I'm BAAAAACCCCKKKKK! Wayward son who strayed from the pack returns home to all CF

[Methos1979]

Hey there fellow CF enthusiasts! I'm BACK!! It's a long read but for those with nothing better to do like me on this too-hot-to-go-outside Saturday morning, here is how I've come full circle back to having an all-CF guitar stable.

There was a time just a few short years back where I found myself with all carbon fiber guitars. Emeralds, to be exact. They make a wonderful guitar for sure, with some of the best new and innovative comfort features and from a 'looks' perspective they hit it out of the park with their colored fiber and woody tops. They also are wonderful with their willingness to offer a lot of individual customization options - way more than any other guitar manufacturer - although they have dialed back on that significantly and I can't say I blame them.

The one place they 'fell short' - for me, anyway - was with pickup selection. While they certainly do offer several decent options, nothing was ever good enough for my needs for gigging and that's too bad. In the end I found myself very quickly selling them all off after encountering the Cole Clark guitar system which was just fantastic for gigging. I've often lamented that if only I could get a Cole Clark pickup system installed in an Emerald guitar, I'd be in heaven. And who knows, the way Emerald seems to change their pickup options over time, they might just someday finally hit upon some sort of proprietary multi-source pickup system that they offer.

My journey from all CF to no CF and back to all CF was nothing really deliberate. I was happy with my gigging Cole Clarks but as always wanted some variety. First I wanted something with a much better pure acoustic tone than the Cole Clarks offered and quickly found a fantastic Martin Custom D-1 all hog 12-fret dread. Then with retirement looming I found myself with a wonderful Froggy Bottom H12 - my 'dream' guitar. That transition took place over the course of the height of the pandemic and worked out well since we were only playing online streaming shows so pure acoustic tone was favored over amplified tone for the duration of that period.

Then as we exited the pandemic and things slowly opened up I decided I wanted a CF guitar again for busking and just robust use so picked up a used RainSong OM Shorty. I liked it, especially the LR Baggs Element StagePro pickup system, but wanted to try one of their 'Vintage' series where they incorporate a thin layer of real spruce wood infused with their CF tops which is half about tone 'improvement' (mellows the bright CF tone) and also gives purists a headfake toward a wood-looking guitar. They also come with the upgraded LR Baggs Anthem StagePro pickup system. The Anthem StagePro is an onboard, 'barn door' pickup system that sounds great but comes at the loss of some signal power vs the plain Element StagePro. The Vintage fused top while a little mellower also comes at the expense of slightly less volume.

As we hit 2022 the wife and I retired and jumped headfirst into gigging as our 'side hustle' on the assisted living circuit and very quickly became sought after. Now we're booking more gigs than we ever have in our life and we are loving that. As an aside to this story, if you ever want to play gigs that are both fun and profitable, consider playing for assisted living and retirement communities. The music is relatively easy to learn and fun to play and you're playing to a captive audience that is actually paying attention to you and adores your performance. They are so thankful for them. It's just SO much better than your average pub gig where you are background music at best and completely ignored at worst. Back to my story.

At this point I had the RainSong Vintage Nashville Shorty, the Froggy Bottom H12 and one Cole Clark (Angel) left. The Froggy had no pickup system so that didn't go out much. I decided to pick up another RainSong, this time a non-Vintage dread (for the brighter, louder tone) with the Element StagePro system (for the hotter signal). This would give me a natural backup for my amplified gigging guitar while also giving me a guitar for non-amplified gigging since a few of the assisted living places are quite small and require no amplification. I ended up with a custom short scale Black Ice dread. I was not a big fan of the Black Ice finish at first but it has grown on me and as of late this guitar has become pretty much my primary gigging guitar while the Nashville has become the backup.

The Cole Clark Angel - the last of the CC guitars - was still technically superior from an amplification standpoint but the RainSongs with the StagePro systems are a close second and are more than 'good enough'. So the Angel was sold off leaving just the two RS and the one FB. Another thing that 2022 brought was a market downturn and rampant inflation. This combined with the fact that the Froggy Bottom had no pickup system led to me decided to sell it off as it wasn't getting played much at all and as someone now on a fixed income and strict budget it was a lot of money to have tied up in something just hanging on the wall.

So there you have it. Back to all carbon fiber. Those that know me know that up until now I have been a prolific buyer/seller/trader (and reviewer!). But these days with being on a fixed income that has begun to slow down. The original plan was to sell off the expensive Froggy Bottom and then pick up a nice all-wood guitar down in the $2-3k range and bank the rest. But I'm thinking that I might actually stand pat with just the two RainSongs for quite some time. They fill the gigging needs and right now that is pretty much all we are about. I do not long for anything new. But I also know me and it's usually after making one of these blanket "I'm very satisfied with my current stable..." guitar posts that I find myself very shortly thereafter with a completely different lineup! But it feels different this time.

Only time will tell. Hey, if (when) the market recovers and I find myself with some extra cash I could easily be back in the market. If Emerald ever actually offers a pickup system I'm interested in (like a StagePro, cough, cough, hint, hint - Emerald!) I'd be all over that. I'm very happy to be back to all CF. This week we are in the middle of a nasty heatwave and in no time we'll be back to sub-zero temps and dealing with low humidity. Two things I don't even think about from a guitar standpoint! It's nice to know that whether I'm heading out into super-hot, humid weather or bone-chilling cold and dry weather, I won't have to worry about the guitar(s) I'm schlepping along for the ride!!

[SpruceTop]

Thanks, Scott, for your update and interesting journey back to being fully carbonated!

[jdinco]

I think that's called the scenic route. Welcome back.

[Captain Jim]

And the best goes on...

Glad you are in a "happy place" with your guitar status. And, that you have found gigging situations you enjoy.

[Danz567]

Congrats on your retirement Scott. Glad you’re in a good place with your guitars and that you and Donna are enjoying all the gigging. I sometimes wonder why I’m keeping my Martin as I play my Emerald 90% of the time. Welcome back to the land of carbon.
Dan

[steelvibe]

Glad you are enjoying the journey! I just like guitars, don’t much care what they are made of and never really have. All roads lead to carbon anyway [emoji846]

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

And the best goes on...

Glad you are in a "happy place" with your guitar status. And, that you have found gigging situations you enjoy.

Funny you mention this. We had our first non-ALF gig last night at a local restaurant. It's a nice little BBQ joint where we've attended a few open mics but it's the first time we've played there as the main act. There was actually a fair amount of diners there which was a nice surprise as we thought it might be dead due to the heatwave. But we have been so spoiled the last six months playing to people that are very attentive and appreciative and we'd forgotten about how different it is playing for places like this. We found ourselves quickly looking at each other with the unspoken question, "Why the heck are we playing here?" in both our eyes. And that's with the people being generally aware of us with polite applause. We even got a few nice tips. But still... We have two more of these shows, plus two farmers markets, after which we plan to re-evaluate if it's even worth playing them.

[studioman001]

Welcome back!

[kramster]

Great story!

[leew3]

Welcome back. Did you run out of new PA options to buy ? (recall that I just bought a Fishman sa330x that I have no sane need to have so I'm with you!)

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by leew3

Welcome back. Did you run out of new PA options to buy ? (recall that I just bought a Fishman sa330x that I have no sane need to have so I'm with you!)

I definitely have not run out of PA options (since there are SO many out there!) but we are still over-the-moon delighted with the EV30M and unless there is a sudden issue with it, I think we're all set with sound reinforcement for the foreseeable future!