What is it?
Due to its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, carbon fiber is an optimal and often integral material when it comes to constructing high-performance goods, from bicycle frames to fishing poles. However, try to use it as the raw material for an acoustic instrument and watch how unsettled traditional acoustic players become.
Klōs Guitars (pronounced “close”), a Utah-based brand founded by brothers Adam and Ian Klosowiak, specializes in creating a wealth of outstanding carbon fiber instruments that have increasingly obliterated many musicians' aversion to this alternative material.
The company’s dedicated use of carbon fiber and adept construction processes have truly flipped the script that acoustic instruments must be made of wood for any bona fide legitimacy. All it took for me to be convinced was playing a bunch of their acoustic guitars and ukuleles at a NAMM Show a few years back.
In the interim, Klōs has outpaced other instrument makers that employ carbon fiber, and at the very least, they’ve persuasively put their brand on many guitarists’ wish lists.
One of their latest models, the Klōs Grand Cutaway Mini, has elicited strong interest from a new wave of acoustic players. Its travel-ready size and cutaway design have been trending as a more desirable body style over a classic dreadnought.
With that, Klōs sent me the eye-catching Grand Cutaway Mini in Carbon Timber – a nickel-infused carbon fiber that emulates the look of a wood-grained acoustic while also having a distinct and one-of-a-kind pattern throughout.
If you don’t dig Klōs’s standard black carbon fiber weave, the carbon timber upgrade is a captivating choice for its radically cool, steely grained appearance.
Specs
Launch price: $2,549 / £1,548
Made: USA
Body shape: Grand Auditorium
Body top: Carbon Timber
Top bracing: Spruce
Back & sides: Carbon Fiber
Neck/shape: Black carbon fiber, bolt-on, "Minimalistic" profile
Scale/length: 24.75” (629mm)
Nut/width: Graph Tech Tusq / 1.6875" (42.9 mm)
String spacing at bridge: 54mm
Fingerboard/Radius: Composite ebony/12" (304mm)
Body depth: 97 mm
Finish: Carbon Timber [as reviewed], Carbon Fiber
Bridge/pins: Composite ebony
Tuning Machines: Graph Tech Ratio
Electronics: Choose from Fishman Sonitone, K&K (+$110), L.R. Baggs Anthem pickup (+$300), HyVibe Smart Guitar system (+$550)
Weight: 2.8 lbs /1.3 kg
Case: Gig bag.
Left-handed options: Yes (+$99)
Contact: Klōs
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★★1/2
What’s wild is that the GC Mini arrived in a box no bigger than an oversized backpack. Inside was the guitar in a convertible gig bag with the bolt-on neck detached in a separate neck sleeve with the strings strung and held firm by a Klōs capo.
One zippered compartment contained an assembly kit with neck bolts, a mini-screwdriver, a hex wrench, a compensated bridge saddle and a note with a QR code linked to an instructional video.
Like many guitarists, I get apprehensive about assembling something as serious as a guitar, much less an acoustic.
But the detailed step-by-step video had me slapping together the GC Mini in a matter of minutes. I was amazed at how precise the guitar build is after assembly with no structural or wonky gaps, fret buzz or intonation issues. In other words, the guitar was ready to play – and with very low action.
Its precision build combines 20 stainless steel frets on a composite ebony fingerboard that has been treated with a PLEK machine setup, a 12-inch fingerboard radius, Graph Tech Ratio tuners, a 24 ¾-inch scale length and an intimately slim 3.82-inch body depth.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★★
The guitar is strung with .12-.53 gauge strings, but thanks to its PLEK treatment and shallow neck shape, the GC Mini invites buttery playability and fatigue-free comfort across the neck.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★1/2
It’s also surprisingly loud acoustically, with booming projection and volume that belies its size. This review model came with the LR Baggs Anthem electronics (other acoustic guitar pickup choices are available), which translate its acoustic voice solidly.
I am more struck by its natural warmth, which casts a deeper and separate resonance than most other carbon fiber acoustics.
I guess Klōs calls it Carbon Timber for a good reason; it has that warm voice of a wood instrument
So I guess Klōs calls it Carbon Timber for a good reason; it has that warm voice of a wood instrument. It’s quite a feeling because you almost forget you’re playing a carbon fiber guitar but rather, a futuristic instrument that soundly improves the potential instability of wood-constructed acoustics.
Sure, its carbon fiber design won’t warp, bend or crack and is resistant to temperature and humidity changes that affect wood instruments, which makes it a perfect travel guitar.
However, it shouldn’t be considered just a travel guitar; the GC Mini is an acoustic that’s at home anywhere from the studio to the stage – and even the great outdoors. And while it’s durable enough to be a “go everywhere” guitar, its comfortably compact size and fast playability might just make it your “go-to” acoustic.
Verdict
The Klōs Carbon Timber Grand Cutaway Mini is a serious instrument that’s ready to impress in any musical environment. It strikes a solid balance of wood tone with carbon fiber consistency.
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