First sighting...

[SpruceTop]

SUCCESS! All strings sound balanced, smooth, and with a decent overall amplified tone. Next, I'll insert my LR Baggs Session Acoustic DI in the signal chain and hear what that'll do for the Element VTC tone. Sometime soon, I'll train my ToneDexter with a Shure SM81 and hear what that can do for the amplified tone.

[mountainmaster]

Graphtech makes a saddle intended for finetuning the pressure below each string. I bought this for my Rainsong but I have not installed it yet.

[Joel_man]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

I've just completed my easy fixes on the Emerald X-20 and I'm about to test my results by plugging the Element VTC into my LR Baggs Synapse. I leveled the bottom of the saddle slot, and also leveled and squared-up the bottom of the bridge saddle. I removed about .002" from the saddle slot and about .005" from the bottom of the bridge saddle. Results to come in a bit ...

I'm impressed that you do this like of work on your guitars. I pretty much treat them like my cars, gas and go.
Kudos to you!

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by mountainmaster

Graphtech makes a saddle intended for finetuning the pressure below each string. I bought this for my Rainsong but I have not installed it yet.

I've done that to a Tusq saddle on a 2011 RainSong DR1000. This can be accomplished with a round file filing between where the string-positioning projects down from the top of the saddle. Just use a pencil and straight-edge to mark the string positions down the side of the saddle to the bottom, and file between them. Being that the Tusq saddle is a bit flexible to start with, cutting the arches enables even more flexibility and can help overcome the detrimental effect of an uneven saddle-slot bottom on a UST pickup's string-to-string unbalanced signal output.

[steelvibe]

Congrats Spruce- I too work on my own guitars but it wasn't that way at the beginning. You just have to get over your fears.... and maybe many years of experience and development of preferences helps too.

I've had people compliment my set ups and my uncle said that my old RainSong was the easiest playing acoustic he ever played. That made me proud . I sure hope Emerald resolves the QC issues and I have no doubt they will. The X20 is definitely on my gas list.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by steelvibe

Congrats Spruce- I too work on my own guitars but it wasn't that way at the beginning. You just have to get over your fears.... and maybe many years of experience and development of preferences helps too.

I've had people compliment my set ups and my uncle said that my old RainSong was the easiest playing acoustic he ever played. That made me proud . I sure hope Emerald resolves the QC issues and I have no doubt they will. The X20 is definitely on my gas list.

Thanks, Steelvibe! Only a player can know what they want to hear or should be hearing in a pickup/preamp system that's working as intended by the manufacturer. Whether a guitar is in the factory or on a local guitar tech's workbench, these folks only have so much time they can devote to getting a pickup/preamp system to sound just right, whereas you and I can spend as much time as we want to spend to get it right. My hands-on experience with pickup/preamp systems was necessitated, early-on, by dissatisfaction with initial and follow-up installations by either the factory or a local tech. Being a machinist/toolmaker has helped me understand and use my skills to do what I need to do in remedying a system to optimal amplified results. As you know, it isn't rocket science and can be easily accomplished by folks willing to bite the bullet and do what needs to be done.

[lat18]

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

Hi Folks,

This is only a quick post and not a formal review. This is the first time I've played my new Emerald X-20 Green since playing it acoustically for a few minutes on Tuesday evening of that day that I received it. It's also the first time I plugged-in its LR Baggs Element VTC system. First off, the guitar sounds pretty nice acoustically. Now the hopefully temporary bad news: the Element VTC works but the E-6th-string, G-string, and B-string are not as loud as the other three strings and I'm disappointed in this imbalance. Tomorrow, I'll remove the saddle and check and flatten its bottom, and, if need be, flatten the bottom of the saddle-slot with my Stewart-MacDonald saddle-slot file. I'll also check the snugness of the saddle with the saddle-slot walls; to function best, a UST likes a fit in the saddle slot in which the saddle lightly kisses the sides of the saddle slot can but can remain in the slot when the guitar is turned upside-down. This degree of fit ensures that the entire bottom of the saddle seats on top of the UST without interference for good contact.

A Bit Of A Rant: When Emerald announced a few years ago here on AGF Carbon Fiber forum that they'd partnered with LR Baggs to install that company's systems in their guitars, I commented that Emerald should have considered going with Fishman because of its "harder" Matrix UST, which I've found gives more consistent string-to-string amplification results. Several years ago, I had a similar Element string-to-string imbalance problem in a RainSong DR1000. After screwing around with different things, I finally contacted RainSong and requested they send me a new Element UST, which they did, and I installed it and that solved the problem. I also feel that a Fishman Matrix UST, being harder, just doesn't affect the acoustic tone of the guitar as much as an LR Baggs Element UST. To be fair, an Element will have less affect on the acoustic tone of a guitar the longer it been installed and under pressure.

Another niggling thing about Emerald's installation of the LR Baggs Element VTC system is that, although it's wonderfully neat and tidy, they stick wire guides on the top and back of the guitar. In my book, although the vibrational dampening/resonance-altering effect of top-and-back installation of wire guides may be quite minimal, I believe all wire guides should be installed on the side of the guitar and not on the top or back. Being that there looks like there's enough length in all the wiring, this is something I may also remedy once I get the Element string-to-string imbalance corrected. Taylor Guitars seems to be the only company that knows to keep all electronic paraphernalia and its wiring away a guitar's main vibrating surfaces! The only thing I want to see near a vibrating surface is a lazy loop of pickup lead wire coming from the pickup to the side of the guitar and into whatever the next stage is in the amplification process. End Of Rant.

Having the same problem with my new X20. Low E very loud, high E and especially B too soft. I'm surprised the folks at Emerald let a guitar go out the door without checking this. I'm not too handy working on this sort of thing, don't want to screw it up worse. Guess I could take the saddle off and have look.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by lat18

Guess I could take the saddle off and have look.

Word to the wise: always start with a fresh saddle (or nut) leaving the original part unmodified. That way you can switch back to the starting point easily. Don't ask me how I learned this.....

[kramster]

Originally Posted by Earl49

Don't ask me how I learned this.....

So how did you... oh wait... nevermind

[Warren01]

Tell me about it. I was adjusting the saddle on my X20 to a point I liked, and months later played with the nut (albeit very little), and screwed up the saddle end. Ended up getting a new saddle and took it to a luthier to deal with and do a general "once over".