Like Puerto Player, the strings and pickup on my X20 seemed way out of balance to me, very bass heavy. I haven't bothered to deal with it yet because I only play it unamplified...

My Emerald X-20 saddle is quite high, too, but other than the string-ping/sitar-zing on the 4th-string, the guitar doesn't have any other string buzzing or any intonation problems.

Is Emerald's quality control not up to where it should be? Don't they thoroughly play their guitars before they ship them out?

These were the replies I was looking for, especially Tom2, thank you. I know just enough to be dangerous lol. But with your post I can do some preliminary diagnosis without touching anything.

Puerto Player, I suspected as much.

Now, as stated, once you get it right it will not change so it’s ls worth the effort.

Meanwhile I’ve discovered that one seriously famous tech and his peeps have two shops within minutes of my house. May be worth the $$


https://www.guitar-villa.com/story

Although not applicable to the OP's Emerald, let me say that I've noticed "string-ping/sitar-zing" on several brands of guitars and it's usually on the 3rd and 4th strings of guitars with compensated saddles If you notice the way the bride is shaped, the "compensation" edge for these strings is at the front of the saddle and there is usually a fairly gentle downslope of the top of the saddle as it slopes toward the bridge pins. This creates less downward pressure on the front compensated area of the saddle and can result in "string-ping/sitar-zing" but not always as there likely are mitigating factors that can reduce or eliminate this sonic annoyance. Examples of sonic variances of new guitars that I own or have owned:

2015 Taylor 618e - string-ping/sitar-zing on 3rd and 4th strings

2016 Taylor 614ce - rock-solid tone with no sonic annoyances

2016 Martin GPC-18E - string-ping/sitar-zing on 3rd and 4th strings

2019 Emerald X-20 - string-ping/sitar-zing on 4th string

Good to know about guitar-villa - I live down in the Philly area and haven't spent any time looking for a good acoustic tech. I've had electric work done by Philtone down in Baltimore and he's incredible, but he doesn't generally do a lot of work on acoustics...

Hey, now that there's an X30 in my general area, I may try to hit you up to give it a play some day, if you're amenable. I'm down south to the middle of March, so it will be a good while for sure. But I've been seriously wanting to play an X30 for a while...

Congratulations on the guitar and good luck with the setup...

-Ray

Tom2 has been an incredible resource in my search for the ideal nylon string guitar. I think that he may be the most credible technical source on this forum (not that he is the only one to listen to). Thank you Tom2.

It would be nice to have a technical thread on this CF forum, one that deals with technical problems and solutions. As things are, the information is scattered around in various threads. I know that at some point I may want to come back to Tom2s information but may have a hard time remembering exactly where he placed the information.

Just a thought.

My 2 year old X20 with no pickup had a pretty good setup on it and didn't need any tweaking. My newer X7 was horrible and had to have a pro setup.

Great idea Evan, a sticky at the top for technical issues on any CF guitar would be nice !

Searching for the answers on AGF is hit and miss. There's simply so much on this site that trying to search and find exactly the thread I once read and later remembered became a problem for me.

I have an extensive folder system that works for me. Anytime I find a thread that I think has value, I simply save the page in that folder: saddles, nuts, pre-amp, amps, etc., etc. If the the thread is updated, I save it to the same folder and let it overwrite/replace the old file with the updated posts until people stop writing in the thread.

It doesn't take that much time at all and I can find just the information that is meaningful to ME, filtered from the thousands of threads on AGF that have no meaning to me--without using the AGF search function which only occasionally gets me what I want quickly.

You may certainly come up and take it for a test drive, I'm 15 or so minutes off the Quakertown exit......

So I got Guitar Villa from a shoutout to my local musician friends on Facecrack..... After I posted got this one too, even closer for you... I trust the guy that recommended it. Heck of a guitar player, and a heck of a drag racer. But that's another story.

https://www.dtownguitars.com/

How about a separate tech forum? Most of these issues are not germane to a CF.....

I too valued Tom2’s contribution to this post, so much so that I screen shot it on my ipad and placed it in a folder for future reference. Thank you.

As for the apparent setup issues on current newly shipped Emeralds, as well as reported quality issues on a new custom Rainsong - I’m sorry to hear it but glad that there’s a place (here) to discuss it, and hopefully hear of eventual resolutions.

My X20-7 looks to be about as high as this - the 27" scale length for the 7th string is going to exaggerate that a bit. My 'regular' X20 is definitely lower, but still with a good break angle over the saddle.

The 7 plays beautifully - any buzzing I get is entirely due to me getting used to the extra string (mostly) and the fan frets (a bit).

On the 6, I do occasionally get a little touch of that sitar-like zing on the 2nd string, but I can make it go away by changing how I pick the string - so that one's down to me. This one spends most of its time in open D, plays better than any acoustic guitar I've ever owned, and came from the factory that way.

Oscar;

Since moving into CF guitars I have tended to focus on the problems of CF. I think that wooden guitars carry the issues noted on this forum but also carry contributing issues that make solutions a bit more difficult.: Bowed necks, broken braces, humid or dry conditions, lifted or sunken faces, and so forth.

I tend to think that CF has fewer fault lines and more direct solutions. The path suggested by Tom2, for example, does not have to deal with all those wooden fault lines.

AC;

You are a more deliberative reader than I am--unless I'm doing serious research. What I read on this forum often seems unrelated to me at the time but then later becomes important. So, in the future, when I am trying to remember where I read something, I'll be calling on your file system--thank you.

KarenB;

I believe that increased production tends to leadsto increased flaws which lead to a critical point--upload more staff or lose credibility.

Awesome - I’ll leave myself a reminder to get in touch once we’re home in the Spring. As for Dtown Guitars, Doylestown is still quite a haul, but maybe I’ll give them both a shout the next time I need work done...

-Ray