Video of the Week - Christmas music under the Snow!

I think this video is an amazing prove that nothing beats carbon fiber under extreme weather conditions. This guitar is even in tune! Don't try doing this with your wooden guitar. don't say we didn't advice you ;)

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Video of the Week - Blackbird Super OM by Teja Gerken

It is a pity that the audio of this video doesn't pay justice to this guitar. Teja Gerken is the Senior Editor of Acoustic Guitar Magazine and an incredible musician. This piece of music is simply lovely!

New Camouflage finish by Emerald Guitars

This is the brand new custom Camouflage finish on a wee X7OS by Emerald Guitars. Can you see the guitar?

There are some more pics in the here on Emerald Guitars Facebook. Doesn't it look great?

Video of the Week - Blackbird Super OM by Martin Blanes

Here we go! This is a tune i composed for the amazing 'Name my Tune' contest held by Macnichol. Somebody composes a tune and posts a video of it and people has to choose a title for it. This time the winner was 'Inner City Rhythm' and the prize was more than 200 dollars in guitar goods! For the current contest please check Macnichol's forum.

Video of the Week - Custom Emerald 9 strings by Peter Vail

Our friend Peter Vail did this sample video of this guitar before shipping it to it's proud owner. This guitar has been also played by Andy Mckee no less! This was a custom order based on the body of the Emerald X35 acoustic bass. It has 9 strings and custom K&K pickups. Soon we'll do a complete review of it. Here are some lovely pics of it

A Brave New Carbon-Fiber World - by Rick Spreitzer

Please welcome our new contributor Rick Spreitzer, former CA endorser artist and carbon fiber guitar enthusiast. He sent us this delightful article. We hope to have more entries form him soon. Enjoy it!

As a guy barreling down on half-a-century, I have had the pleasure of playing some mighty fine wooden guitars. There are a few that stand out: a golden-topped 1976 Martin D-35, a 1965 Gibson cherry-sunburst J-45 (my first vintage guitar!), and a 1942 Gibson L-00 (that to this day, I regret selling). In the past year, I splurged on a Collings OM-1 that is sublimely intoxicating.

But there’s an unlikely addition to this list of stand-outs: my 2007 Composite Acoustics Performer GX. To me, it’s a guitar that does it all. It’s an amazing rhythm guitar. It’s balanced enough to play finger-style. It sounds great plugged in. It has the best intonation of any guitar I’ve ever owned. It takes well to aggressive capo-use and alternate tunings. It’s also virtually indestructible because it’s made entirely out of carbon fiber.

Video of the Week - Diving Antarctica with a Blackbird Rider!

This is one of my favorite videos and it really highlights how durable is a carbon fiber guitar. You can see it diving in Antacrtica and surviving! Don't try doing this with a wooden guitar! This is simply beautiful...

About Hartley Peavey, the new owner of Composite Acoustics

I was forwarded this article and i really loved to share it with you. He is such an inspiring person. It is worth reading it even if you are not into guitars. It's the story about a man and a dream and how he pursued until making it real. It is amazing to read it from his own words.

Please follow this Link

Amazing Emerald Guitar bargains!

Jump on them as fast as you can! They won't last long! This is an amazing chance to get an amazing guitars for a fraction of their price.

Check this link

Carbon fiber used for guitar tops? Aren't you kiddin'?

I want to echo here a really good text written by Joe Luttwak, CEO of Blackbird Guitars, about using carbon fiber to build guitar tops -> the link

Carbon fiber vs. wood sound board + stiffness
Over the years, we've observed a lot of mystery around the material and construction of acoustic guitar sound boards amongst the guitar playing public, after-all sound boards account for the majority of 'tone' of the instrument. In particular, the art/design/science of making guitars achieve a certain quality of sound, volume, frequency response. This became very clear when we received the following comment on our Youtube account:
These guitars are CRAP, considering the price you pay... Guitars are made out of flexible wood. Carbon is one of the most rigid materials known to man... It's good for bracing and truss rod support, but not for anything else. Especially not building a resonating chamber. -AlisonChaynes 

Here is what I more-or-less responded:
'Actually Guitar-top material Aka Spruce is exceptionally stiff for its weight- this is the most basic point of acoustic guitar building and you missed it! Good spruce is a hard material to beat actually, but composites have the advantage of being tune-able so you can dial in the stiffness. Just like a wood guitar, we have bracing to determine stiffness of the top (except we use carbon fiber for our braces), but we also can adjust the thickness, material, weave, orientation of the top to determine stiffness.'

I reached my character limit at that point, but there is another big advantage over wood tops, namely consistency. Because our tops exhibit nearly the same mechanical properties every time, we can quickly develop the perfect blend of top bracing and the other aforementioned variables (aka  thickness, material, weave etc.) so we get the desired responsiveness- every time! Responsiveness is what we are after which broken down means volume, frequency response, dynamic range. Blackbird guitars are closer to the more response boutique guitars by design. Your mass-produced wood guitars (even the pricey ones) are typically 'over-built' aka too stiff... One more thing about the post, if carbon fiber is good for bracing, which is the basis of achieving good tone and stiffness, shouldn't is also be good for the top itself?

Video of the Week - CA Cargo by Martin Blanes

Here is one of my tunes. I hope you enjoy it!

The guitar featured is the Composite Acoustics Cargo Raw travel guitar. A Huge sound in a tiny package. The music is my arrangement on the traditional music of the region where i am from, that is called Galicia, in the North West corner of Spain. 

This is a Beginning

Welcome to Carbonguitar, your new website about the future of guitar today. Everything is evolving around us and so are our guitars. We'll be discussing all the advances, the new ideas, the electronics… and, what is even more important, music born from them. We meet the people and we'll show you our first hand experiences with them.

A very important part of this website will be dedicated to the Carbopedia: the definitive resource of information about our beloved carbon fiber guitars.

Please welcome our sponsors: Emerald Guitars, Blackbird Guitars, Composite Acoustics, Macnichol guitars and mandolins and Euphony. Also welcome our supporting friends from SpiderCapo and Dazzo pickups.

This is only an evolving BETA version, so it will experiment a lot of changes in the following days, so expect the design to change soon. All the feedback will be welcomed.

We are still searching for more sponsors so any suggestion will be really welcomed.

Welcome and enjoy your staying!

Why I Love Carbon Fiber Guitars

Hi my friends! i'm Martin Blanes from Galicia, Spain and i'll tell you about these wonderful guitars. They are all made of carbon fiber, they sound amazing and they have changed my life as a traveling musician.

Welcome to the Carbon Fiber Guitar Talk Corner!

The moment i realized i needed a change was when i had a trip for a tour from my town in Spain to Poland. I had to do 2 scales to get to my destination, and it was the only option i had to arrive in time for my concert. I started with a chilling rainy morning in my town, then i flew to Madrid and it was hot and dry, followed by a nice warm afternoon in Switzerland to end the trip in Warsaw with a terrible foggy rainy windy weather. In fact we couldn't even land there but it is a different story. 

the worst part of the story was when i opened my guitar case when i arrived at the concert hall. I couldn't even recognize my guitar. Even the finish of the neck was cracked as you can see here! And the top of the guitar was soooo soaking wet that i had it simply didn't sound. I knew it was my guitar but i couldn't recognize it. Not to mention that the action changed terribly. It was a very hard concert for me, as you can imagine. It took almost 3 days for the guitar to be what it used to be. then i realized i needed a change.

All those problems are non-existent with carbon fiber guitars. They are completely unaffected by humidity or heat  and they don't care how fast the weather changes! You can play open air in the middle of a hot desert and then in antartica and the guitar won't notice it. probably it will still be almost in tune!

Reliability is the word. I need a reliable instrument to work as a professional musician at the top of my abilities. 

also, these guitars are really light and almost indestructible. Now i can declare my guitar as luggage and i'll be flying completely restful. I would never imagine this to happen when i was playing wooden guitars.

In fact, the best guitar cases are made of carbon fiber so you can have a picture of how strong they are

afterwards i discovered that these are some of the finest guitars money can buy. The quality of all of them is absolutely top notch and the craftsmanship is superb. the designers at all the factories are some of the most talented people i've ever met. also, carbon fiber engineering allows you a lot more possibilities that unreachable with wood. It is the true bleeding edge of guitar evolution.

Do yourself a favor. whenever you have the chance, try a carbon fiber guitar. They are reliable, they are resistant and they weigh nothing, but what you will love most is the sound.

There is not such a thing as a bad carbon fiber guitar. you can't go wrong with any.

Do you feel like knowing a little bit more? Just check www.macnichol.com and the carbon fiber guitar forum you'll find there. also you can check the websites of the companies at www.emeraldguitars.com, www.blackbirdguitars.com or www.compositeacoustics.com.

Please check my videos on youtube or at www.martinblanes.com.

Pleased to meet you. Excuse me, but i have to go back to my playing. See you soon!

Blackbird Rumor - Nylon Carbon Fiber Guitar

Our spies in the guitar world will post here the most important rumors heard around... 

Our featured rumor today was leaked from Blackbird Guitars' Headquarters in San Francisco. Joe Luttwak and his team are working on a new nylon stringed guitar based on their already highly successful Lucky 13 introduced this year. What we know so far is that it will have a 650mm scale and 12 frets to the body (instead of 13 as the standard Lucky 13 has).

Looks gorgeous! Please keep in mind that it is a mock up. We really hope to hear some more information about this thrilling project soon!

Video of the Week - Emerald X30 Baritone by tdq

We are proud to premiere our 'Video of the Week' section with a really beautiful rendition of 'Will Ye Go Lassie Go/Fare Thee Well' by our friend TDQ. It is played on a Emerald X30 custom Baritone guitar. I had the experience of playing this instrument before and i'm still deeply surprised. Thanks to TDQ for sharing and for his really beautiful playing

This guitar was on a 'Macnichol Roadtrip' around US. It is an unique and amazing chance to play at your home a 'one of a kind' carbon fiber guitar. Please check this link to learn about the current Roadtrips and to know how you can try a unique carbon fiber guitar at your home for one fully week.

http://macnichol.com/forums/carbon-fiber-guitars/carbon-fiber-guitars-acoustic