Tag Archives: Decker¸ John

John Decker

guitarmasterworks

John Decker trained as an aeronautical engineer at MIT and holds a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Cambridge University. He spent most of his career in the semiconductor and aerospace industries and briefly managed the Air Force’s optical observatory on Haleakala, Hawaii. While running a business making automated marine sextants, he started a back-burner project to make a stable and waterproof guitar of composite materials. This led to the development of the successful RainSong guitar. He retired from day-to-day operations at RainSong in 1998, and is now making classical guitars from exotic woods.

▪ bio current as of 2008

Commercial Graphite Acoustic Guitars

1992
AL#31 p.30   BRB3 p.224            read this article
John Decker                                                                                           

▪ This alternative to wood is outside the reach of most luthiers. It’s interesting to know how hard some are working to make graphite sound like wood. Graphite might have its own sound to offer, but once again inventors have to deal with what humans are used to, rather than with what they might have if they were more open minded. With 7 photos.