Blackened Soul wrote: ↑Sat Apr 05, 2025 5:23 pm
Gone Fission wrote: ↑Sat Apr 05, 2025 10:30 am
Gives me a thought, wondering whether an updated version of the construction could be done with carbon fiber or some other sort of composite. Compare the existence of the Enya Novo, an all carbon fiber instrument with built-in practice amp that goes for $500-ish. Seems like a CF body shouldn’t be prohibitive to do at some reasonable scale. I guess it’s the initial engineering and passing the vintage snob ears test that’s the barrier.
Sadly carbon fiber has really fallen out of popularity.. Moses is gone, status is limping but still not making necks.. cost is always high on that stuff… there are a few new companies but they seem to be into making things that are uncool… I get the whys as a lot of the high performance resins have to be baked to set correctly.. but for something like a Supra/airline.. you could totally make a body with carbon fiber from tap plastics and west systems epoxy.. even fiberglass.. if you use epoxy instead of polystyrene resin you won’t have as nasty a outcome and it won’t outgas.. you just have to make a plug to make a mold to make your parts..
Another problem is that, whatever the potential for carbon fiber, a lot of companies just make weird decisions when they do give it a go.
I don't know if they are still active, but Composite Acoustics, a somewhat reputable composite builder (at one point bought out by Peavey) made an electric model at one point, called the Blade.
I bought one during the initial preorder and it was.....ok. It was affordable, $599, I think (probably in the late 00s/early teens), but it was not what anyone I have ever met was looking for in a solid body electric, which was how it was marketed.
I think it had Duncan pickups, maybe a JB in the bridge, which is a pretty hot pickup, but pretty normal within the realm of standard issue solid body guitar OEM pickups. The problem is, the guitar was almost entirely hollow, except for some build up around the bridge/tailpiece. It was touchy to use at gig volumes with moderate or high gain. It was honestly closer to a hollow body than a solid body or semi hollow. This is not necessarily bad, but it was marketed as a solid body composite electric.
Also, the only way to access the pickups or controls was to remove the entire back of the guitar. There were phillips screws every couple of inches around the back of the guitar. The problem is, they put them (or at least mine) together before the resin in the carbon mixture had cured and the thing had to be pried apart with a paint scraper and there was some tearing. I had to get into the guts because the Strat style output jack was installed poorly and was shorting out.
Also, the neck had no truss rod. In and of itself, this is not a problem. There are Steinbergers without them and, indeed, wood necks without them. The trouble is, the CA carbon formula did not result in a very stiff neck. If you wanted to use a set of 11s, you had relief that resembled a ski jump. I have owned MANY wood necks stiffer than the CA.
Lastly, the frets were tiny, like vintage mandolin tiny, very difficult to play, IMO.
I had mine for a month or two, used it at one gig, and sold it while people still wanted them.
Similarly, I had a Parker Nitefly. There were a lot of good ideas swirling around the genesis of that guitar that were undermined by poor execution. The carbon fiber skin was supposed to make the BASSWOOD (yes, my early one had a basswood neck) stiff, but even with a 10-46 string set, there was way too much relief. There were other problems that had nothing to do with carbon fiber, but I've probably derailed the thread enough.
Ultimately, as much as I am in favor of experimentation and have bought in on it in the past, the product needs to work, sound good and be reliable. It's a tougher bar to clear than one might think, considering how many affordable and usable traditional guitars are on the market at present.
Honestly, Steinberger and Modulus got it pretty right back in the day, but the public didn't want it.
If the various attempts to re-energize the Steinberger name (Gibson MusicYo era and Ned's NS company) had gone with stainless frets, I bet they would have been more successful. NS does fine with the violin family, though. I had a Music Yo GM4S (necks were by Moses at that point) and wore the frets to nubs in 18 months. It's a shame because the guitar sounded great. Replacing the neck or getting a refret would have been half the cost of the guitar, and a hassle. I sold it and moved on.
It doesn't help when some of the principals are utter cranks. I used to be FB friends with the Moses guy. That ended when he started blaming the COVID vaccine for tinnitus. Bye, loser.
