Carbon fiber pioneers RainSong revamp their grand auditorium guitar to include more traditional design elements.

FOR: Any player whose demands include stability and a cool aesthetic. The carbon fiber that gives all RainSong guitars their smoky gray coloring (set off nicely here by a thick rosette of abalone and shark inlay on the fretboard) looks sweet, but its musical characteristics are what really set the CO-WS1000N2 apart. The lack of swelling and contracting makes each note on the fretboard sing with the kind of harmonic content usually only found in a high-end wood guitar in a very stable environment.

NOT FOR: Wood purists. Your loss!