Midchuck — a friend of mine has one of those guitars. I'm not sure it's a CA, but it's something like that — flat black, all composites or one sort or another. I only saw it once. It has an OK tone, but I couldn't figure out why someone with a top-of-the-line Larivee would buy one till he explained it's his sailboat guitar. He says he can live with the relatively flat sound as a sawoff to not putting the Larivee in danger. And, he says, if he's ever becalmed he can use it for a paddle.

The thing I was getting at in this thread wasn't so much that composites, plastics, etc. can't be OK guitars — I was questioning the wisdom of an industry-standard brand marketing them under it's own name. I think a much smarter move by Martin would have been to make and sell them under a separate company with a different name. That would have given them all the benefits (saving wood, going for the young market, etc.) while protecting brand image and integrity.

cheers,

david