Emerald X20 Tonal Change!

GuitarLuva · #1 08-31-2019, 10:54 AM

Hey all,

At first I wasn't going to make a thread on this but I decided that it's probably best to throw this info out there as others might be interested. As most of you know, I made several mods to my X20, all reversible, in hopes to shape the tone better to my liking. The tone from my X20 seems to be different than what everyone else reports and mine sounds nothing like the audio clips online. While I managed to change the tone of the guitar, it still wasn't what I had hoped. I experience some "low end mud", the bass strings overpower the trebles. Overall, I would have to say that it's not bad, nothing compared to what my X30 was, and the least favorite tonally of my 4 acoustic guitars. Other than that I absolutely love the guitar, it looks awesome, is light and really fun to play. I love the way Emerald's fretboards feel among other things. I never double checked but I'm pretty sure in my X20 mod thread someone mentioned that they sanded down the soundboard and it changed the tone of the guitar.

So here I go. I love doing mods but generally only mods that are reversible. I actually contemplated for a few weeks if I should attempt this and it finally got the better of me as I would love to keep this guitar. Another benefit of the offset sound hole is you can get in there without taking off your strings so any tonal change would be easy to hear. I grabbed some 220 grit sandpaper and gently started sanding inside, mostly on the bottom of the bridge area, and than I expanded a little but kept checking the tone as I proceeded. I never did what I would call a lot of sanding, and I realize that you don't want to go deep into the carbon fiber sandwich or you can damage it so I was gentle. When I was finished I managed to get rid of MOST of the low end mud and the sustain on this thing is crazy. I might do a little more in the future but I don't want to get to "greedy" and risk some major damage. The way it is now is so much better than what it was and certainly a keeper. Some of you might think I'm a little crazy for doing this, and that's fine. Sometimes gambling pays off and this is a scenario where it did!

jwellsy · #2 08-31-2019, 11:21 AM

This is an interesting experiment. If you divide the inside under bridge area into 3 regions bass, mid & treble, which one did you do the most sanding?

mot · #3 08-31-2019, 11:28 AM

The open B on my X20 is super twangy. For strumming it's fine, but for playing a melody I shift to the G, D, or even A string depending on the song and where my hand is best positioned to play the B. My open G and D sound great. The high E grates a little too but not as bad as the B. The B on the G and D strings is absolutely wonderful. The bass isn't muddy like you are describing. I am guessing tweaks in design as my X20 is from late 2013 and I think yours is an 2017 or 18.

I have tried lots of strings. I am thinking about trying something heavy on those two strings and lighter on the rest as my next course of action but I don't want to unbalance the strumming sound too much. Haven't considered hard modifications like sanding, but don't know if that will work either. My plan is to take the guitar to a luthier or send it to Alistair to see if someone might know a trick to clean up the overtones in the open B once the new guitar on order arrives.

GuitarLuva · #4 08-31-2019, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwellsy

This is an interesting experiment. If you divide the inside under bridge area into 3 regions bass, mid & treble, which one did you do the most sanding?

I sanded all around as evenly as possible. I like your logic though, maybe an attempt on just the low side might be a good idea in my case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mot

The open B on my X20 is super twangy. For strumming it's fine, but for playing a melody I shift to the G, D, or even A string depending on the song and where my hand is best positioned to play the B. My open G and D sound great. The high E grates a little too but not as bad as the B. The B on the G and D strings is absolutely wonderful. The bass isn't muddy like you are describing. I am guessing tweaks in design as my X20 is from late 2013 and I think yours is an 2017 or 18.

I have tried lots of strings. I am thinking about trying something heavy on those two strings and lighter on the rest as my next course of action but I don't want to unbalance the strumming sound too much. Haven't considered hard modifications like sanding, but don't know if that will work either. My plan is to take the guitar to a luthier or send it to Alistair to see if someone might know a trick to clean up the overtones in the open B once the new guitar on order arrives.

You mentioned you tried different strings, have you tried different gauges like HD light or light/medium? Might be worth a try if you didn't.

Aspiring · #5 08-31-2019, 01:01 PM

Interesting, I might think about that for my X7 Nylon.

If you weren't already aware of it, dust from carbon fiber sanding can be really irritating to your airways and skin so it is usually advisable to use a mask and gloves although I suspect you didn't raise very much dust.

GuitarLuva · #6 08-31-2019, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aspiring

If you weren't already aware of it, dust from carbon fiber sanding can be really irritating to your airways and skin so it is usually advisable to use a mask and gloves although I suspect you didn't raise very much dust.

Yes I am aware of this but thanks for mentioning it anyways. I laid a piece of paper towel on the inside of the guitar and there was hardly any dust on it or my hand. I didn't sand very much but I suspect I'll be back for round 2 next chance I get.

jonfields45 · #7 09-01-2019, 05:37 AM

If the build up under the bridge is all CF no spacer, then sanding should be low risk and low reward. If the build up has a weaker core, then sanding should be high risk and high reward. Have you considered asking Emerald what they think about this?

GuitarLuva · #8 09-01-2019, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonfields45

If the build up under the bridge is all CF no spacer, then sanding should be low risk and low reward. If the build up has a weaker core, then sanding should be high risk and high reward. Have you considered asking Emerald what they think about this?

Yes I have considered asking Alistair. I'm aware that they made a change to their soundboard construction but they told Puertoplayer that his is fine. I do wonder if mine is the same scenario or is it not really meant to be like this.