By Patrick Keegan

The basic construction of an acoustic guitar has not evolved much since the instrument originated. Sure, there was the jump to steel strings and truss rods and different types of bracing, but, other than that, the acoustic guitar has not changed much since it came about. Just about every acoustic guitar has been made out of some type of wood, has a sound hole (round or otherwise), has some form of bracing, and has a head, neck, and body. This has become a law, sort of like gravity or dognapping. And, as with every law, someone from Canada will break it. But is that really such a bad thing? Out of the breaking of the Law of Acoustic Construction comes new innovation, the kind of innovation that might cause you to say “Wow, that is smart. I should do something that smart, like inventing a new form of waffle.”

You might already know from the title that this article is going to explain the advantages to new carbon fiber guitars. While there are many there are disadvantages that go along with it as well. One of the biggest advantages is its ability to withstand the elements. You can take a graphite guitar submerge it in the Black Sea and the only trouble you might have with it later would be ruined electronics and ruined strings. Since water will not bring about its down fall what will? Could it be its lack of truss rod*? No way, José. Since it is impervious to water (and therefore humidity) adjustments to the neck are not necessary.

Maybe heat and cold will conquer the seemingly unconquerable guitar… Nope. Carbon Fiber does not expand/contract in extreme situations of heat and cold, you could take your guitar from the bottom of Death Valley to the top of Mt. Everest and it would be unaffected. It’s for this reason that NASA uses carbon fiber in its satellites.

Now let’s talk about sound. Carbon fiber guitars do not have any sort of bracing. They do not need it. The body of a carbon fiber acoustic guitar consists only of a top, a bottom, and sides. The result of this is a linear damping effect, unlike a non-linear damping effect like that of a wooden acoustic guitar. Whether you have noticed this or not, the nonlinear damping of a wooden guitar causes the

treble notes to fade out quicker than the lower bass notes, on a graphite (carbon fiber) acoustic guitar the linear damping causes all the notes to dampen at the same rate, this produces a very treble oriented sound.

Now let’s talk about the negative aspects of the carbon fiber acoustic guitar. Unlike wooden guitars there is no golden or aged tone that you can look forward to. The sound that it has when you buy it is the sound that it will probably have forever. This might not be a negative for you, but when you think about it it most likely means that they won’t be worth more when they are vintage. Most people buy vintage guitars because of their tone and over all sound, if the sound of a composite guitar does not improve over time all that you                                                                 are buying is a use

d guitar, and those are worth less than new ones.

There it is, in a nice edible package, carbon fiber guitars. Now should you want to go track one down, the only makers of acoustic carbon fiber guitars, at least that I could find, was Ovation and RainSong. RainSong is the only brand of the two that makes guitars completely out of carbon fiber, or graphite as they call it. Ovation makes guitars that have carbon fiber tops and wooden necks (I’m unsure of what the bowl is made of) called Adamas. These range from about 2,000-4,000 dollars. RainSong guitars (which are made entirely from carbon fiber) won’t hurt your wallet as much; they will only run you up about 1,400-2,500 dollars.