merciful-evans Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 1 minute ago, jdgm said: We've also had fiberglass and metal drums, plastic saxophones, carbon fibre/composite violins, glass instruments - flutes, vibes as well as the guitar above. Everything gets tried. But it seems the old ways are in many cases the best; there is no better way (or material to use) to make a violin really, is there? There are plenty of electric violins of course, but for acoustics? Yes, we know that age can add to the timbre of thing. Roger Bucknall told me this was true of guitars also. He should know. That cant happen with synthetic materials. Its going to sound the same forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBSinTo Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 merciful-evens, It's not as if brand new acoustic guitars sound bad, and aren't playable for a long period of time. So if one is happy with the inital sound of a new instrument, whether its voice changes over time or not is immaterial. jdgm, As for synthetic materials, we should never say never. While it may very well be true that the best stuff to build guitars from is indeed wood, one never knows what new synthetic or even just some never-tried-before existing material someone will craft an instrument from that will produce sounds like angels singing. RBSinTo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merciful-evans Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 We live in an age where materials are designed for purpose. It should be possible to design a material with the properties we want. Resonance being one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 McPherson and Emerald are pretty well respected in the "CF" acoustic build market. Rainsong is in there too I've never played one from any and they are not cheap. I would love to give one a good demo though. The demos of the Emeralds that I've heard sound pretty good when compared to a traditional "wood" acoustic. I know, demos are hard to know what's going on so it would have to be an in person thing to really know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitefang Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 As a kid, I once had an all plastic guitar( made by EMENEE, that old chord organ toy company) body and neck were plastic, and the frets were molded raises in the plastic fingerboard. Nylon strings too. The only other material was the foil thin "metal" material used for the tailpiece. Looked as sh*tty as it sounded. And then Whitefang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pohatu771 Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 I watch a lot of guitar-building videos, and many of them are alternative materials. I've been casually planning how to build my own carbon fiber acoustic using no wood at all. The closest I would get is Richlite for the fretboard and bridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merciful-evans Posted January 25, 2022 Author Share Posted January 25, 2022 12 hours ago, pohatu771 said: I watch a lot of guitar-building videos, and many of them are alternative materials. I've been casually planning how to build my own carbon fiber acoustic using no wood at all. The closest I would get is Richlite for the fretboard and bridge. That's sounds like a ambitious project and I would love to know how you get on. Richlite: I have not played a Richlite FB guitar but I think Hagstrom's Resinator material is similar, and I like that very much. So I'm open to trying Richlite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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