Emerald Guitars - 30 Day Tryout

[RP]

Got this in an email from Emerald Guitars today...

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by RP

Got this in an email from Emerald Guitars today...

I believe they have had that for quite some time on already built in stock guitars.

Not sure if it has changed as a policy or just they are advertising it more heavily.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Aspiring

I believe they have had that for quite some time on already built in stock guitars.

Not sure if it has changed as a policy or just they are advertising it more heavily.

It used to be a 10-day return period for stock instruments. The FAQ still refers to this, as it doesn't appear to have been updated:

"For those who purchase a stock guitar directly from Emerald Guitars, we know it’s important you have the confidence in knowing that if you find the instrument does not suit you for any reason that you are not stuck with it. You can return a production series stock guitar within 10 days after delivery, for a full refund. The product must be shipped back in the original packaging, in excellent condition, and the customer is responsible for the return shipping cost."

It's not clear who's responsible for return shipping for the new 30-day trial, but the ad seems to imply that Emerald would pay for it - 'risk free'.

[PassingThru]

I checked out their stock. Seems to me they have quite a number of guitars in stock. I'm beginning to wonder if this is some type of clearance sale with the carrot being the 30 day return and free shipping as opposed to a discount.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by PassingThru

I checked out their stock. Seems to me they have quite a number of guitars in stock. I'm beginning to wonder if this is some type of clearance sale with the carrot being the 30 day return and free shipping as opposed to a discount.

The perennial complaint about Emerald is that you can’t play one before you buy. I suspect that this is a move designed to make that as easy as possible.

[RP]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

The perennial complaint about Emerald is that you can’t play one before you buy. I suspect that this is a move designed to make that as easy as possible.

And if you've had and played an Emerald for close to 30 days, you're probably going to hang onto it for keeps...

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by RP

And if you've had and played an Emerald for close to 30 days, you're probably going to hang onto it for keeps...

Or not, but getting to play one for a couple of weeks is the surest way to find out…

-Ray

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Or not, but getting to play one for a couple of weeks is the surest way to find out…



-Ray

It certainly is a great help in assessing whether it works for you. In my case I had the opportunity to try another forum members and came to the conclusion that I felt this was likely to be a long term keeper for me which meant I made the call to custom order a wider neck.

[iluvguitars2005]

Didn’t Emerald guitars used to come w lifetime warranty? This seems to indicate 3 year warranty.

[Aspiring]

I will add to this discussion that there has been questions in the past how consistent the Emerald guitars are.

I can add one data point in that KevinH and I both have X20s. His about a year old and mine from this year. We got together and tried comparing them back and forth both with different / older strings and then both did a string change and compared them on the same fresh strings.

Both guitars are with no stock pickup his had an ultratonic installed at the time of test. Mine has a wider neck than stock and we have different veneers and I have vibrant carbon. Otherwise they are identical spec.

We noted that with different strings there was a pretty large difference. With the older version of the common string there was a pretty significant difference in tone as expected. But with the same age fresh strings on neither of us could tell any significant difference tone wise.

Also the setups were very close so aside from the very noticeable difference due to the slight increase in neck width / string spacing on mine, the feel was also quite similar.

From a sample of 2 this is indicating pretty strong consistency assuming similar spec for recent builds.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by David Eastwood

It's not clear who's responsible for return shipping for the new 30-day trial, but the ad seems to imply that Emerald would pay for it - 'risk free'.

Customer pays for return shipping:

https://emeraldguitars.com/terms-conditions/

Originally Posted by iluvguitars2005

Didn’t Emerald guitars used to come w lifetime warranty? This seems to indicate 3 year warranty.

I don't recall what it used to be, but it is 3 years now:

https://emeraldguitars.com/warranty/

[sumokids]

Originally Posted by iluvguitars2005

Didn’t Emerald guitars used to come w lifetime warranty? This seems to indicate 3 year warranty.

I thought this was strange. The ad promotes how great their build quality is but then they only provide a 3-year structural warranty on a carbon fiber instrument. In contrast, Rainsong and Blackbird provide lifetime warranties, as, of course, do many builders of wood instruments.

[jdinco]

Now if they paid return shipping, that would be news worthy an move some stock.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by jdinco

Now if they paid return shipping, that would be news worthy an move some stock.

Rainsong offers the same 30-day return period, with the buyer paying return shipping:

https://www.rainsong.com/warranty-return-policy
https://www.rainsong.com/warranty-terms-conditions

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by jdinco

Now if they paid return shipping, that would be news worthy an move some stock.

Seems right that any interested party should have "some skin in the game"... if someone is planning to keep the guitar, they should have no concern. If someone "just wants to try one," it doesn't seem fair that Emerald should eat the cost both ways.

I was surprised by the "30 day trial," since you should know in the first day if the guitar is right for you. Having purchased 3 Emeralds, I assumed each one would be "the right guitar." I have not been disappointed.

The 30 day trial seems plenty generous. I have great faith in their products... not so much in the general public. I've seen the replies to Emerald's posts on Facebook, where people say, "Send me one and I'll tell everyone how good it is." This isn't some cheap Chinese action cam. Sure, we've seen the occasional legit guitar content poster who gets one to try out, but that isn't what this offer is all about.