Alistair Hay's TOP 10 custom Emerald Guitars of 2012
 

Alistair Hay from Emerald guitars asked me if i could help him posting here this ranking: the most incredible custom guitars of 2012.

We had long talks about it and it was really hard to choose only 10. He had a lot of very special custom orders this year. I'll be posting them here daily for you to enjoy them. Here we go!

#10 T8 Woody Sunburst
We launched the T8 earlier this year and its been a great success with its mix of modern technology in the construction and a more traditional styling. This custom version of the T8 was made for Brett Kahn, our representative in Florida.
Brett wanted something a bit special for his personal guitar so I selected one of my finest pieces of highly figured quilted maple veneer for the top and gave the whole thing a beautiful vintage amber burst finish and matched that with an Amber finish over the exposed carbon weave on the back, sides, neck and headstock.
The whole thing just came together to make one of the warmest most inviting little guitars I've built.
- Alistair Hay

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ALISTAIR'S TOP 10 CUSTOM GUITARS OF 2012
#9 X30-7 string Fan fret
This was certainly one of the most extraordinary guitars of the year.
The brief for this guitar was quite simple...... Chris Fleming wanted a 7 string jumbo with a multi scale of 27" to 25.5", 24 frets, Lace Alumatone Humbucker, Roland GK midi pickup, K&K trinity system, onboard controls, Sperzel tuners including Sperzel D-thing drop tuner, Glow in the dark fret markers and to top it off he wanted a custom black marble finish on the back, sides and neck.
I don't need to say any more about why it's in the top 10 of the year.

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ALISTAIR'S TOP 10 CUSTOM GUITARS OF 2012
#8 XB 35-Woody fretless Acoustic Bass
This XB custom was pure Gold. I had a beautiful piece of Quilted Maple that was just wide enough to fit the XB top so we knew it had to be matched to something special so this one went Gold all the way, Gold Gotoh tuners, Gold Logo, and a Gold tint over the exposed carbon weave. We also made a nice little Carbon truss rod cover and yes we tinted it gold.
The most special detail on this guitar is that we cast the thumb rest in a transparent resin so you can see the Maple run right underneath it. It's the first time we did this but I'm sure it wont be the last. It was a really striking bass and yes it sounded every bit as good as it looked.

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*Dead*

I'm a bass player that dinks around on guitar and am a big fan of ABGs. I should probably forget the idea of a CF twelve that I've been kicking around and commission something similar to this to replace one of my current pair of Tacoma ThunderChief fivers. Mike Dimin likes his a lot.

I wouldn't want a thumbrest, though - I'm a five string player and use the low B for a rest. I can see where this would be great on a four, though.

This ought to be posted in the custom build section! Might shake things up a little?

You can sure see the genius in Alistairs work...simply stunning...sigh...if only I was related to a rich sheik...:D;):)

I think that the thumbrest clearly reveals that the Emerald colors are applied to the outer resin (or whatever the material) layer and not based in the carbon fabric itself. This should allow Alistair to mix just about any color he (or the customer, possibly for an upcharge) wants. Thoughts?

as far as i know, colors are not an upcharge (green, red, amber, black and blue)

Right Martin, but if someone wanted a unique color, there's extra time/work/cost to create the blend. I think that would be an upcharge. I don't know if Alistair is that flexible, but it seems very doable.

Like pink??

do you have something in mind, acousticado?

Not at all. I recall discussion about how Alistair applies color to his guitars -- whether the fabric pre-bought already colored; the fabric impregnated with color by Alistair; or mixed with the resin. It just appeared to me from the thumbrest in the bass pics above that the colors appear to be mixed with the outer resin layer and got me thinking about an endless color possibility, and curious if Alistair offers that. I doubt I'd do anything radical myself. I'm already smitten with the stock ruby red and vintage amber.

Heavy Duty maybe we should talk about a 12 string acoustic bass, I built a couple last year.
Acousticado yes we can mix custom colors but only to an extent. As we use a transparent color over the black carbon a lot of the final color is dependent on the carbon and generally the colors appear dark but tend to glow under direct light. Its a really nice and subtle effect but means you cant have a color that always looks bright.
If you have a custom color in mind then feel free to drop me an email to discuss possibilities.
Alistair Hay

Alistair, I've considered building an electric ten or fifteen, but I'm worried it just wouldn't be versatile enough to get much play. A good five, though - *that's* the ticket.

That said I love the sound of twelve string guitars and have considered one in CF now that I sold off my last dead tree acoustic. As an alternative to a 12, I've thought about contacting you to discuss making something in an eight string (EADdGgBE).

Too many ideas, too little money!

#7 X5-OS Custom Nylon string
This was one of the final guitars completed in 2012 and one of the most impressive. This guitar was commissioned by a customer who already owns a number of custom Emeralds and for this one he wanted an X5-OS in Nylon string and left me an open brief for the styling.
I wanted to create something modern yet would not look out of place in the 1920's so I set about designing a completely new bridge and headstock to create the desired style.
The headstock is hand carved from a solid block of carbon made from over 40 layers and this layering when carved creates an almost wood grain appearance. Ive never liked the way slotted headstocks pull the strings way off line after the nut so I created this stepped design to both keep a straight pull on the strings and keep the tuning posts running perpendicular to the strings. The contours combined with the Schertler tuners create a truly modern classic feel.
The top is Quilted maple with a deep vintage burst and the rest of the body got an amber clear coat hand rubbed and waxed to a fine satin finish to complete the modern vintage style.
The icing on this nice little cake is a custom carbon case by Accord to keep this little beauty safe but more importantly it just looks sooooo good.

- Alistair Hay
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