The Lava, however, felt very comfortable in all regions. I have long fingers, and while that’s generally an advantage, certain fingerboard positions can feel crowded on smaller necks. But if you’re concerned that such a shape shift might feel weird, I found just the opposite. The Me 2 features Lava’s Fly+ neck, which according to Lava, was “designed by tracking the different forces of shifting positions while players are playing.” It feels narrower, deeper and rounder at the lower frets, slightly wider and flatter as you move up. It sounds very alive.Ĭarbon’s advantage is resistance to the environmental conditions that make wooden guitars unstable and sometimes inconsistent. The Me 2 delivers a deeper and fuller timbre than I expected, especially from a body that’s only 12.7 inches wide and 4.63 inches deep. If the goal was a stable playing surface and strong tone production, Lava succeeded. The Me 2’s molded carbon fiber construction is meant to reduce gluing, which in theory creates a stronger and tighter marriage between the top, back, neck, fingerboard, bridge, and strings. Even with the confectionary finish, the review model turned out to be way more than mere eye candy.
You can’t miss its matching body and neck, racing oval soundhole, integrated tailpiece, brushed aluminum controls, and unadorned HPL fingerboard and saddle. Yes, the Me 2 grabs you visually before you hear it. (The guitar is also available in a range of other colors.) Because it looks like a fashion industry design exercise, it might be tempting to dismiss the instrument as a prop better suited to a music video than to sensitive musical performance.īut looks can be deceiving.
The limited-edition red model I tested makes a powerful visual statement. Most of the carbon instruments I’ve seen are dark and industrial. Today, in addition to Lava and a rebooted Ovation, companies like RainSong, McPherson, and KLOS, use the material for guitars. Kaman’s company would also pioneer fully synthetic guitars with the Adamas line. Carbon fiber may seem new, but it’s actually been seen in guitar construction since the mid-1960s, when aerospace industry leader Charles Kaman first used it to create the round backs (combined with wood tops and necks) that made Ovation Guitars big sellers starting in the 1970s.