NGD update - I am a weak, weak, weak man...
 

***This is an actual NGD thread now - see post #40 on page 3 for the update with the actual guitar.***

So the plan was to think about it a while and probably order a woody X7 sometime in January to be delivered sometime around my 60th birthday in May. That was the plan and it was a really good one. I love the little 2017 X7 I bought a couple months ago, so much that it's a victim of it's own success. It's so much fun I'd decided to double down on one with the new soundhole and it's greater perceived volume. Perceived only to me, as the player, but since I'm often the whole audience, that matters! It's not that I didn't like the older X7 enough - it's that I liked it too much for it's own good. I play it more than my X20, which I love and play a lot.

But then the plan went horribly horribly wrong. Or right. Definitely early. Because I was up late on Thanksgiving eve and stopped into the Emerald current stock site and they had just put up a number of new guitars, including three woody X7s, two of which about knocked me out of my chair. And one of which was EXACTLY what I was planning to order in January, a cocobolo veneer. That was probably the only custom touch I was likely gonna add, and here it was. And to my eyes it's one of the most beautiful cocobolo tops I've seen, and I like 'em all. So I slept on it, but I barely slept on it, I mostly tossed and turned on it. And first thing on Thanksgiving morning, I was chatting with Kevin online and ordered it. It shipped Friday, it will probably be here sometime next week, although if the shipping goes like it did when I got my X20 in early September, I might have it this Thursday or Friday. But I'm not counting on that this time of year.

Anyway, here's a future NGD post with a couple of photos. I suspect this is gonna be my #1, with my X20 being #2, because that's kind of how it's working out even with the earlier X7. But we'll see how it plays out. Sometime in the next few months (likely not until March or April, because we're leaving town in mid-December and I'm not gonna try to sell anything before then), something is gonna be for sale, probably a 2017 X7.

So, happy birthday to me. I'm still almost six months shy of 60, but this is the gift...

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4855/...103b82d8_b.jpguntitled-1-2 by Ray, on Flickr

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4918/...5b211ac2_b.jpguntitled-3 by Ray, on Flickr

-Ray

Congratulations she's a beauty!

Congrats, Ray - that's a real beauty! And it is always easier to wait 7-10 days just for shipping than 4-5 months while it is being built. Happy [early] birthday!

I too looked at the Emerald current stock web page over the weekend. But then I went and played all three of ours - my X20-12, my X20 and my wife's "classic" X7 bubinga woody. That one is am early 2018 model, but actually is the 2017 design, and she is happy.

I think that previous X7 design is older than 2017, isn't it? Seems to me I've seen videos with it going back at least a few years. In any case, I'm really happy with it too. So this is a bit of a risky move. But I'm so happy with it it's kind of moved into at least a shared #1 position and often is up there by itself. So I figured if the X7 was gonna get this much use, I should get one I could really hear as well as I can hear my X20. That new soundhole really makes a difference - not if you're out front listening, but when you're playing it.

The woody top is just pure over the top indulgence. The kind of thing I rarely do. I did it once with a PRS electric. I didn't really see it after a while and didn't end up loving the guitar, so it didn't stay around long. I doubt I'll really see this one after a while too, but I know enough of what I'm getting that I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like the guitar. And I don't anticipate turning 60 more than once and it'll be nice to look at for a while anyway. And I'm sure it'll be a bit of a conversation starter with folks who see it for the first time, even if I stop drooling over it after the new guitar smell wears off.

I don't want more than two - a full size and a parlor size. Since my recent switch to carbon fiber, the X20 is definitely all the big guitar I want. The X7 surprised me with how much I liked it. I hope I like this one as much or more than the earlier one, but I like that one so much that I'm slightly nervous I won't like this one more. Which I would hope I do - I expect it'll be in that #1 seat...

-Ray

Not sure it's congratulations or condolences, but that's a nice piece of coco veneer. I was eyeing that X7 after getting the Emerald email. Since I just got my X20, not sure my wife would look kindly if I turn around and get that also. Congratulations and many many happy playing returns.

It is just beautiful, congrats. :)

Ray, what a beautiful cocobolo veneer and a great birthday gift. CONGRATULATIONS!

I don't even get emails - I must have opted out at some point. Probably better that way! But it didn't save me this time - I just popped in at the right/wrong moment...

I'll try to remember to do an updated group photo for you when I get it. For a brief period I'll have three Emeralds. I'll sell one but that's gonna take until Spring...

Great! Thank you. Pose with them. :)

Ray;

And sometimes things go horribly well. Congratulations!

All I can say at a time like this is WOW... what a great looking guitar! You done good...real good.

Wow! And once again: a veneer that moves to the top of the "OMG-that's-a-spectacular-woody" competition!

What? Yes, I know it isn't a competition. They're all beautiful, each in their own way. But, if was wearing socks, this one would blow them off!

And: in stock! I don't know how it could get any better? Congrats and happy early birthday! Yeah, you don't have to use your birthday as a reason - one look at that gorgeous guitar is all the reason you'd ever need. :)

You are not a weak man - it takes a real man to look at something like that and say, "Honey, can I get that? Oh, please, please, please! I'll never ask for anything ever again for the whole rest of my life!"

:up:

I've been having that reaction a lot lately too, each one nicer than the last, at least in my very impressionable opinion. But cocobolo has always been at the top of my personal preference list. And there have been some gorgeous Pau Ferro tops (there was one on the site alongside this one and it was almost a tough call, but I like darker) and ebony and Zircotte and Paduak and Bubinga and several others I don't even recall the names of. But, yeah when I saw this one, I reacted on another level altogether and knew I was in deep deep trouble of some sort. Because this was the guitar I would have ordered but I probably wouldn't have picked a top quite as nice as Alistair and his folks picked.

In this case the birthday helped a lot. I don't ask, but I also don't abuse the trust we have, and in this case it was a matter of thanking her very deeply for this amazing gift. Which she then knew about. I didn't ask permission OR forgiveness. But I won't be doing one of these again anytime soon either.

-Ray

Coming from the man who has everything! ;)

Thanks. I can't wait to see it in person. I've only seen these wood tops in photographs. And play it in person. The new X7 is still a bit of a mystery to me. One I look forward to solving...