Carbon guitars

[clare_bear]

We have a couple of mates who build lots of things out of carbon fibre (they are automotive engineers with their own business and mainly use the carbon for cars), and my husband was recently suggesting they attempt a guitar for me. Between them all, they know less about what goes into a good guitar construction than me (i.e. nothing much!), but are willing to do a bit of research and give it a go - just for a bit of fun.

I recently bought Acoustic Guitar Magazine (mainly for the KT Tunstall interview), but they had a very interesting article on carbon acoustic guitars. Anyway, I left our friends with the magazine, and they're thinking about what could be done. At some stage I shall probably have to design a body shape!

Any thoughts on carbon guitars and their construction? Potentially a market for them in the future given that it'll get harder and harder to find good woods? Anyone tried one?

[fretmeister]

You mean mike Steinberger:

http://www.steinberger.com/SS2F.html


Modulus:

http://www.modulusguitars.com/v2/products/index.html



Currently they are carbon graph necks only... but then there is the mighty Status:


http://www.status-graphite.com/statu...mes/frame1.htm

[fretmeister]

There is also Moses-Graphite - but I haven't been impressed with their stuff.


[stuck-record] I think Status make the best instruments on the planet.

[islater]

I just bought one of the Steinberger SS-2F guitars and I love it. I only bought it as a guitar for travelling with but I've been really impressed with it so far. The zero fret makes a real difference getting rid of the difference between open and fretted notes and the tuning system is really stable. The guitar itself has a great tone despite it's lack of body and I can only assume that the build materials help in this respect.

I don't a pciture that I can add to the thread but there are some on the Steinberger website at http://www.steinberger.com/SS2F.html

Sometimes guitarists can be very resistant to innovations in music technology, just look at how many valves are still used

[clare_bear]

Originally Posted by islater

Sometimes guitarists can be very resistant to innovations in music technology, just look at how many valves are still used

Exactly

I didn't realise there was so many around. I was suggesting they'd make great travel guitars to our friends. They can be chucked in the hold of planes with much less fear of finding them in bits, they're light too. They obviously sound OK too.

So, would a carbon fibre guitar need a truss rod? Given the strength of carbon, I'd have thought the neck wouldn't need adjusting to compensate for thicker strings etc?

[manicguitarist2]

Originally Posted by clare_bear

We have a couple of mates who build lots of things out of carbon fibre (they are automotive engineers with their own business and mainly use the carbon for cars), and my husband was recently suggesting they attempt a guitar for me. Between them all, they know less about what goes into a good guitar construction than me (i.e. nothing much!), but are willing to do a bit of research and give it a go - just for a bit of fun.

I recently bought Acoustic Guitar Magazine (mainly for the KT Tunstall interview), but they had a very interesting article on carbon acoustic guitars. Anyway, I left our friends with the magazine, and they're thinking about what could be done. At some stage I shall probably have to design a body shape!

Any thoughts on carbon guitars and their construction? Potentially a market for them in the future given that it'll get harder and harder to find good woods? Anyone tried one?

I presume you mean carbon fibre, and not carbon - but a guitar made of charcoal or diamond - that would be coool!

[islater]

Mine has composite neck but I think it's still useful to have a trussrod in case you need to make adjustments. Not really techie enough to answer this properly.

[clare_bear]

Originally Posted by manicguitarist2

I presume you mean carbon fibre, and not carbon - but a guitar made of charcoal or diamond - that would be coool!

Yes I do, it's just laziness where I've missed off the 'fibre' bit!

[Fretwired]

And Catalyst guitars - I have a Jakkerman - click here

It's made from Soundcompound - click here which is a composite material with acoustic properties.

[clare_bear]

Wow, there really is quite a lot out there! I'll pass on all this info to my carbon fibre friends (), and then start designing an outrageous body shape for them

If it works as a material, which it clearly does, then there ought to be a lot of scope for carbon fibre guitars in the future, I'd have thought. I'm finding it all really rather interesting!