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For those of you who have bought one (forgive me I don't know the official name), are you happy with your purchase, and the brand you picked. If I already have plenty of guitars - are there any reasons to pick one of these up ?
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Are you referring to the guitars with the robo tuner pegs or the ones that work from the bridge with tension?
Personally, I don't mind tuning. Use an electronic tuner and the job is so much easier and certainly much more accurate. A guitar that's properly set up and strings that are properly stretched when installed will keep near perfect tune for quite a long time.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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For those of you who have bought one (forgive me I don't know the official name), are you happy with your purchase, and the brand you picked. If I already have plenty of guitars - are there any reasons to pick one of these up ? Short answer: "probably not" Long answer: Not sure if this is what you're referring to Joe, but you mentioned the material.... Are you talking about solid carbon fiber (aka graphite) guitars? It still has to be tuned, but the advantage is that the carbon fiber does not absorb moisture as wood does, so it is not as likely to require set-up adjustments due to changes in humidity and temperature. Its also very light and has good sustain, two things that are very important to me. As far as whether or not you "should" consider one... that's a highly personal consideration. But unless an instrument provides some advantage that is important to you, I consider these instruments to be wayyyy overpriced. In my case, I have a condition that causes my fingertips to split and bleed, and I needed the ability to set my action as low as possible without buzzing... with the added assurance that the next rainy day or outdoor gig wouldn't render the setup null and void. I question whether the benefit derived justifies the cost... but I do like the guitar... quite a lot. A less expensive alternative to buying a solid graphite guitar is to buy a replacement neck made from graphite. They cost around $500 and can be bought from here: http://mosesgraphite.com/Another company named Rainsong makes acoustic guitars that are solid carbon fiber: http://www.rainsong.com/The website for the company that made my guitar is http://www.status-graphite.com/If you scour the web for reviews, you'll see just about every possible opinion expressed. If you have to ask, my guess is that you haven't identified a compelling reason, in which case you probably don't need one.
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Yes - thanks Pat, the carbon fiber is what I was referring to, and thanks for the detailed answer. Now since I confused gutitar hacker with my question and he asked if I mean " robo tuner pegs or the ones that work from the bridge with tension" - well - what about these 2 items. What are people's feelings about the need to invest in these 2 items.
I will say I HATE when my guitars go out of tune - and it happens way more to me than it should to somebody so serious about the study of guitar ha ha
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Pat mentioned Rainsong, who makes carbon fiber (graphite) guitars. My wife's picture is on their website (or was). She has owned three of them.
She ran over one with her car. The car was damaged, but the guitar, not so much.
She loves to play in multiple tunings. The neck never warps and is very strong, making this possible. The tuning really holds. No worries about humidity or temperature extremes.
The bass reinforcement is quite forceful. Don't play this unless you want to command a room.
Her current model has two Fishman pickups.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Matt, is her name Denise?
Dad, how will I know when I've become an adult.
When your day is ruined because they rearranged the grocery store.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Yes, Mario. She's quite good.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Yes, Mario. She's quite good. No Matt she is super good! I know what my next CD purchases are going to be!
Dad, how will I know when I've become an adult.
When your day is ruined because they rearranged the grocery store.
64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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This might interest someone? Premier Guitar
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Robo tuning? Would that not require a perfect neck? I've never owned an acoustic that didn't require some tweaking after open tuning. But what the heck do I know? I've barely picked one up in the last decade. 
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Yes, Mario. She's quite good. No Matt she is super good! I know what my next CD purchases are going to be! Why thank you, Mario. I'll tell her. You will also hear my playing on four or five of her CDs. I do all the instrumental arranging and play trumpet, flugel, cornet, flute, alto flute, vibes, soprano sax - whatever the song needs.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Joe V, You may be interested in the Peavey AT-200 electric guitar. It has perfect tuning and intonation because it has Autotune built-in. More: ++ HERE ++For an acoustic guitar, check out ++ Composite Acoustics ++ Husker, For what it's worth the Vox Starliner seems to be VERY similiar to the second generation Line6 JTV series of Variax modeling guitars, down to both having modeled banjo and sitar sounds.
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Matt, is your wife on Pandora or youtube (as a performer?)
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Pandora has very little folk. She is all over YouTube though. Look for her by her full name, Denise Jordan Finley.
BIAB 2026 Win Audiophile. Software: Fender Studio One 8, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Fender Quantom HD8 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
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Oh - so many toys, so little time to earn enough money to buy them all and THEN to afford to have the time to play with them all.
I'm actually just turning my attention to fingerstyle altered tunings; Matt - please post a few links to your Denice's web samples or recording that I can sample.
So I'm pretty convinced then that if I want to do altered tunings - carbon fiber might be the way to go.
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No guitar goes without going out of tune. Strings stretch.
Rainsong guitars are an absolute joy to play. Composite Acoustic brand seems much heavier to me. 12 string Rainsong is on my lifetime to acquire list.
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You do not need carbon fiber to use alt tuning. UNLESS you plan to use significant different gauge strings and tensions than what the guitar is designed to handle.
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Yes - thanks Pat, the carbon fiber is what I was referring to, and thanks for the detailed answer. Now since I confused gutitar hacker with my question and he asked if I mean " robo tuner pegs or the ones that work from the bridge with tension" - well - what about these 2 items. What are people's feelings about the need to invest in these 2 items.
I will say I HATE when my guitars go out of tune - and it happens way more to me than it should to somebody so serious about the study of guitar ha ha Robotuners = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6BY-JpAwgo on a Gibson EVERTUNE = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uttbIIhrL0o search evertune in youtube.... lots of videos there to watch. If your guitar is a good quality guitar and you have good strings on it and it's set up properly for intonation...... it should hold it's tune really well. I have played many a gig and tuned up before the gig, and of course I check the tuning periodically through out but, in most cases, the tuning stayed dead on all night. If you are having issues, you might wish to examine your hand technique since that can easily put a guitar out of tune or make it seem so. If you have a heavy hand, it's easy to be pulling the strings when you chord and that makes the strings, or some of them, go sharp. One of the guitars I played with through the years had this issue. He had a really nice strat and would tune it with a strobe tuner. In the first song it sounded out of tune.... he'd check the tuning... perfect... He complained about the guitar.... had it checked, nothing helped. One night he commented that my SG kept perfect tune. We swapped for a set. Suddenly, he was having tuning issues with my SG. It turned out to be his hand technique. Something that only he could fix.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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I think I may be winding my strings poorly - so that they loosen up when the winding slips.
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