Bob Kovacs is an engineer and singer/guitarist. He can be reached at pvreditor@yahoo.com.
(click thumbnail)
RainSong WS1000
Did you ever get completely turned around on something? Maybe there was a girl in your high school class who was nice enough but just didn't have what it took to strike that power chord in you. Then you saw her after she graduated from college and... WHOA!
So it was with the $2,995 RainSong WS1000. This odd-looking guitar had a bold, forward sound with my first strum, and I was sure that it was not going to compare favorably to the many fine guitars I get to play. But I kept at it for a few days, and all of a sudden I couldn't keep my hands off it.
Features
First things first - the RainSong WS1000 looks like other guitars in shape only - and it does not use any wood in its construction. It is nearly the size and shape of a cutaway dreadnaught, with a slightly shorter body and more pinched waist. The guitar has the 25.4-inch scale of dreadnaughts and it has 21 frets.
Almost completely built of lightweight carbon fiber, the WS1000 has a cool black appearance with a pinch of herringbone stripes. The body and neck are made of carbon fiber (sometimes called "graphite"), neatly joined where the top and back meet the sides. There is no binding anywhere on this guitar. The finish of the guitar is a glossy UV-resistant urethane that enhances the unusual carbon-fiber appearance of this instrument.
Unlike a typical wooden guitar, the RainSong WS1000 has no bracing under the top, no truss rod in the neck and no means to adjust the curvature or angle of the neck. The only means of adjusting string height is by filing down the saddle; however, the action was perfect on the sample that I played. The top is very thin near the sound hole but it soon thickens to about the same cross section dimension as a typical spruce or cedar top.
The WS1000 has a graphite/composite bridge and fretboard, and chromed Gotoh tuners. It does have a few esthetic embellishments to its lightly striped, basic-black appearance - with a sound hole trimmed in abalone and little shark-like abalone accents at the usually marked frets. The nut, saddle and bridge pins are all made of Tusq.
The guitar came strung with Elixir Nanoweb light-gauge strings. The onboard electronics package is a Fishman Prefix Stereo Blender, which has a piezo pickup under the saddle and an electret mic on the electronics assembly. Replacing the 9 V battery was a snap with the flip-up design of the electronics. The Fishman Prefix Stereo Blender has controls for volume, bass, treble, contour, notch, frequency and blend.
A strap button at the base of the guitar doubles as the 1/4-inch jack for the electronics. RainSong thoughtfully provides another strap button on the heel of the neck.
The audition
The RainSong WS1000 is just a bit smaller than a dreadnaught guitar and it is comfortable to hold for a long time. Coupled with the famously light weight of carbon fiber, this is an easy-to-hold and easy-to-play guitar for hours at a time.
And the acoustic sound of this thing is right out there, bright, loud and well-projected. This is among the loudest guitars I've played and the Elixir strings combined with the rigid carbon-fiber construction makes for a bright, clean sound. The low end is not an afterthought - it's there with plenty of volume, too. The overall sound is bright but well-balanced between treble and bass.
I like to play with thin picks, which tend to make a guitar sound brighter. The RainSong's brightness is easily tamed with thicker picks but nothing beats the clarity of a thin pick on a crisp-sounding guitar.
The WS1000 is terrific for fingerpicking too, as it stayed delightfully bright when plucked with my bare fingers. The ample bass sounded great on fingerpicked bass runs, such as from a C to an Am or D to G. The more I played this guitar, the more beautiful it got and I simply can not find a fault with its sound or playability.
I took the RainSong to a gig and broke it out at around 10 p.m. to show off its cool looks and sing a few songs. I played this thing until 1:30 a.m., when I looked at my watch and couldn't believe the time - my fingers were eager to play still more after 3.5 hours! This is a very comfortable guitar. The cutaway let me play chords up to the 15th fret and I could easily reach notes even higher.
The acoustic sound from the WS1000 filled the 10 x 20-foot room that I was in, and everyone - including another guitar player - commented on its clarity and projection. At home, I plugged it into my mono PA system and was generally pleased with the electric sound of this RainSong. There was a bit of that edgy "piezo" sound but tweaking the controls got me a sound that I liked for both fingerpicking and strumming.
So what's it like to play a carbon fiber guitar? There are a couple of things that I noticed about the RainSong that I particularly like about it. First is its excellent sustain, which is easily the best that I can recall from any acoustic guitar. The second is that the strings on this guitar hold their tune amazingly well. I had this guitar for weeks and probably played it for about an hour a day, on average. I almost never had to touch the tuning.
Both the sustain and tuning stability are the result of the rigid carbon-fiber construction of the RainSong WS1000. This material is impervious to moisture and humidity, and it handles temperature swings better than wood, resulting in its ability to maintain accurate tuning over a long time and hard playing.
One other thing: the RainSong WS1000 is the first guitar on which I really liked the sound and playability of Elixir Nanoweb stings. These are clearly the right strings for this guitar.
Conclusion
I was initially skeptical about the RainSong WS1000 and thought that its bold sound was too artificial. After a few sessions with it, my opinion changed - this is a guitar that I can easily live with. It is loud, clean-sounding, easy-to-control, easy to hold and a joy to play for hours at a time.
If you're in the market for a premium guitar and you want something different and striking, try a WS1000. See if you can go back a few times and play it over several days; I think you will find, as I did, that once this guitar grows on you, it is quite the head-turner.
Microphones Need sound amplified or recorded? Shure microphones are the recognized leader for both stage and studio. Wireless Microphone Systems available online.
Audio Visual Equipment Find quality audio and visual equipment. Plasma tv's, LCD monitors, projectors, and much more at affordable prices.
Site
contents Copyright 2008 NewBay Media, LLC All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission
of NewBay Media, LLC is prohibited.
for reprint information.
