What do we care about that vintage sound?

[Looburst]

Sorry, I have the brand wrong. Not sure of the brand, cheaper make.

[Frettingflyer]

I came for the durability, as I travel every week by plane. That said, I love the variety and sounds of my CF stable. I do however love to get home to my wood guitars, that have a differn’t depth of sound, or maybe some more nuance? I can’t find the words.
I too play more because one CF guitar is always out and ready to grab, as well as one ready to travel. I think I need to experiment more with strings on them now though....
Looburst- I think you should get more info before posting about the guitar, you are of course entitled to your opinion to not try them, but there are quite a few reputable manufacturers out there now that stand behind the products, fwiw. My CF guitars go in airplanes on up to 25 flights a month and almost never need tuning, can’t say that for when I traveled with wood.

Traditional wooden guitars have a sound that has almost become genetic in the human ear. I know that CF makers work to accommodate that traditional sound. But I also believe that CF is not only capable of mimicking that sound, it is capable of a variety of novel sounds; sounds that are tonally different but nevertheless pleasing. Those novel sounds add to the breath of guitar music. I like it.

[ChunkyB]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Traditional wooden guitars have a sound that has almost become genetic in the human ear. I know that CF makers work to accommodate that traditional sound. But I also believe that CF is not only capable of mimicking that sound, it is capable of a variety of novel sounds; sounds that are tonally different but nevertheless pleasing. Those novel sounds add to the breath of guitar music. I like it.

Well said. The classic sound is classic for a reason. But it's not the only sound worth making.

[Dirty Bill]

I bought the Martin not too long ago,it was on sale. I never heard one played,but this gitar sounds good,is easy to play,and now I love it. Ok,it's not carbon fiber,but it's not all wood either.

https://www.martinguitar.com/guitars.../omcxae-black/

[Seagull S6]

[QUOTE=Looburst;5553545]

Originally Posted by Ted @ LA Guitar Sales

Actually I'm having trouble believing that a 100% carbon fiber guitar ever had a top separation issue. Something tells me we are not getting all the info. That's the problem with Internet forums, someone shares second hand info and next thing you know it's fact. Looburst, what brand, year, and model was your friends guitar? I ask because most folks think Ovation is CF.

All I can tell you Ted is that it was an early Rainsong

Completely believable. Could have just been a blunder and plain old delaminated like composite does if the layup is resin starved in places or even contamination or voids during layup.

Do you think that Bob Carver didn't make a few clunkers during the early Lemon Grove Era? Read his book, he certainly did. Different materials but still Murphy is always waiting in the wings.............

[David MacNeill]

Originally Posted by Res Ipsa

What I have found is this: since getting my first CF acoustic a few years ago, I find myself playing more often than ever. It’s just so easy.

This may be due, in part, to the convenience factor: it’s hanging on the wall, ready to be played without retuning. As a grab-and-go instrument for the porch, no wood guitar that I know of can manage such temp/humidity swings without flinching.

Icing on the cake is how dramatically string selection affects the sound of a CF acoustic. Plenty of room there to experiment ... and settle on the best tone for your ears.

Six decades on this journey, and I doubt a new woody would open up much before I go into my (carbon fiber) casket. That will never open up, and I’m oddly fine with that.

Every word of what you just said is correct. My CA OX is the one that’s always out of the case, ready to rock, and it’s the only one I bring to the gig. It will never break my heart when it gets banged up because (a) it probably won’t and (b) even if it did, it’s not alive and is totally and exactly replaceable.

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by Jim in TC

So I was talking up carbon at a local guitar shop, hoping to talk them into handling one brand or another. The guy there admitted that the couple he had seen pass through their used section sounded really great, "but don't forget, they are never going to get any better." Got me thinking - We who have been bit hard by the carbon bug must fall into one or more of these camps:

1. Don't really believe that wood guitars get better with age (I believe that most or at least many do). OR
2. Don't have the ear to tell when they have gotten better with age (I may be at least a bit in this camp ...) OR
3. Don't care because the carbon guitar -
a. environmental stability trumps everything else (here I am)
b. sounds great already so who cares?
c. just like the looks (or the cool space agey material)

Did I miss anybody here? Where do you come to carbon from?

I'll just add a note for someone who isn't interested in CF guitars.

Firstly I'll admit that they are THE answer for musicians playing in places where temperatures and humidity are big issues. I live in the UK and neither are significant.

I'll agree that "good" guitars mprove with age - further , they improve to sound better for one's individual style after time - i.e. playing encourages the woos to resonate as they dry out and a resonance pattern appears based on your style. I'll also respectfully disagree with the person who buys solely on the basis of how they sound new. This is a reasonable starting point but it is not the whole story. Example : There are times when I have ordered a guitar from the US sight unseen because the model is simply unavailable in the UK.
The latest example is my Santa Cruz which was built in 2012 hung on a wall in a dealers until 2014 when someone bought it and didn't play it. I bought it from him some months later and it was disappointing tonally. I have played it a lot at home to open it up and it now responds to me beautifully.

Equally, it replaced a Larrivee SD50 dreadnought which I never played much, and sold to a friend who is a hard strummer. I less than a year he has opened up the guitar so it now fills a concert room ...so much so that I have wondered about buying it back.
Anther factor that i believe holds back CF guitars is tat they are by intention and design very modern looking and I can't be the only one who prefer their guitars to be or look like traditional (well 20th C) Martin and Gibson designs.

[kramster]

Good stuff on here... I had an Ovation I bought new that sounded sooo good acoustically and plugged in. A few of my guitar friends couldn't believe it was an Ovation..... so after about a month the bridge come off.....sigh.... it was fixed under warranty....and I knew it would never be the same... sure enough it sounded like crapola. ... had to sell it .... CFs doesn't do that ... to me anyway.
So I am starting to like my CFs and eKoa. Ok... love the heck out of them for all the reasons one can. Just saying'.

[MiG50]

Originally Posted by Looburst

I have a friend that had a CF guitar, one of the earlier ones and the top separated from the body within the first two years of him owning it. That's when I thought its all hype, they're not more durable at all.

Originally Posted by Looburst

Not sure of the brand, cheaper make.

So your friend bought a cheap composite guitar super-early in the development of composite guitars, and now you don't trust a technology that has made leaps and bounds (both in and out of the guitar universe)?

The world has changed, and you'd benefit from giving the technology a chance. It might not meet your needs or preferences, but it's pretty amazing nonetheless.

[Purfle Haze]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

I'll agree that "good" guitars mprove with age - further , they improve to sound better for one's individual style after time - i.e. playing encourages the woos to resonate as they dry out and a resonance pattern appears based on your style. I'll also respectfully disagree with the person who buys solely on the basis of how they sound new.

Well, you'd be crazy to buy a guitar that you didn't love the sound of at first.

Example : There are times when I have ordered a guitar from the US sight unseen because the model is simply unavailable in the UK.

I think this is crazy, but lots of people do it. Mail-order brides.

The latest example is my Santa Cruz which was built in 2012 hung on a wall in a dealers until 2014 when someone bought it and didn't play it. I bought it from him some months later and it was disappointing tonally. I have played it a lot at home to open it up and it now responds to me beautifully.

This is interesting, but it's anecdotal. Perhaps you learned how get the most from it, and adapted to its sound. Once you get to know the mail-order bride, you see her inner beauty!

Anther factor that i believe holds back CF guitars is tat they are by intention and design very modern looking and I can't be the only one who prefer their guitars to be or look like traditional (well 20th C) Martin and Gibson designs.

You are safely within the herd. Guitar players want Martins and their clones in brown, thank you, and prefer nothing else. Were CF makers to try to make designs that imitate wood, they'd be scorned for fakery. CF makers are unencumbered by the past, and by the manufacturing processes that limit wooden guitars. They can advance the art. They can build in contours. They can do things that cannot be done with wood. The new materials set the creative mind free. Wooden guitars have plateaued, and have ceased to advance aesthetically. All that's left for wooden manufacturers to aim for is ever-more efficient manufacturing.

Silly, please take a look at the Blackbird Savoy. I'm sure the cutaway is an obstacle, but ignore that, and tell me what you think. Its appearance is brown, like wood, and organic– it's made out of a linen fabric. It has no heel. The back body edges are slightly rounded, not sharp. It sounds like a wooden guitar, and it is LOUD for it's size. Can you not see its appeal?

Merry Christmas from the colonies!

[DHart]

I buy all of my guitars for how they sound today. If they improve over time, that’s great.

I only came to CF guitars after moving to an area where the relative humidity hovers around 18-20% most of the year. And learned pretty quickly what that can do to an acoustic guitar that isn’t kept properly humidified.

What I discovered is that the RainSong sounds really good!

I still have and continue to buy wood acoustic guitars that I need to keep properly humidified, and yes that’s a bit of a chore. But I love wood acoustic guitars, so I put up with the effort.

The Rainsong, however, gets played as much or more than the wood guitars because it is always at the ready and requires absolutely no attention to temp nor humidity changes, AND sounds awesome too! I whole-heartedly recommend Rainsong guitars to anyone who wishes to benefit from a guitar that is impervious to changes in temp and/or humidity AND wants an instrument that sounds great!

CH-OM1100NS