Hobatz, I'm a big carbon fiber guy these days. Over the years, I have owned ten Taylor guitars (see my signature) but I am down to just one koa example now. There are a bunch of CF guitars in the house at the moment:
- Emerald X20, custom X20-12, X30, X7 koa woody veneer
- Rainsong WS-1000, PMJ-1000
- Composite Acoustics - Cargo
- Blackbird Lucky 13 (CF) and Farallon ukulele (ekoa linen fabric)
These are the ones that I own, but I have played various models from other brands too. I have played the rather nice Klos ukuleles, but never seen their guitars in person. If the house were on fire - assuming that my wife and the cats were safe - I would grab the Emerald X20 first, then the Rainsong WS-1000 if there was time. I will be thinning the herd slightly over the next couple of years having now honed in on exactly what works best for me.
My CF journey started 20 years ago when living in Alaska. It was a real burden to humidify fine wooden instruments, so I bought a Rainsong WS-1000. That was the only instrument that could stay out handy for quick play, and was also great for travelling around the state. It is still one of my favorite guitars. Rainsong rode on many trips in my Cessna and many thousands of road miles strapped across the back of my Honda Gold Wing. It also happens to be my single best sounding stage guitar when played at festivals.
As we say on another forum that has a dedicated carbon fiber room, "come for the durability, stay for the tone". Yes, the tone of carbon fiber is different -- not necessarily better or worse -- but every wood combination is different from every other one too. Each builder has their own tone profile, generally. Note that CF is an expensive and very tricky material to work with. The cost of raw materials is actually higher than all but the fanciest wood guitars like koa or BRW, and there is every bit as much labor involved as building any Taylor. So you won't find a decent $500 CF guitar anywhere, and even used they are rarely less than $1500. CF guitars are not 3D printed and don't pop out of an injection molding machine somewhere every 60 seconds. They are NOT cheap polystyrene plastic toys, as some think.
Let me know if I can help further.
