Composite guitars

sirwhale · #1 11-08-2014, 01:22 AM

With the advent of "El Capitan" from Blackbird, shouldn't this subforum be renamed with "Composite guitars"

I really see composites as the future to guitar production and feel that with new ideas and new materials (no longer just carbon fibre) they will get increasing more popular.

If the make a smaller bodied version of the new plant fibre stuff they're using, i'd likely buy it. Something about composites that attracts me more than wood now.

Finger Stylish · #2 11-11-2014, 04:14 AM

Fiber is good for most diets.

Especially the music diet I'm on.

FlyFast · #3 11-12-2014, 12:41 PM

Agreed. My Rainsong is a carbon/glass hybrid. Eventually carbon will be one of many available structural fibers that will be used and selected for the same reasons various woods have been used historically.

mot · #4 11-12-2014, 01:08 PM

Aren't all guitars (mainstream wood to anything else) actually composite to some degree when you look at all the materials used to make them?

ac · #5 11-13-2014, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mot

Aren't all guitars (mainstream wood to anything else) actually composite to some degree when you look at all the materials used to make them?

Hmmm. Very true. Wood, plus various types of glues, often metal bolts in the neck, and then everything, with the exception of the fretboard and bridge, covered with some form of plastic coating (even nitro cellulose is just an early plastic). The coating may not add much strength, but without the extra protection from direct moisture, I think they wouldn't survive for long.

I have a small, handmade travel guitar from the 90's (expensive at the time since there was almost no other competition then) that had no coating other than tung oil rubbed on the surface and came with a small bottle of tung oil.

The soundboard eventually, over the years, came to look like a Pringles chip across the sound hole area and bellied also. Still have it. Still playable though I had to shave the saddle down to where there is 'almost' no break angle at all on the b & e strings to make it playable.

Does anyone make a 100% wood guitar (except for strings)? It would be fun to see if it could be made with no glue, etc. with some clever design to lock the pieces together. Wooden tuning pegs are still used on many types of instruments around the world.

Probably someone has done it already. I haven't the energy to Google :-)