Wow! Here's a PSA if there has ever been...
 

What a deal. Check out this X20 for pennies to what it initially cost

https://reverb.com/item/35023262-eme...ebony-macassar

Very, very nice....

This is remarkable. Someone is going to get a heck of a buy.

I must be missing something. Selling used as-is for 70% of the new price is "pennies to what it initially cost"?

My guess is it's one of the following:

1) Money is no object.

2) Seller needs quick money.

I feel bad for the seller. I would imagine that he waited four months or so for this one to ship and, once it arrived, he either immediately failed to bond with it or was in a likely pandemic related financial crunch. I also feel bad that he went for upgrades that, outside of possibly the Royal Ebony veneer, he is unlikely to find a buyer willing to pay extra for them. He also posted it for sale just a few days before Reverb ups it’s fees from 3.5 to 5% AND just a few days after Emerald came out with a more ergonomic X20. Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful guitar that some lucky buyer will prize. I sincerely hope for his sake that he makes a quick sale.

Okay, maybe a little hyperbolic statement. Only the seller knows but it isn't indicated whether the mods are pre or post net cost to Emerald. The guitar comes with a non-standard pickup/ installed (Barbara Soloist is $300 alone), the non-OEM pins and tuning machines, as well as the hard shell case and gig bag upgrade.

Maybe it isn't a better deal than I thought, but really good- at least $.25 to the dollar less than quoted.

Dumb question, just curious. Beautiful guitar. Is the wear/relic look normal on the 1-3 frets , high strings?

The fretboards were glossy until last year, so that looks like a reflection in the photo to me. I noticed it too. Now the fretboards have a matte Look using a unidirectional CF veneer.

Agreed - it’s a reflection. That dates this guitar to around September last year, or earlier.

I think the price is actually attractive, at not a lot more than a current non-veneered X20. The cost of the tuners and the pickup is pretty much unrecoverable, like most ‘mods’, IMO.

Agreed. It’s not a bad price at ~70% of new (not counting upgrades) but it isn’t a fire sale price either.

Looks enticing. Absolutely gorgeous guitar. There's a story here.

I certainly wouldn't toss it out if it was laying around the house. However, if I were getting an X20 today, then I would probably pass on this one and instead go for one of the new X20s sitting on the Emerald website for about the same price point. No fancy veneer, but that's not what I'm looking for in a guitar.

This owner seems to work with my favorite mode of business--buy high and sell low. I think the price is remarkably low and that the ultimate buyer will be getting a heck of a deal.

The price offered is roughly 30% off new which is about where I have been (and well be) selling my CF guitars.

I am neither rich nor desperate, but in a bit of a hurry in exploring my CF options. As I've noted before, I count any loss as a rental price. Some rentals are higher than others and this offering is an elegant product.

Those tuners are absolutely hideous, and presumably cost a pretty penny to add.
The pickup by a company I have never heard of adds zero value to me.

The top is absolutely gorgeous though.
I also like the fact that he had a separate jack installed next to the end pin. I did that on my Chimaera.

My guitar fund is currently insufficient, or I would be thinking hard about grabbing it and upgrading the tuners to some Gotoh 510s in Cosmo Black.

I see that there are some more photos and a video now on the reverb listing.

The top looks much better in the video to me - it's still not my cup of tea, but it's significantly more restrained than the first photo would suggest.

There's also a shot of the label, which shows this to be a 2017 guitar.