My CF Story

[iamlee66]

It all began when I watched Tony Polecastro’s review of the X20 Cocobolo on YouTube back in February. Prior to that, CF guitars was not even on my radar for any guitar purchases. I always associate any guitars not wood to something like the Ovations. I think it was more the beauty of the X20 Woody than the sound that captivated me. Still there were the lingering thoughts of how good will it sound. How does it compare to the guitars I have. Through search on YouTube and the web, I listened to videos of CF guitars. It was the videos on Emerald’s site that convinced me the guitar will sound good enough if not equivalent to the wood guitars I have. Showed Tony’s video to my wife who agreed that the guitar is stunning. And some not so subtle hints that it would be a good birthday present. Finally she said, if you want it, get it. Got on Emerald’s site, of course there was no X20 Cocobolo readily available. The January select series long gone. But there was something about custom order. I contacted Emerald to ask if they can built me one like the one on Tony’s video. Alistair wrote back sure we can do that. Sent me shots of cocobolo veneers available. Said to pick one. Picked one, put deposit down. Alistair said there will be a 4 months wait. Well, what do you say to that but wait. That was 4/25. About a month later, got an email from Kevin saying they got some new cocobolo veneers in, can I pick one. I was confused. After trading emails with him, turned out the original choice was not suitable for custom order (never did told why). So, picked another one. Saddled back and wait. In the meantime, I was talking to my friend about guitars one day and somehow the Acoustic Forum was mentioned. Don’t remember what it was but I was looking in on the forum and noticed a CF sub-forum. Started reading all the posts about CF guitars and Emeralds in specifics. And find out there is a whole world of custom order available for Emerald guitars. Wish I’d have find you guys sooner. But I’m happy with what I got. So as requested by byudzai. I’ll post something after I spent some time with it.

The glamour shot accompanied with the package.

Emerald X20 Cocobolo by Sing Li, on Flickr

The X20 with the mug.

Emerald X20 Cocobolo w mug by Sing Li, on Flickr

[Earl49]

Go big, or go home! You sure hit a home run with your first at-bat there (baseball reference). Now your job is to enjoy it for many, many years.

I really like the Celtic knot graphic on the bevels - a classy touch.

[Kerbie]

Wow, that's gorgeous! Enjoy... the guitar and the AGF.

[kramster]

I like story time! And with a couple darn pretty pictures...nice!!

[raysachs]

Man, that's a beauty. I'm personally not one to spend much money on looks - I've paid a premium for some outright gorgeous guitars and never even really noticed how pretty they were after the first several days. Then it became all about playing them. But from seeing Emerald's various offerings, if I was ever gonna pony up for a pretty piece of veneer insteaed of just going with basic carbon weave, it would DEFINITELY be cocobolo. The other veneers I've seen I've liked well enough, but the cocobolo is nice enough almost to tempt me to spend the big bucks.

Congratulations and enjoy...

-Ray

MAY YOU HAVE MANY GOOD YEARS WITH THIS BEAUTIFUL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF ART!

[jdinco]

Beautiful guitar ! I really like the sap stripe on the headstock. Welcome to the forum and enjoy !

[Captain Jim]

Beautiful! And we all know it sounds great! Congrats!

[byudzai]

bravo man! great post!

but wait.... only a passing comment about being happy with it. can you give us more impressions of feel, sound, playability?

[kramster]

Originally Posted by byudzai

bravo man! great post!

but wait.... only a passing comment about being happy with it. can you give us more impressions of feel, sound, playability?

Doesn't have to be make us cry emotional or anything... but something more would be nice.

[Methos1979]

Beautiful! Did you have any other custom features made in the build?

[iamlee66]

Oh sure, make the new guy work. But since you ask.

To answer Methos’ question, other than the inlay and the Celtic design it’s pretty much what comes with the X20. I didn’t think much of the playability of the neck until I read some of comments later in the forum. But then it was probably too late to ask and most likely add to the cost of the build which is already more than I expected to spend.

First impression right out of the shipping cardboard box is how light case and guitar is. I read comments about that on the forum but if you’d never exposed to carbon fiber guitar before (me), it would surprise you. The guitar itself feels smaller than the Taylors and the Larrivee I have. Maybe it’s the beveled edge. The sound box feels smaller depth-wise. I have not checked the measurements. The neck is shallower than the Taylors but similar to the Larrivee. I’m not finding problems adjusting to it. The sound of the guitar is similar to the Larrivee (spruce/mahogany). Which is what I expected after watching some of the videos. To me, the high strings (G,B & E) have almost a harp like quality to it. I like the bass strings (E & A) sound on the Larrivee slightly better. The guitar came with D’Addario coated 80/20 bronze. They look to be 12’s. I’ll probably switch over to Elixirs HD Light and see how that plays. These are impressions of one long playing session (an hour or so) and some very short ones since I got the X20 on tuesday. Overall I’m happy with the way it looks and sounds. Being that it was bought with no hands-on and can only imagine what it’d looked.

[Mary]

It's so pretty!

[GBG]

Great looking guitar! I hope you continue to enjoy it!

[new2guitar_eh]

That really is a beautiful guitar. As pictures of various Emeralds with different veneers show up I am discovering my strong preference for Cocobolo....while other veneers are unquestionably great looking, the Cocobolo...just wow!