Another Emerald incoming...

[Barb1]

Congratulations on the purchase of the guitar, Captain Jim. I am sure you will get lots of enjoyment from it
Barb

Congratulations Captain, you have a beautiful instrument coming your way. I don't where Alistair is getting his veneers, but they are nothing short of incredible. One of the neat things about veneers is that they take just a thin slice of a precious resource. Another cool factor is that the woods used for veneers would generally not be usable for acoustic guitars which gives Emerald guitars a very unique wood look.

[Alistair Hay]

Captain Jim Im glad you got this one.
Dont tell anyone else but this might be my favourite in the set. I hope you will enjoy the little face I put in it just for you.
The select series has been a lot of fun to conceive and Im so happy by the response to it. 4 of the 5 have sold already.
This series really gives me an opportunity to express my creativity and stretches me to keep raising the bar. Its going to be a challenge to keep doing this month after month but thats what makes it fun.
The March series is well under way and will be released on March 16th maybe the date gives a clue to a possible theme.
Captain Jim I think we need to go sailing together, I have a thing for boats you know.
Alistair

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by Alistair Hay

Captain Jim Im glad you got this one.
Dont tell anyone else but this might be my favourite in the set. I hope you will enjoy the little face I put in it just for you.
The select series has been a lot of fun to conceive and Im so happy by the response to it. 4 of the 5 have sold already.
This series really gives me an opportunity to express my creativity and stretches me to keep raising the bar. Its going to be a challenge to keep doing this month after month but thats what makes it fun.
The March series is well under way and will be released on March 16th maybe the date gives a clue to a possible theme.
Captain Jim I think we need to go sailing together, I have a thing for boats you know.
Alistair

Well, that made my day - thank you, Alistair. I don't doubt that other guitar manufacturers are enthusiastic about their creations and open to their customers' guitar desires... but, you obviously live it. My thanks to you and Sean for the after hours efforts.

Wishing you continued success,
Jim

[rlawton]

Hey Jim,

I just found "the face" in your guitar. Didn't notice it before. Too cool!

[Long Jon]

Originally Posted by Alistair Hay

The March series is well under way and will be released on March 16th maybe the date gives a clue to a possible theme.
Alistair

Well, I had a quick Google of the date Alistair and,,,,

I'm guessing it's between "1815 – Prince Will.I.Am (later to appear on "The Voice") proclaims himself King of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, ",

"1995 – Mississippi formally ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery."

and "455 – Emperor Valentinian III is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers while training with the bow on the Campus Martius (Rome)."

Am I on he right track ? Will the guitar be orange ?


Google it yourself, truly TERRIBLE things happened on that day , believe you me, I've picked some of the lightweight occurrences.

[jwhelan56]

Originally Posted by rlawton

Congrats to the other Select Series X20 owner. I just got Select Series Jan/17 back from my tech and love playing it. It's enjoyable to look at as well.

What did your tech do to it? Lower the action, or??

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by rlawton

Hey Jim,

I just found "the face" in your guitar. Didn't notice it before. Too cool!

Thanks, Rahn. I saw it right away (especially in the vertical shot in the Emerald photos). Each of the guitars in this Select Series are striking... similar because of that beautiful veneer, but each unique.

Another "push" off that "considering" fence.

Jim

[rlawton]

Originally Posted by jwhelan56

What did your tech do to it? Lower the action, or??

Tom sets up every guitar I get now because the change in playability is incredible and I'm spoiled. He gets the action as low as possible which includes dressing the frets which he describes as tedious but necessary to get the correct set up. The Emeralds (and Blackbirds) are particularly more work because of the stainless steel frets but well worth the $150 he charges.

[Captain Jim]

This morning, I received an e-mail from Sean at Emerald with these images, showing some of the process with the louro preto...







(used with permission)

Interesting to see the process.

The guitar will go out soon, with assurance from Sean that he will forward me the tracking number... so I can patiently check it every 20 minutes or so on its trek from Ireland.

Captain;

You only check every 20 minutes? You are a patient man.

[JerryM]

So if these require fret dressing and setup, what is the normal shipped action like??? I know I set my guitars at 5/64 at the 12th fret, a challenge on these cf guitars as they seem harder to work with to me than wood, fret buzz being the biggest problem in my experience.
I love the cf guitars but weird noises sometimes seem to come from mine in the bridge area, a kind of buzz on some open strings but have been unable to completely get rid of it. Cant' find it so far. Maybe to critical?

[Captain Jim]

I can give you my experience, Jerry, with a RainSong and an Emerald. Both came to me slightly higher than my preference, both very comfortable without any adjustment.

On the X7, at the first string change, I lowered the saddle a bit and made a very small tweak on the truss rod. On the Shorty, I picked up a bone saddle from Michael in Salt Lake City when he still had his store; he took that saddle down, I made a small tweak on the truss rod. The Shorty had higher action originally than the X7.

No fret dressing was necessary (IMHO) on either guitar. I do like the stainless frets on the Emerald better than the nickel alloy frets on the RainSong.

Both guitars have plenty of saddle left, but I am a strummer... no buzz on either guitar. I don't pound on my guitars, but I do dig in when the song calls for it. Both have 1.75" nuts, the Shorty has a 24.875" scale, the X7 has a 24" scale. Both sound great to my ears, but they are different.

What I have done to either of these guitars might be considered a "mini set-up," but I could have played either just fine without doing anything.

I have not been one to measure, but rather go with what feels comfortable, so I can't give you centimeters or 64th of an inch. If the action feels like it could come down, I'll lower the saddle and check the nut at a string change. I like to play 'em more than mess with 'em.

Jim

[Purfle Haze]

Originally Posted by 121

I've hinted to Sean that maybe Emerald needs to offer a guitar that's a little bigger than the X7 and a little smaller than the X20, with a scale length around 24.75", but if they did it would mean another Emerald in my inventory.

Plus 1 on that. They could call it "the X10."

[Captain Jim]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Captain;

You only check every 20 minutes? You are a patient man.

It should be like the moving map some airlines have on their screens - where you can see where you are along the route. That eliminates the "Are we there, yet?" questions I would like to know where it is over the Atlantic Ocean, when it has landed in New York (that's where the X7 came in), and why the heck is that driver taking a lunch break right now??

So, yeah, I think that qualifies as patient.

I bought my wife a couple of those tracking devices, so she can find her keys. Maybe we can talk Sean into slipping one of those in the box so we can see where it is at any given moment. Too anxious?

On the bright side, we are in the desert southwest, so none of that "let the box sit for 24 hours to acclimate" waits... oh, yeah - it's carbon fiber. Nevermind.