The Mysterious Disappearance of Composite Acoustics

[Earl49]

On a more ominous note, this is what comes up at my local store's web site. They have always had several CA's on the wall in both stores, and the owner told me they have more in the warehouse. I have no idea what happened to their pre-crisis stock. I'm not really in the market for anything right now, so I have not called my "guy" there to investigate. But the web site is not encouraging.... https://www.dorseymusic.com/c-657-co...acoustics.aspx

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Earl49

On a more ominous note, this is what comes up at my local store's web site. They have always had several CA's on the wall in both stores, and the owner told me they have more in the warehouse. I have no idea what happened to their pre-crisis stock. I'm not really in the market for anything right now, so I have not called my "guy" there to investigate. But the web site is not encouraging.... https://www.dorseymusic.com/c-657-co...acoustics.aspx

Uh Oh! I think that the Composite Acoustics are in lock down quarantine until this meany virus goes away.

Tony

[ac]

Dorsey has other guitar brands available for sale though . . . .

[GuitarDoc]

I never felt peavey really had it’s heart in CA. they eliminated the gxi (I’ve one and it’s been my go too lately. And the 12 (still kicking myself I didn’t purchase one) trimmed the line to little interesting but the cargo.

[tdq]

Originally Posted by Strumalot

It also looks like new CA GX models are not available and used ones are few... one is listed on eBay for $6,721.13.

wha....!!? I sold mine about a year ago, could barely give it away....sold it for about a third of what I bought it for. It's a niche market (still) and the guy that bought it was specifically after a carbon fibre guitar - they are thin on the ground here in Australia. And for the record mine was a 1.75" nut width.

Even though I am carbon free now I'm stil very interested in them. It's a real shame that CA fizzled out. I agree that Peavey never really seemed commited to the brand, as far as I could see.

[dogdog49]

Originally Posted by GuitarLuva

I live in Alberta, Canada. The chances of me being able to go to St. Louis anytime soon, or anywhere else for that matter, don't even exist lol. I have 3 young children who take up all my time and prevent me from travelling . Maybe 20 years from now!



Thanks for sharing your experience, much appreciated. Mine is a little different so I'll share those differences. It seems both the Sable and X20 have been through some changes over the years. My Sable (Gold Honeycomb) is certainly warm and lush sounding, but it has crazy sustain. It also has plenty of overtones with phosphor bronze strings though I think I preferred the snap from the stock 80/20's so I have some on order. My X20, which also has crazy sustain, is roughly the same volume as the Sable. To the player it's hard to tell due to Emerald's style of soundhole. My wife thinks the Sable is a little louder but her ear for music is questionable for sure. Both have plenty of volume for a 000 body size. The CA Gx I can just vaguely remember. I know it had plenty of volume and it is a little bigger than both the X20 and the Sable. It left a lasting impression on me. I literally have been looking for one every day for about a year. Trying to find a CA Gx with 1 3/4" nut width without barn door electronics has proved quite the challenge. I'm hoping one day they might make a return. I'm very happy having a Sable and an X30. The X20 won't be seeing much action.

I had both the regular Sable and the gold honeycomb version. I still have my CA Gx and it has the 1.75" nut but it does have an I-Beam dual source mixing system in the side. I'm actually shocked at how much I love that system in this particular guitar. By the way, I bought a Rainsong once that had been Al Petteway's stage instrument for a while and he had pulled the barn door Fishman system and was using a McIntyre Feather. He just left the side hole empty and used it as a soundport. It actually sounded great that way.

[tbeltrans]

All three of my Cargos (original CA Guitars) have that is different from later versions are the GOTOH mini-tuners. Later near their end, CA Guitars started using something called Hipshot that I had never heard of. I suspect that was part of their cost-saving measures. Fortunately, well before their demise, I ordered spare sets of tuners and bridge pins from CA Guitars via The Podium, so I have whatever I may need in case those ever need replacing.

Did the other models likewise use the GOTOH 510 tuners?

There are three brands of tuners that seem to be held in regard that I know of: GOTOH, Waverly, and Schaller. At one time, I owned a Collings and it had Waverly tuners. McPherson uses Schaller (at least on the gold package carbon fiber instruments and on their wood guitars), and my Cargos use GOTOH.

Tony

[GuitarLuva]

Originally Posted by dogdog49

I had both the regular Sable and the gold honeycomb version. I still have my CA Gx and it has the 1.75" nut but it does have an I-Beam dual source mixing system in the side. I'm actually shocked at how much I love that system in this particular guitar. By the way, I bought a Rainsong once that had been Al Petteway's stage instrument for a while and he had pulled the barn door Fishman system and was using a McIntyre Feather. He just left the side hole empty and used it as a soundport. It actually sounded great that way.

Nothing wrong with the ibeam. It's very similar to my favorite pickup the Schatten HFN.

[Irishrep]

Mcpherson has used Hipshot as standard tuners on the Sable and the Touring. They are not necessarily inferior. Every tuner manufacturer does promotions that many of the guitar manufacturers take advantage of for enhanced profitability. They do make quality tuners and I have used them with no issues- on a Touring.

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by Irishrep

Mcpherson has used Hipshot as standard tuners on the Sable and the Touring. They are not necessarily inferior. Every tuner manufacturer does promotions that many of the guitar manufacturers take advantage of for enhanced profitability. They do make quality tuners and I have used them with no issues- on a Touring.

I have not used Hipshot tuners, so know nothing of them. The three I mentioned are what I know from personal experience. I didn't know what tuners McPherson sued on the carbon fiber guitars without the gold package. My guess is that if McPherson uses Hipshot tuners, they must be fine, since McPherson seems to be all about quality with no weird bubbles in the finish or other oddities in the products that go out the door (as far as I know).

With CA Guitars, they made some changes toward the end of their time in business such as raising the prices of the guitars and switching to (I assume) lower cost tuners, and possibly other changes that I am not aware of. Clearly, none of those measures worked, but may have if they had done it a year or two or three sooner.

Tony

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

I was really into CA going back to the McNichol forum days and have owned a GXi and still own a Cargo. I actually felt sad at the demise of CA and have to admit that although I was happy that someone stepped in to save the company, I wasn’t particularly enamoured that it was Peavey. No justifiable reason why, more of an emotional one, but it’s how I did and continue to feel. After all this time, I don’t think that Peavey properly got behind the product or brand. Zero innovation since is a sign of that. Still nice guitars, but others are leaving them behind in their dust. Jmo.

I bought a GX a few years ago and love it, but I had to work to actually get mine ordered, and wait months for it to arrive. Peavy definitely wasn't putting much effort into either marketing or manufacturing.

Since a few folks have expressed interest in finding an old stock/used one out there and what they sound like, I have some recent recordings I made with mine. Miked with a Shure KSM44 (just out of the frame at bottom, abt 8" away from the 12th fret), very gentle EQ and reverb. Strings are EJ16s--it tends to be very brash when new; these strings are several months old!

[jdinco]

You and the guitar sound great!

[TNO]

I like everything about Hipshot tuners except the stock button shape they generally come with. Great customer service as well.

[jonfields45]

It might be overstating the situation, but it appears Peavey has greatly reduced their US manufacturing footprint. Last year I saw plenty of Peavey factory machinery on auction sites. If you look through Sweetwater's Peavey inventory, even some of the last holdouts like a Classic 30 tube combo amp, are now made in China. Looking at Musician's Friend I don't see a single Peavey guitar. Hartley Peavey is 78!

[studioman001]

I owned a newer CA GXI with the offset soundhole and the fishman Aura on board. man that guitar sounded amazing and with the aura, when you ran it direct, it really did sound like you had an expensive condenser mic in front of your guitar. I was very impressed! I would have kept it but I found the neck just too dang wide. (Which is odd for me as I preferred taylor and Larrivee when I still owned wooden acoustics.) I never had the chance to play a narrow neck CA so not sure if that would have worked out for me or not. It's a shame because that GXI was so close to my perfect acoustic/electric!