http://blackbirdguitar.com/


Maybe they will make lightweight Arranger KB's out of Carbon in the future also?

Very cool. Carbon fiber has a good resonant wood like quality which is why it is a good material for making guitars. Steinberger first started making carbon fiber guitars back in the early 80s. They looked very futuristic at the time which looked good in those 80s video music clips.



I used one of these basses in a recording session back in the 80s ... loved the sound .... but absolutely hated that it had no head stock. While that looked very cool there was nothing to anchor your thumb on at the end of neck and my hand would slip off the end when playing on the low frets. Though this current version looks like they have extended the neck out more probably to get around that problem.

Semilive has one and loves it.
DonM

Yes, I have one made by Composite Acoustics, a Louisiana company that went bankrupt, supposedly due to the high costs of producing guitars in this manner... it ain't easy... and the price has to be up there. They didn't make it and people into guitars were upset, but then, recently, Peavy bought them out and is now re-introducing the line.

I bought this because it is 100% impervious to any weather conditions. 40 below or 110 degrees, 100% humidity or bone dry, doesn't matter. Throw it in the swimming pool, keep it in a scorching hot car in a Texas July, doesn't matter. And... they sound really good!

That Blackbird sounds really good, too.

I don't know if they would make keyboards out of them, too costly.

There is an excellent carbon line out of Australia called Rainsong. They're probably more than this new line. They started out with a complete line, including an excellent 295 size jazz guitar with two pick-ups. Now, I think they're limited to three or four models.

I played the one Janice Ian uses when she was in Lexington...excellent! The deal is, they ship from Australia. If the instrument is not in tune, you can send it back, from wherever, and get a full refund.

Janice is a REALLY good player, by the way...


R.

http://www.rainsong.com/



Gary

Is there anyone here that owns a Rainsong guitar ?

I know it`s not going to age , but how do they sound after a year or so ?

Even though they are not wood , there are factors like fret wear , intonation , bridge alignment , stuff like that might change overall tonality of the guitar.

I love a good wood guitar that you can listen to it "grow up" and mellow out , I think I would miss that.

Time to start thing about another guitar I think !!

I love the Taylor 812ce , someday.

Gary

Good sound or not - one day there will simply be no wood for the luxury of guitar building. I wonder if the Takamine forest in Japan was damaged this week. All the major guitar manufacturers have been addressing the issues of declining wood for years. That pretty 3 pc back on the Martin D-28 was not for looks ... it was because it was too hard to find 2 good, matching pieces to make the backs with. Turned out to be an attractive option, but it all started because of shortages of good wood. (no jokes, now!)

O__come on Dave thats sad , however you bring up a very valid statement !

With all the stuff that comes from wood and wood byproducts.

You really have a point , albeit a sad fact of modern life on planet earth.

Gary

I've been following discussions in Taylor's mag, "Wood and Steel" and it really is a little frightening .... I hope we can still find a way to produce oxygen when the trees are all gone too. Playing guitar will be the least of our worries if we can't breathe. I'm not a doomsday kind of guy, but I do think about it once in a while. I recycle way more than I used to. I think we all need to.

With the population growing exponentially , it is really getting bad.

And with the Japan problems , there will be a cascade effect felt in just about everything.

Add that to an already bad economy and I think it`s going to get worse before it gets better.

Even though Japan is { was } 20% ( I think ) of total free world economy , now it has to rebuild , and the bucks have to come from somewhere.

I would hear stories about the "Great Depression" and think , will history repeat itself ?

I hope not.

I've got an 1859 Steinway Square grand with a solid rosewood top. 4ft X 8ft and 1/2 inch thick. You could cut quite a few guitar sides and backs out of it. There are a lot of these old pianos that would probably make better guitars.

I went to high school with luthier Ron Volbrecht. He's making some beautiful guitars in Nashville, Indiana http://www.volbrechtguitars.com/

Duane
Sacramento, CA

I think it's actually illegal to use Brazilian rosewood for guitars anymore. (too lazy to google it)
At least, that's what I heard 'round town.

It's legal to use Brazilian rosewood that was purchased and imported before the 1990 CITES listing.

Brazil put an embargo on the export of rosewood logs in 1969 and later in the early 1990s, Brazilian Rosewood was added to the list of endangered species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). To obtain Brazilian Rosewood today, it needs to be wood that was both harvested and exported before the ban, or harvested from natural fallen trees. Both require documentation of its provenance to permit exporting today.

The only legal source of new Brazilian Rosewood consists of the pre-convention stumps of trees cut before 1991, widely scattered over the Brazilian countryside in the Dalbergia Nigra eco-zone.

The USDA inspects and certifies all shipments of Brazilian rosewood upon entry into the U.S.A.
more info at http://www.acousticmusic.org/CITES-and-ESA-sp-78.html and http://www.hanoverbrazil.com/rosewood-guitars.shtml