John Williams: Blog

Doing a solo acoustic gig is really fun.  Little setup, no late band members, no question about what to play next.  Since the time between walking into the venue and pulling the guitar out of it?s bag is so small I've always worried about climate-change problems.
 
Most of my playing-out in the past has been with an electric guitar.  Acoustic guitars were almost exclusively for use in the studio.  Electrics, especially solid body electrics, are inherently better suited to withstand climate changes.  The acoustic guitars I used were selected solely for their tone which made them tend to be higher-end instruments that aren?t necessarily robust.
 
RainSong guitars have always interested me and the few I?ve played in stores seemed really well-made.  I never had much problem with the tone either.  When a WS1000 turned up in the ?scratch-n-dent? section of MusiciansFriend.com I jumped on it.
 
The thing arrived in perfect tune (just like all the anecdotes) and smelled like a new boat.  The action was fine which is a good thing because the only adjustment is the bridge height.  There?s no truss rod since the whole structure is much more rigid than a similar wooden setup and should not change with temperature, humidity, or age.
 
I really like the tone.  It is very clean, pretty loud, and has quite a bit of bottom.  The tone is pleasant and pretty powerful.  I doubt that there are many folks who would guess it?s a graphite guitar in a blind, non-side-by-side comparison.  If I alternate between my Martin OM28v and the RainSong it?s very easy to tell.  If I pick up the RainSong cold, it sounds great.
 
The guitar is stiff but not necessarily strong - you really shouldn?t stand on it.  In many years of playing guitar, though, I?ve never had the urge or the need to stand on any guitar.  I?d venture to say a thick, plywood, low-end guitar might be stronger so if you want a guitar-shaped step-stool look elsewhere.  
 
The finish is very hard.  It seems to resist minor scratches and nicks very well.  In fact it?s hard enough to not need a pickguard.
 
I  played an outdoor brunch this spring that had me playing in direct sunlight (rare in the Pacific northwest).  I didn't expect the guitar to get as hot as it did.  It was really uncomfortable.  It stayed in tune but was hard to hold.   I had to take a short break and move to the shade.  I suppose a lighter-colored wood guitar would not have had this poblem but if it did get hot it most certainly would have gone out of tune and could possibly have been damaged.

The real down-side to this instrument  is that the manufacturing process is still not as mainstream as cutting and gluing wood.  This results in a somewhat spendy instrument.  For about the same price as my scratch-n-dent ?bargain? you could get a pretty high-end wood guitar.  It would probably sound more ?woody? but it wouldn?t fill the niche of pretty good tone and durability.  There isn?t really any other way to get that except with the Rainsong. 

I'm going to sail to Port Townsend this summer for the Acoustic Country Blues festival.  The only guitar that makes sense to bring in this environment is the Rainsong.  What a great way to pass the time on a long sailing passage!
 
I used the RainSong on several tracks of my Acoustic Country Blues CD.  Can you guess wich ones?