Questions!

[winstondog1]

I'm giving some thought into buying a carbon fiber guitar and have a few questions, since I'm not familiar with them. They are pretty basic - here goes;
1. I perform at many venues with fireplaces that drive me crazy with tuning problems - will a carbon fiber keep in tune better?
2. I also perform outside over the summer in humid conditions - will the carbon fiber keep in tune?
3. I'm pretty hard on a guitar - I have a tendency to scratch my guitar around the soundhole - does a carbon fiber scratch easily?
4. Are they prone to string breakage?
5. Last - why are they so hard to find in stock?

Thanks for the help -

[jonfields45]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Think of a CF guitar as one giant plastic pickguard.
4. No. Some of them use the same Tusq saddles and nuts as many wooden guitars.
5. Expensive and not main stream.

Jon

[Mr Fixit eh]

I love my Rainsong because I can leave it in the car in the hot sun all day or in the minus 40 degree winter and it does not damage the guitar. Oh, and the tone is great too!

You will find that you will still need to tune it. The strings themselves stretch and contract a bit with temperature changes which affects the tuning.

Steve

[winstondog1]

Thanks for the advice - I did locate a gutiar store that stocks several Rainsongs - going to check them out.

[mchalebk]

CF guitars stay in tune much better than wood. You will notice a huge improvement under the conditions you mentioned.

While CF is tougher than wood, the finishes are often similar. If you chew up the finish on wood guitars, you can chew up the finish on a lot of CF guitars, too. The notable exception would be the RT finish that CA used to offer. While it can chip, it seems to be impervious to pick scratches. I suppose it might be possible to wear it down over the years, but my Xi in RT finish shows absolutely no signs of wear.

String breakage is no different than wood. Depends on the nut, saddle, strings and how you play. You can use Tusq, bone, whatever for nut and saddle material.

[Doubleneck]

Jon nailed it as usual. Look at those Rainsongs have a black ice JM 1000 and love it. RainSongs are a class act and the most available. I really think the fact that CF are expensive hurts their distribution.

[ac]

I think the surface of a carbon fiber guitar certainly can be marred or scratched to some extent. The difference is just under the gloss or satin coat is a very hard material vs. a wood guitar where just under the surface of the same or similar coating is a relatively soft material. A hard hit on wood will cause a depression through the coating down into the wood. Sort of denting.

Carbon resists this and so that type of damage is really minimized with carbon--but not eliminated. You will find various players put pick guards on their carbon guitars as well.

One thing you will likely never see with a carbon guitar is something like Willie Nelson's nylon string where the wood has completely worn away leaving large holes. Not going to happen with carbon unless you use tungsten carbide picks, or something.

[jonfields45]

Offering something a bit less terse... I have used my RainSong at an evening outdoor bonfire that got down to <40F by the end of the night. It needed to be tuned when I first took it out, which I suppose was the strings, but was stable after that. My partner's Taylor was all over the place that evening and was being constantly tuned. In hot and humid summer gigs it is absolutely stable and much better than wood.

I use Herco combo flat/thumb picks. You get assorted colors when your order these picks on-line and some are pretty garish shades of yellow, blue and red. I was getting nasty looking pick marks on my RainSong which had me quite upset. I went to compound them out and discovered they were bits of the picks streaked on top of the polyurethane. They cleaned completely off without compounding. The underlying CF was completely undamaged and in this case the polyurethane was also still perfect. I started using a Taylor static cling clear pick guard...I guess to protect my picks from my guitar :~). In nearly two years of heavy useage my CO-DR is still scratch free, and that is not from lack of abuse. Jon

[Doubleneck]

Alway put clear static stick on guards on all my guitar just to take the pick marks.

[Ed422]

For the last question, why they aren't easy to find... they sound, feel, and look different than wood guitars and in general, musicians are incredibly traditional. Stores are reluctant to carry limited interest items. They are in business to sell stuff, not introduce new things to the market.

Ed

[jricc]

Another Rainsong user, i play outdoors in the heat and humidity all summer and the Rainsong stays in tune. I take care of my stuff, but it does have some pick marks and scuffs. It doesn't matter, the Rainsong is one sturdy instrument. Before my Rainsong, i was using a Taylor, ( a great guitar) but it just didn't like the elements, so I sold it.

[DVGuy]

Try to find a good used Rainsong. That's how I got mine, in fact, from another AGF member. A used CF guitar is, from my perspective, less of a risk, since CF is so much more stable than wood, you are less likely to have issues.

[GuitarLight]

One time while on a hot and humid camping trip, (probably 90 degrees with humidity of about 75% or more,) I was playing my RainSong by a small pond. A passer by said to me...Oh that's sounds beautiful!..but should you have that thing out in this fierce humidity? I said, Watch this...and I placed my RainSong Dred in the pond on its back and gave it a push. It floated peacefully to the other side of the pond, and we walked round to the other side and picked it out of the water....from there I continued to play like nothing ever happened. The passer by then said to me..."I'm gonna get me one of those!"

[winstondog1]

Now that's incredible - I'm pretty much sold on buying one. I need something that's low maintenance - and still sounds good. Thanks!