I currently own the following CF instruments:
- Rainsong WS-1000
- Rainsong PMJ-1000 (on long term loan in Arizona)
- CA Cargo
- Blackbird Lucky 13
- Emerald X20 stock model
- Emerald X20 custom (currently being built)
- Emerald X20-12 custom
- Emerald X7 woody (one bubinga, one koa)
- Blackbird Farallon ukulele (in ekoa composite)
I find the X20 to be the perfect guitar for me and my style (75% bare nails fingerpicking, and 25% moderate rhythm strumming). X20 has good tone and volume, great overall balance and warmth, and the ergonomics cannot be matched much less beaten. There is a reason that X20 is Emerald's best selling model. As I have described here before, my stock X20 easily beat a $5K custom shop Martin OM-28 in every way last year - tone, overall volume, playability, cool factor. I now have a custom X20 with a short-scale (24.6") on order, because shorter scale lengths have become my preference over recent years. It will probably replace my current 25.5" scale X20, mostly because I like shorter scales these days. I can still play 25.5" just fine, but shorter is easier for the more intricate fingerstyle repertoire.
The X30 is a superb guitar, but is frankly just a little too big for me. It is 5¼" thick and I played seated using a strap due to a bad right shoulder. X30 is a true jumbo body but it feels more like a dreadnought to hold and play. The X30 for me is like having a size 12 foot and a size 14 shoe. That works, but is not ideal. A friend who comes over to jam makes a beeline for X30 every time (he has played it more than I have) and desperately wants to buy it. But he has yet to come up with the cash.
Given some obvious duplication in the list, there will be an eventual thinning of the CF herd in the future, and I expect to end up only with the X20 and X20-12, holding the Rainsong as backup for alternate tunings and the occasional plugged-in use that may come up. I might keep one Taylor all-koa GA, but all the other wood guitars are or have been sold off. The X7's (version 2) are my wife's and the bubinga model may eventually get sold too, as she really wanted the koa but did not act in time. It eventually came up used and we pounced (thanks Staci) hence the doubled models. I even dabbled briefly with an Emerald Chimaera 12/6. Although I returned it after a week, the positive experience really led me to Donegal.
|