minutia press.

I have to post about this amazing guitar. You can read below about where I got it and such, but I've been playing it just about every chance I get. The sound is just incredible.

The graphite body is light, and it's a great dreadnought shape. The neck is the perfect width, the action is fast, the strings (Elixir) don't squeak much.

I'm in guitar heaven. I downloaded lots of tabs from the web: Simon/Garfunkel, James Taylor, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Kansas. I've gone through a couple of pages on Travis Picking (I'm already a decent PIMA picker, but the Travis stuff is way cool). I've traditionally been a finger strummer, trying to emulate Spanish style strumming and avoiding any finger/thumb picks. As a result, my picking is not as loud but I think it has a more natural sound. The Rainsong is perfect for this, because it is just naturally louder than a wooden guitar.

Can we talk about intonation? The thing stays in tune no matter where or what I play on it. My first guitar (when I was 11 years old) required a PhD in acoustic physics to tune properly, and then it would only really work in one or two keys, and only if you didn't go above the 4th fret or so. I've been spoiled by my Guild 12-string, which once tuned, will play well almost all over. But this Rainsong is fretted amazingly well. It's easy to nail chords on it and they all sound in tune, sharp and crisp.

I thought this would be the guitar we take on the RV trips and I would just play as I always have on it. It's going on the trips, but it's challenging me to be a much better player.

The Rainsong motto is "Making guitars forever better". I think they mean to say that their instruments are very durable, which is certainly true. But I think they could also claim they're making better guitarists too, at least in my case.

I have not figured out a name for it yet. My 12-string is named Jim, after Jim McStaggerwalt, the guy who introduced me to 12-strings when I was a camper at the J-Bar-CC camp in Colorado. (He taught me the song "Mr Death" which is still a favorite of my kids at bedtime; I can't find it anywhere on the web though; let me know if you know it). The person who introduced me to Rainsong is Beth, but I don't think I'll name it after her. Maybe I'll sell the chance to name my guitar on eBay.

Ever played Ukulele? My wife's family bought me a Fluke about a year ago (Quattro style, now out of print). It's a really fun instrument to play. I'm in to the four string scene with my Ukulele and Mandolin (ok, technically Mandolin has eight strings, but you know what I mean).