Michael Watts and Emerald

[David Eastwood]

I know I’m not the only person who has wanted to see what Michael Watts could do with an Emerald. I think he’s a wonderful player, and I’ve always thought his style would be a good match for the instrument.

Well, it seems that he and Emerald have got together, with a couple of new videos. First is a conversation between him and Alistair Hay:



And the second is a no-talking rendition of one of his showpiece tunes on an X20:



The second is rather spoiled by a lot of background noise - which I believe is coming from his jacket - but I think the guitar sounds stunning. I’m reminded why I’ve been so captivated by mine for the last 6 years, even though I’m nowhere near his ability.

[tbeltrans]

Michael Watts s always seen with high end instruments, so I would guess that this X20 is probably much lower cost than mot of what his videos show him playing. That says a lot about Emerald guitars. Of course, Michael will, with his technique and musicality, show Emerald (or any guitar he chooses to play) at its best, so that too speaks highly of Emerald that he chose to play them for these videos.

Tony

[Captain Jim]

Both great videos - thanks for sharing those here. Interesting insights from Alistair and some spectacular playing from MW.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Captain Jim

Both great videos - thanks for sharing those here. Interesting insights from Alistair and some spectacular playing from MW.

I was delighted to hear him say that "there's no such thing as a carbon sound - and there's no such as a wood sound" (my paraphrase).

I'm not convinced (from the comments) that Michael is 100% convinced yet, but he does at least allow that he needs to spend more time with it.

[alexander1356]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

I know I’m not the only person who has wanted to see what Michael Watts could do with an Emerald.

I guess I was living in the great illusion that I was the only one who asked Emerald to send the guitar to Michael. When I owned the X30, I wanted to send it to him to hear his thoughts. It didn't happen, due to Brexit, which I later regretted. But, IMHO, they should have sent him X30, not X20. But like in the case of J.P. Cormier, I feel they again chose the safer route since they are kind of more confident with X20. X30, while having more goodness in many ways, also has, IMHO, two or three things that need to be partly improved or modified to reach the true potential of this wondrous and great instrument.

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

...I'm not convinced (from the comments) that Michael is 100% convinced yet, but he does at least allow that he needs to spend more time with it.

After watching and following Michael for the last 15 years, he put his hands on all of the best steel string guitars on this planet (either 40 K, 30 K, 20 K, 10 K, or 5 K hand made examples), so this is a very hard test for Emerald. After all, this guitar genious/maestro is all about the sound, tone, musicality, and responsiveness and less about the advantages that carbon offers, IMHO.

[Doubleneck]

Tuff comparison for any carbon guitar to go up against the wood guitars that Michael has recorded on video. Doubt that he will ever be won over. I went back to a hand built wood guitar but still play my carbon.

[latentaudio]

Michael Watts can make a broken banjo sound great.

[Doubleneck]

Just not comparable? Will he go carbon?
https://youtu.be/e5_vomvc5Dw?si=RKTSUFU78uNxLT7G