Rainsong Dreadnought Electro-Acoustic

Made in Maui, Hawaii, USA, in the mid 90s. 21 fret fingerboard, Fishman Transducers, all graphite construction (with dyed wood veneer on the top), gloss clear-coat finish, dreadnought, Gotoh tuners, "normal" thickness round-profile neck, abalone fret markers and headstock art, with plush-lined hardcase.

This guitar sounds like I need an acoustic to sound, really. I would say my style is a bluesy alternative/college kinda sound? I don't know, I don't worry about that too much...... I would describe the sound as what I get from an electric guitar, only hollow..... it's got an even response from all different notes and chords, and has a lot more sustain than any other acoustics I've messed with. And it's loud without even bothering to plug it in. I love the way this thing sounds.

Got it used (five years old), so I don't know how the initial setup was, but this thing doesn't have a truss rod, and after being shipped from Seattle to Albuquerque, and having a big change in humidity and temperature and altitude, it was still in tune when I got it out of it's case from shipping! I had to fiddle with the piezo thing a little.... something was loose, but it's working now (keep in mind this thing's used though, and I don't think for a second that the pickup system had any problems when it was fresh from the factory). The finish is still very glossy--looks new.

This guitar seems indestructable. I think it could have piano strings on it and the neck would still be straight. To play live with it, I would definately have someone check out the piezo setup for me, but that's it. Everything else on this guitar is built like a bomb shelter.

The only time I've interacted with Rainsong was when I was asking about their Jazz model which I found out from them was discontinued, but they were responsive enough anyway. I don't know how easy this will be to get repaired should it need it, but unless I start jumping up and down on it, I don't see any way of doing any damage to it.

I've been playing guitar for a little over ten years now, but this is really my first acoustic. The two things that always stopped me from being too enthuiastic about acoustics was the somewhat flat sound I've heard in most acoustics, and the fragility of them in general. This guitar eliminates both of those concerns.

I had actually been wanting the Rainsong Jazz guitar really badly, but they stopped making it, and I've recently got to where I wanted an acoustic pretty badly, but still didn't want to deal with the fragility of wooden acoustics, and I'm not sorry at all about getting this dreadnought at all even though it wouldn't have been my first choice. I also haven't played the Jazz guitar, so if I'd had those two right next to each other I might have still ended up picking this one..... I don't know.

I still have a fantasy though, of a resonator-cone/Dobro guitar, but it would still be a Rainsong, and have the all-graphite construction. I would like that in ADDITION to this guitar I think, but if I had to, I would probably trade that dream-guitar for this one. I don't think there are any acoustics out there that I would trade this one for right now though.