with incredible power when amplified.

[Methos1979]

Photos

[Methos1979]

And the big gig bag reveal...

BOOM! X10 gig bag!!

[rpmguitar]

Nice! And yay for Rainsong!!! I'm currently A-B-ing a 2009 WS1000 Classic with the thinner N1 neck against a 2018 WS1000N2 Black Ice after having gotten my first carbon guitar, a Journey OF660 in January. I will sell the one I decide not to keep once I am sure which one I prefer.

The main difference between the 2 is obviously the necks, and they are very different, but I really like them both so far, with a slight preference to the N1. Also, the '09 has the Fishman Prefix Plus T while the '18 has the Baggs Element Stage Pro like yours. I prefer the Baggs. I agree that the 18:1 ratio tuners are great!

Based on the advice I read on this forum, I put some Martin Retro Monels on the '18, while Elixir PBs are on the '09. I am really, really preferring the Retros, and will put another set on the '09 so that I can do a more apples-to-apples comparison of the tone of the guitars. I expect them to be very similar once they are strung the same because their construction is very similar. But for now, the Retro-strung '18 sounds way better than the Elixir-strung '09, and I've been an Elixir fan for as long as they've been around. I still love the feel of the Elixirs better, but not the tone.

I like your idea about busking. Enjoy the new guitar!!!

Rick

[larryjoh814]

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your guitar acquisition journey over the past few years, and I enjoy your duo. I purchased the same guitar, sans pickup, a couple of years ago from RP on this forum, and it sits out on a stand here in dry Reno, always ready to play, awaiting the opportunity to play solo events when they reoccur. It sounds great with Daddario nickel bronze strings that last forever.
I installled a K&K, which works wonderfully with some eq into my Bose S1.

On a side note, I recently removed a quacky Baggs Element from my Breedlove OM, replacing it with the K&K soundhole you recommended, and it has become my favorite plugged-in guitar. Your reviews are appreciated.

Enjoy your new used guitar, and keep on posting.

Nice guitar, sacrilegious bag, great wood stove.

I always enjoy your posts and find them informing--thank you for sharing.

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Nice guitar, sacrilegious bag, great wood stove.

I always enjoy your posts and find them informing--thank you for sharing.

Yeah, what Evan said. Congragts on the RainSong acquisition.

-------

OK, I can't control myself... you know you are going to show up on a street corner with that bag, and people will say, "Oh, look - this guy has an Emerald guitar!" And then, when you open it up: "Aww, no it's not. Let's move on to the next buskers."

(Yeah, it's a joke. I'm kidding. Really.)

[boneuphtoner]

Good for you! The new axe looks great, and the gig bag is certainly a conversation starter for sure. Many congrats and enjoy!

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

Yeah, what Evan said. Congragts on the RainSong acquisition.

-------

OK, I can't control myself... you know you are going to show up on a street corner with that bag, and people will say, "Oh, look - this guy has an Emerald guitar!" And then, when you open it up: "Aww, no it's not. Let's move on to the next buskers."

(Yeah, it's a joke. I'm kidding. Really.)

Thanks to all for the comments. As for the above, in all honesty in the time I owned the five Emeralds, no one knew anything about them. Sure, once out of their case/bag people would ooo and ahhh but no one ever saw 'Emerald' and got excited. There's only a few dozen people in the world that know about Emerald and would get excited about seeing an Emerald case/bag and they all hang out right here!

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

Thanks to all for the comments. As for the above, in all honesty in the time I owned the five Emeralds, no one knew anything about them. Sure, once out of their case/bag people would ooo and ahhh but no one ever saw 'Emerald' and got excited. There's only a few dozen people in the world that know about Emerald and would get excited about seeing an Emerald case/bag and they all hang out right here!

Yabut, wait until those Emerald Showcase Centers open... oh, wait, that's a different thread. Nevermind. Keep us posted on the RainSong.

I would quibble about only a few dozen knowing Emerald. That would have been true in the Michael Carbon fiber Forum age, but I would guess that there's more like a few hundred who know about Emerald and a few thousand who know about CF instruments.

The shipping videos alone suggest a large number of Emerald owners.

[David Eastwood]

I really like that particular model and shape of Rainsong - it’s very nicely balanced.

But (and you knew there’d be a ‘but’, didn’t you? ) that ripply uneven finish on the top of the guitar would drive me nuts. I’ve seen similar examples here before, and didn’t care for them either. What were they thinking?

[casualmusic]

Originally Posted by Methos1979

So I plugged it into the Bose S1, set everything flat on both (my go-to process for testing amplified tone) and took it for a spin. O.M.G.! Wow, does this little things sound awesome plugged in! And I play Cole Clark guitars so I'm jaded about plugged in tone as well. Anyway, there's no end of information about these guitars so I won't dwell on that other than to say it's an OM size body but not as deep. This affects the acoustic tone but also makes it more comfortable to play. The short scale is nice, the neck is comfortable and the nut and string spacing is perfect for me. The fretboard is a little flat but so is my Froggy Bottom so that works for me.


The onboard preamp/EQ/notch/tuner is great. It's an LR Baggs Element system.

-
Nice choice. RainSong targeted, spec'd and priced the CH line-up towards gigging guitarists.

[casualmusic]

Originally Posted by EvanB

The shipping videos alone suggest a large number of Emerald owners.

Emerald serial numbers are at #6500+ over 20 years, now about 500 a year.

Rainsong serial numbers are at #21,000+ over 25 years, now over 1000 a year.

Tiny numbers compared to 100,000 or so a year from each of Yamaha, Seagull, Martin, Taylor; and many more from entry level labels.