Hi - This is Ellis Seal, the engineer that left Lockheed in 1998 to start Composite Acoustics. I placed this post on another forum and got a lot of questions, so I thought you guys might have interest as well.
While I love great acoustic guitars, I am more of an engineer than a guitar guy - I get my kicks out of providing guitarists the best sounding, best playing, best looking, most carefree instruments on the planet, at an affordable price, and make them in the USA.
I want to challenge the guitar community to try our guitars.
Since we started, we have not stopped working to provide the world's best guitars to the guitar buying public.
We are making our guitars out of the same high performance materials used in spacecraft and fighter aircraft, as opposed to wood. Carbon fiber materials and manufacturing methods are typically orders of magnitude higher than wood. Others have attempted to make all carbon fiber guitars for decades, never reaching a competitive price point.
The amazing thing is that we can supply you a high tech guitar with materials that aren't affected by temperature and humidity, won't warp or bow over time, have consistent, unchanging action, and have incredible tone and balance on all strings up and down the neck, sound quality exceeding that of almost all wooden guitars for less than you would pay for an American made wood guitar with Mahogany or Indian rosewood back and sides.
The guitar community is starting to see the potential of our technology. See magazine reviews @ www.compositeacoustics.com/press.html - Also see some of the many artists playing our guitars at www.myspace.com/caguitars
And for the question everybody wants to know, do our guitars sound like wooden guitars? If you hear one blindfolded or on a recording (which many of you have and don't know it), you will not ever think that a Composite Acoustics guitar is not wood.
If you do side by side comparisons, our guitars do not sound exactly like wood - we typically have better string to string balance so the overall impression of the tone is slightly different - but tonal comparisons are a personal decision for which every individual will have a different opinion. Some will never consider that anything can compare with wood, however that overwhelming majority will say our guitars have great acoustic tone.
There will always be a place for great wooden acoustic guitars - there is also a rapidly growing place for carbon fiber guitars.
I want to thank those of you who have opened your minds and considered our guitars, and especially want to thank those who have purchased our guitars.
Ellis
While I love great acoustic guitars, I am more of an engineer than a guitar guy - I get my kicks out of providing guitarists the best sounding, best playing, best looking, most carefree instruments on the planet, at an affordable price, and make them in the USA.
I want to challenge the guitar community to try our guitars.
Since we started, we have not stopped working to provide the world's best guitars to the guitar buying public.
We are making our guitars out of the same high performance materials used in spacecraft and fighter aircraft, as opposed to wood. Carbon fiber materials and manufacturing methods are typically orders of magnitude higher than wood. Others have attempted to make all carbon fiber guitars for decades, never reaching a competitive price point.
The amazing thing is that we can supply you a high tech guitar with materials that aren't affected by temperature and humidity, won't warp or bow over time, have consistent, unchanging action, and have incredible tone and balance on all strings up and down the neck, sound quality exceeding that of almost all wooden guitars for less than you would pay for an American made wood guitar with Mahogany or Indian rosewood back and sides.
The guitar community is starting to see the potential of our technology. See magazine reviews @ www.compositeacoustics.com/press.html - Also see some of the many artists playing our guitars at www.myspace.com/caguitars
And for the question everybody wants to know, do our guitars sound like wooden guitars? If you hear one blindfolded or on a recording (which many of you have and don't know it), you will not ever think that a Composite Acoustics guitar is not wood.
If you do side by side comparisons, our guitars do not sound exactly like wood - we typically have better string to string balance so the overall impression of the tone is slightly different - but tonal comparisons are a personal decision for which every individual will have a different opinion. Some will never consider that anything can compare with wood, however that overwhelming majority will say our guitars have great acoustic tone.
There will always be a place for great wooden acoustic guitars - there is also a rapidly growing place for carbon fiber guitars.
I want to thank those of you who have opened your minds and considered our guitars, and especially want to thank those who have purchased our guitars.
Ellis
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Wed, August 22, 2007 - 3:00 PMComposite guitars are utter shit compared to real wood guitars IMHO.
So..uhm...you're welcome.
(hee hee... Please don't get all upset. We're just talking about guitars here. Easy does it.) -
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Wed, August 22, 2007 - 3:01 PMAnd yes I'd like some wheat toast with my SPAM please.
-
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Wed, August 22, 2007 - 8:18 PMHello Ellis -
I've been playing [wooden] acoustic guitars for a quite a long while. While I'm not a full time musician, I've jammed, performed, recorded, and generally spent enough time with these critters to have a reasonably valid opinion.
Currently of my several guitars, two are high-end Taylors, one is a Breedlove Custom Shop, and one is a custom-built baroque guitar. I really really enjoy a good hunk of wood and steel. That being said.............
I've played a few composite/graphite guitars built by your major competitor [at Elderly Instruments in East Lansing, MI ]- while these had a very bright sound (sorta like a very bright all maple guitar), and good tonal quality when plugged in, the sound quality when "unplugged' was completely unacceptable to me. I could just never tolerate playing one of these for my own enjoyment (unplugged) or in an acoustic only setting. This is my opinion only of course, and based upon a limited trial; the guitars seemed well appointed and reasonably priced - I am sure many enjoy them and I am not trying to trash them.
I've only played one CA guitar, which was also at Elderly. It was head and shoulders waaaaay better than your competitor - there was really no comparison - with regard to the "unplugged" tonal quality. It was very much like a wood guitar in terms of overall tone and response. It also sounded good plugged in - probably better, as did your competitor's axe. The construction and appointments were also very reasonable for its price range.
Did it sound as good as a $3000+ Taylor limited edition? I don't think so. Again, just my opinion and I do admit to being something of a purist.
But it sure would be a great guitar great to gig with, or to carry around with me at an outdoor festival (as I did with one of my Taylors a couple of weeks back) in very hot, rainy, humid conditions. OK it wasn't my BEST Taylor - it did survive unscathed but it still made me nervous and I was re-tuning constantly. Even in normal conditions it can be difficult to maintain the 45 - 55% humidity that is best for them here in Michigan.
Your guitars - what a great idea! A reasonably priced instrument that sounds as good as any in its price range, and maintains good tone, setup (i.e. playability), and tuning through a variety of adverse conditions, indoors and out.
Based on my limited exposure, you are building a very good guitar. If you built a jumbo, I would buy one tomorrow (long story).
I am sure your technology will even improve with time and I may just have to have one next year. Meantime, people who have a need for such an instrument should try playing one of yours.
Regards,
Rutger -
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Fri, August 24, 2007 - 6:52 PMI'm not a purist - I own a Parker Nite Fly electric - but I do know a lot about acoustic guitars.
My main acoustic is a Garrison G-20, built in Newfoundland (Yeah Canada!) with a cedar top, birch sides and back, and a carbon-fibre frame.
It's a great sounding guitar, with a huge booming voice, and it suits my style very well.
My prime complaint with anything other than wood is this: wood ages gracefully, and with a high-end acoustic guitar, the tonal qualities that age produces can never be replicated.
If you don't believe me, play a 50's era Gibson acoustic. Amazing!
Age + wood = tone. Anything else will stay the same, tonally, for the duration of it's life. Well made guitars, made with care and choice tone woods however, age like a fine wine, and me. Gracefully.
-
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Wed, September 5, 2007 - 10:39 AMI worked in a few luthier shops in the 80's.The early days of techno graphite carbon fiber composites.Back then we would try anything just for the hell of it .Some people got pretty serious about creating industructable pefect tone. The prototypes of these looked really bad but the tone wasn't ... well unpleasent .they seemed a bit warmer then cheap shit but not much and the SRP was like $1,0000 or more . composite
electric guitars are real nice as far as action vs. weight vs industructable and I lke them alot. I've played thousands of guitars and I'll have to say it took me years and thousands of dollars to find the right tone. Only vintage instruments have that tone and their hard to find.Once you buy a peice like that you don't take it out of the house and sure as hell not the festiville .Acoustics are hard to deal with in the heat of the day and I have lost afew nice ones .If you guys can make suitable tone industructable , and do it for $500 I'll buy two.
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Mon, September 10, 2007 - 7:48 PMI checked out your site at www.compositeacoustics.com/press.html. Why no nylon string model?
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Wed, September 19, 2007 - 4:48 PMI just heard a musician in Hawaii play a composite acoustic and I have to say that with the right amplification it sounded very nice!
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Wed, September 19, 2007 - 10:59 PMYou guys should consider coming up with a cheaper model. Your entry level guitars start at 1300-1500 from what I can tell. A weather proof\resistant guitar has some appeal to me for camping but not to spend that much money for one... I could buy 10-15 Lucero classical guitars for that price and use them for firewood when\if they get totally trashed. -
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Thu, September 20, 2007 - 9:54 AMI agree - the stickershock for me was considerable as well.
I know that materials aren't cheap, but that pricepoint is a wee bit high for a composite instrument IMHO. -
-
Re: Carbon Fiber Acoustic Guitars (Composite Acoustics)
Sat, September 22, 2007 - 4:28 AMbleck!!!!
-
-
