I’m a sucker for fine tonewoods like Adirondack spruce, flamed maple, and Brazilian rosewood. I love traditional steel-string guitar construction and swoon for old Martins and Gibsons and new Collings and Santa Cruz guitars in all their wooden glory. So when I received a new RainSong CH-WS for review—built entirely from carbon and glass fiber—I felt a little out my comfort zone.
But it took just a minute with the CH-WS before I set aside my preconceptions about what a guitar should be and to understand why many players swear by carbon fiber instruments. The 12-fret CH-WS has a bold and confident voice, and satisfying resonance and response. It definitely performs as well as many all-solid-wood guitars I’ve come across at the same price—if not better. And, thanks to its carbon construction, it’s obviously one of the sturdiest guitars you can buy.
Building Forward
The CH-WS is a member of RainSong’s new Concert Hybrid Series, which also includes parlor and OM models.. It’s also the company’s most affordable line to date.
Our review guitar came in RainSong’s signature body shape, the WS. (RainSong also offers parlor, OM, jumbo, and dreadnought sizes for this style). The body is relatively small but deep—5” at its deepest—and is designed with projection and bass richness in mind. As with all the Concert Hybrid series, RainSong uses a less expensive carbon-and-glass-fiber mixture for the back and sides, which helps make the line more accessibly priced. The top, however, is made from super-strong carbon fiber exclusively, which accounts for the conspicuous lack of bracing. The bolt-on neck is made from carbon fiber, too. Tusq is used for the nut, saddle, and bridge pins.
Though I definitely prefer the look of a wooden guitar, there’s something appealing about the CH-WS’s minimalist, monochrome appearance. The carbon fiber itself reveals subtle attractive textures—most notably fine vertical “grain” that’s not worlds away from a spruce soundboard. The chevron pattern on the back, meanwhile, evokes the flamed maple cap of a Gibson Les Paul.
Ratings
Pros:Great sounding and easy to play. Excellent sonic balance. Ultra-tough carbon fiber construction.
Cons:
Can sound slightly less warm in open tunings.
Tones:
Playability:
Build/Design:
Value:
Street:
$1,499
RainSong Guitars CH-WS
rainsong.com
It’s hard to judge a carbon-fiber guitar by the usual standards of guitar craftsmanship. Because there’s no bracing or kerfing, the RainSong is a much simpler instrument. There’s no doubt, however, that it is well built, with smooth edges on the body, tip-top fretwork, and a perfectly notched nut and saddle. It feels light and balanced like the best traditionally built guitars. The instrument is incredibly rugged, too. I accidentally knocked its top against the corner of a desk—the sort of impact that probably would’ve left a nasty scar on a nitrocellulose lacquer finished wooden instrument, but there wasn’t even a hint of damage. Perhaps the only “flaw” I could find was the absence of the intoxicating aroma of a freshly made wooden instrument.
Brilliantly Balanced
The first thing that struck me playing the CH-WS is how sonically balanced the guitar is. Bass, middle, and treble output is even from string to string and between the lowest and highest notes on the fretboard. The guitar also exhibits excellent dynamic response to changes in strumming intensity and fingerpicking nuance.
Thanks in part to the deep body and 12-fret neck configuration, the CH-WS has plenty of low-end oomph. And though the guitar might not be an obvious choice for a traditional bluegrass musician, it sounded really lively when I played driving Carter-style rhythms. Flatpicked single-note lines also sound robust and well-defined, and it has headroom to spare if you have to tangle with a circle of D-28s. In open G and open C tunings, the CH-WS retains its crisp, articulate qualities. Fretted and open notes ring together beautifully, though I missed some of the warm overtones you typically hear from a solid mahogany or spruce top in these tunings,
The CH-WS comes with an L.R. Baggs Stage Pro Element pickup. Plugged into a Fender Acoustastonic amp with the pickup’s onboard controls set flat, the guitar sounds clear and detailed and you hear a very accurate representation of its unplugged personality.
The Verdict
Most acoustic guitarists are acquainted with the havoc that extreme changes in climate and humidity can wreak on their instruments, like shifting frets, lifting bridges, and warping necks. The RainSong CH-WS is virtually immune to these problems, and the reduced maintenance it requires will alone make the near-$1,500 price tag worth it for travelling and touring musicians. But with its rich, balanced sound and outstanding playability, RainSong’s CH-WS has the goods to convince wood purists of a great carbon fiber guitar’s many musical possibilities.
Watch the Review Demo:
The Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah taps into the vibrant, melodic character of one of rock ’n’ roll’s most gifted songwriters. Few guitar players have been able to combine a keen musical instinct with a profound grasp of composition like Mick Ronson. Laden with expressive resonance, his arrangements layered deliberately chosen tones and textures to build exquisite melodies and powerful riffs. The Cry Baby Wah, set in a fixed position to serve as a filter, was key to the tone-shaping vision that Ronson used to transform the face of popular music through his work with David Bowie and many others as both an artist and a producer.
We wanted to make that incredible Cry Baby Wah sound available to all players, and legendary producer Bob Rock—a friend and collaborator of Ronson’s—was there to help. He generously loaned us Ronson’s own Cry Baby Wah pedal, an early Italian-made model whose vintage components imbue it with a truly singular sound. Ronson recorded many tracks with this pedal, and Rock would go on to use it when recording numerous other artists. With matched specs, tightened tolerances, and a custom inductor, our engineers have recreated this truly special sound. “You place the wah, and leave it there, and that's the tone,” Rock says. “It's all over every record he ever made, and I’ve used it on every record since I got it. Dunlop’s engineers spent the time and sent me the prototypes, and we nailed that sound.”
To capture all of the nuance and detail responsible for Ronson’s unique wah sound, our engineers created a custom inductor that replicates the higher frequency response and subtler peak of the original pedal. The resulting sound offers an exquisitely balanced sonic profile that’s bright and clear with peaks that stay musically smooth. We want every player to get that same experience, so we tightened the inductor tolerance to ensure the closest possible representation of Ronson’s Cry Baby Wah. We have likewise reproduced the fast initial sweep of the potentiometer, which offers an instant reactivity that’s like nothing from the modern era. And it didn’t stop there—the engineering team even included period-accurate low-gain transistors and value-matched resistors that contribute to a truly distinctive EQ curve. This is a pedal that is literally tailor-made for Mr. Ronson’s signature fixed-wah tones.Capping it all off, we’ve adorned the Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah with a special finish inspired by his work. Dig into the signature tones of one of the greatest to ever pick upthe guitar. Get the Mick Ronson Cry Baby Wah.
AVAILABLE 4/1/25
$249.99 street.
Mesa/Boogie '90s Dual Rectifier 100-watt Tube Head - Black Diamond Faceplate
