[MusicTlk] Carbon Fiber instruments

[Cameron Strife]

Hi. I am a carbon fiber convert and have been playing various carbon
fiber guitars for years now.

A professional grade carbon fiber guitar will run you anywhere between
$1700 and $3000 or more. (Also, you can certainly save a bunch of
money buying second hand.)

Yeah, you could buy a high quality Martin, Larrivee, takamine, Talor,
or Cole clark for example for the same money, however, a carbon fiber
guitar will survive things that would ruin a wooden instrument! It is
certainly a factor to consider. that carbon fiber guitar, unless it's
run over by a tank or something, will last you the rest of your life,
your kid's life, and maybe their kid's lives too... You get the idea.

Also, remember that even if a guitar includes a lifetime warranty,
that warranty only applies to defective parts or workmanship, it does
not apply to damage caused by user error, accidents, or natural
disasters etc.

Carbon fiber guitars are far superior to traditional wooden
instruments for a few reasons...

They are not effected by temperature or humidity. They won't bow,
warp, or crack, they don't need a yearly setup or neck reset etc, and
they are far more durable than wooden instruments. You can safely
travel with them, play in direct sunlight, and they can even get wet.
The action and tone will not change whether you're playing in a humid
hot summer, or the coldest day in winter. They also do not require
humidification.

Working with carbon fiber is an art and the tooling/molds etc are very
expensive to develop. There are some cheaper all carbon fiber or
partial carbon fiber guitars coming out of china but I'd avoid those
for quality control reasons.

The serious players in carbon fiber acoustics right now are Rainsong,
Blackbird, Mcfearson who are all based in the states, and Emrald
Guitars in Ireland. Composite Acoustics made great instruments but I
believe the company that purchased them has ended production from what
I've gathered recently...

Here are demos of two carbon fiber acoustics I've recorded if you want
to check them out.

composite acoustics ox high gloss demo:

https://youtu.be/A2yVU27KR80

Emerald X20 demo:

https://youtu.be/27n8f4XrOIE

On 5/29/20, Mike Jolls via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> This is a question about carbon fiber guitars mostly, but it could be
> expanded to other carbon fiber instruments.
>
> My understanding of using carbon fiber to make guitars was to REDUCE the
> price of the instruments.  The material was supposed to have great promise
> from an acoustic point of view, and it was supposed to be cheaper.  Rather
> than making the guitars with rare and expensive tone woods, carbon fiber was
> to lower the price of instruments.  When I looked at some carbon fiber
> guitars on Facebook and YouTube, their price point came in at around $2500
> and up (no different than good traditional guitars).  I would have hoped
> that using the CF would have caused the price to go down, maybe by $500 or
> $1000 so that the instruments were more affordable.
>
> I also saw a video on a carbon fiber grand piano.  It priced out at about
> $250,000 (American).  Here, the same question applies.
>
> So what’s the deal with carbon fiber instruments?  Anybody have any ideas?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
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> 10
>
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