Emerald x10 - anyone know the story of this model?

[Strumalot]

I have an "old style" (center sound hole) X10N with the slotted head stock.

It's a nice guitar that fills a void in the current Emerald line up for people who aren't fond of the offset sound holes and/or the regular Emerald headstock.

I considered getting matching steel string version, however, there are a few issues that keep me from doing it...

One is the neck, which is too flat and wide for my preference. And after my custom X10 experience, I would not count on Emerald to build exactly what I would want. That said, the neck is OK and will be perfect for some players.

The second issue is the neck join.

I had asked Emerald in another thread if the heel was to accommodate the truss rod. Sean replied that no, it is there to reinforce the neck. I am not sure why the Emeralds need that kind of reinforcement while the Blackbirds and CAs don't, but a smoother CA-like neck join would be a major improvement on the the X10. The good news is, there is still plenty fret access on the X10 even with the heel.

Durability was brought up in another thread and I am having some minor concerns with the X10. There is some delamination of the gloss finish, and something is making the guitar distort. I will need to take off the strings and check it out. At this point, I am not sure if it is loose bracing, the K&K getting loose, or a dead lizard, but on some notes it kind of sounds like I'm using a distortion unit. Actually kind of a cool sound, but not the way its supposed to be.

The X10 is a very comfortable guitar, but smaller isn't neccesarilly more comfortable. I discovered this when I tried out a GXi a while back. The larger GX ~ for my body size ~ is much better and beats the smaller X10 in that department, too.

Soundwise, the slightly reduced volume on X10 makes it great for acoustic playing and singing. Tonally I can't compare to steel because it's a nylon, but no complaints. It sounds great. I liked the sound of my Rainsong NP12 a little better, but just sold it and kept the X10 for its better upper fret access.

Bottom line, the X10 is a near perfect design. With some modifications, it think it would have a lot of appeal to many players. Emerald fans especially. I would have been interested in a steel string model as a "guest guitar," but the Sunburst Savoy is getting that job.

I will be curious and interested to hear if the group X10 buy happens and what the specs will be. It sill surprises me that Emerald dropped the X10 from the regular line up.