My X30 YouTube Review

[GuitarLuva]

Originally Posted by kramster

Maybe this will help...Bye bye Gibson.... Hello X 20 !!

You're a funny guy Kramster. I'm already bad enough once I get an idea in my head.

[byudzai]

Originally Posted by raysachs

How is the comparison between the blue and woody X30 coming. Are they sounding more similar or are you still hearing a difference?

-Ray

Thankfully, the differences vanished within a few days, once the new strings were broken in. They sound exactly the same to me now.

Why keep both then? The blue is just so..... doggone sexy!

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by byudzai

Thankfully, the differences vanished within a few days, once the new strings were broken in. They sound exactly the same to me now.

Why keep both then? The blue is just so..... sexy!

Good to know. I may order a woody version of something at some point - if I decide I want the newer, larger X7 that might be a candidate next year. If not, I'm not sure what or when it would be. In any case, your initial observation gave me a bit of pause, but since I'd never heard anyone else say there was a difference, I was hoping it was just an initial impression that would fade...

Enjoy all those fine guitars!

-Ray

[kramster]

Originally Posted by GuitarLuva

You're a funny guy Kramster. I'm already bad enough once I get an idea in my head.

Bad as in the good bad?

[Earl49]

I probably would not have gone for a woody myself (I like the CF weave) but having Alice's bubinga woody X7 in the house and seeing all these awesome new veneers may make me change my mind.
There seems to be a gap in the X30 department around here......

[Uncle Pauhana]

Originally Posted by byudzai

Why keep both then? The blue is just so..... sexy!

Yes… yes, it is!

Which reminds me… it's been a while since I've annoyed the old-timers around here by bragging about Emerald Cobalt Blue being in the lineup by my request. Yes, blue was not offered when I was ready to order my X-20, and we might still not have it if it weren't for me stepping up to request it. (Well, Alistair agreeing to do it probably helped a bit.)

Thank you, thank you very much.

.

[GuitarLuva]

Originally Posted by kramster

Bad as in the good bad?

I'll call it the "good bad" my wife will call it the "bad bad". I'm already getting "I thought you said you would never sell that guitar" from her. And I already had another look at the veneers. I'm doomed now or the Gibson is I should say!

[byudzai]

Originally Posted by Uncle Pauhana

Which reminds me… it's been a while since I've annoyed the old-timers around here by bragging about Emerald Cobalt Blue being in the lineup by my request. Yes, blue was not offered when I was ready to order my X-20, and we might still not have it if it weren't for me stepping up to request it. (Well, Alistair agreeing to do it probably helped a bit.)

Well done chief! There's something so soulful and moody about it. It's silly to keep my blue one but the color is so pretty I can't let it go!

[GuitarLuva]

Originally Posted by byudzai

Thankfully, the differences vanished within a few days, once the new strings were broken in. They sound exactly the same to me now.

Why keep both then? The blue is just so..... sexy!

That blue is real sexy

[kramster]

Originally Posted by byudzai

moody about it. !

I get it.... MoodyBlues... nice

[TheChicagoTodd]

Originally Posted by byudzai

Thanks for all the warm words, team! I love this community!



When I started editing, and realized how long it was going to be, I got worried too. I'm glad it kept your interest!

Alistair did that fretboard contour pretty early in the process of my guitars so that may be the case, but can't hurt to check!

I hope they use it for FB! They were so great that I wanted to make a video good enough to give back, help them out with an independent promotional vid.



I believe Emerald has (expensive!) molds made for each guitar so they may not be able to change much on the body shape. Worth asking though! A guitar tech once told me they'd done studies on cutaways and found about a 1% difference in loudness, so if they can't do it hopefully you're not missing out on much.

I could be wrong but I have a feeling that they use the same mold and then simply route away some of the fretboard material. I had a similar custom fretboard made for my x 20 - 12 (it can be found on Emeralds custom gallery, the x20-12 with the ziricote veneer). I also have a new order (X30) which I am super excited about which was placed on October 11th and I'm dubbing "Operation Celtic NightFire". A fretboard modification will be included in this one as well.

It's kind of funny because one of my dream/grail guitars was a Gibson J200, and when I first place my order for the X 20 - 12 I wanted to ask Alistair if they would ever do a jumbo size guitar but I never did ask. Fast forward to 2018, lo and behold the new x30 was born. My initial thought for the project was to see if a very vintage looking x30 could be created replicating the classic look of the Gibson J 200 but without the worrisome properties of owning such an expensive wooden guitar. It turns out there were certain things that we could not overcome without spending way more than I wanted to, because I'm quite certain that if the money is there Alistair can probably do it; just take a look at some of the real crazy custom builds.

Excited to share the new build with this group in 2019.

By the way, this video is incredibly good in my humble opinion.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

[byudzai]

Originally Posted by TheChicagoTodd

Excited to share the new build with this group in 2019.

By the way, this video is incredibly good in my humble opinion.

You gotta at least share SOMETHING about it! A sketch, a description, something!

Very kind words about the review, thank you.

My dad lives near Chicago, we should do a beer/guitar night sometime when I'm up there.

[TheChicagoTodd]

Originally Posted by byudzai

You gotta at least share SOMETHING about it! A sketch, a description, something!

Very kind words about the review, thank you.

My dad lives near Chicago, we should do a beer/guitar night sometime when I'm up there.

Yeah, send me something next time you are in town and we'll see if we can make something happen!

As far as "Operation Celtic Nightfire".....hmmmm....for now I'll simply go with the name says it all. [emoji2]

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago

P.S. Again....super job on the vid... like everyone else I did not feel it was too long at all.

[bcopeland8900]

All emerald reviews I have found have the guitarist sitting. How do these feel when standing up? I typically play Breedlove concert body (standing) and am looking for a similar feel in CF. Also any issue or risk with using a percussive guitar style on these things (body slaps, etc). I would expect not seeing as wood isn't having an issue. Thanks.

[byudzai]

Originally Posted by bcopeland8900

All emerald reviews I have found have the guitarist sitting. How do these feel when standing up? I typically play Breedlove concert body (standing) and am looking for a similar feel in CF. Also any issue or risk with using a percussive guitar style on these things (body slaps, etc). I would expect not seeing as wood isn't having an issue. Thanks.

Hi,

Great questions. I log 2-3 hours a day playing standing up and the only adjustment I’ve made is to keep my right forearm free, not covered by a sleeve, so the skin contact with the body edge contour let’s me fine control where the guitar sits so my strumming hand falls in the right spot. With a sleeve on it tends to slip to my right and I lose that sweet spot for palm muting.

I don’t use slaps but I am heavy-handed with my percussive strumming and both like the acoustic response and enjoy what a tank the CF build is.