YouTube Enya X3 Pro Demo

[SpruceTop]

Does this guitar sound decent as is? I'm curious as to what is wanted to be accomplished with a guitar at this price point and can be taken anywhere.

[Marshall]

It sounds decent acoustically. It sounds like a UST piezo when amplified. Just not my fav ideal. A lot of Zinging in the amplified sound. I want it to be a travel and inclement weather instrument. But I want to be able to plug it in and get a sound I like.

I just popped the strings off and looked inside. There is a UST piezo and a body sensor that plugs into the heavy preamp/FX unit. I will be able to fit a Mag in the soundhole and a SBT without disconnecting and removing the native setup. Though it would be possible to remove the preamp and native vol control too. But my first opinion is I'll first try to install my new system and leave the old system in too. Two different endpin jacks then. And try them both out under many different circumstances to see what would work best for me. Then later, after I've tried them both, if I decide to stay with the Mag/SBT (like in my other guitars), I could go back and remove the native system.

I love to tinker.

More to follow.

[SpruceTop]

Originally Posted by Marshall

It sounds decent acoustically. It sounds like a UST piezo when amplified. Just not my fav ideal. A lot of Zinging in the amplified sound. I want it to be a travel and inclement weather instrument. But I want to be able to plug it in and get a sound I like.

I just popped the strings off and looked inside. There is a UST piezo and a body sensor that plugs into the heavy preamp/FX unit. I will be able to fit a Mag in the soundhole and a SBT without disconnecting and removing the native setup. Though it would be possible to remove the preamp and native vol control too. But my first opinion is I'll first try to install my new system and leave the old system in too. Two different endpin jacks then. And try them both out under many different circumstances to see what would work best for me. Then later, after I've tried them both, if I decide to stay with the Mag/SBT (like in my other guitars), I could go back and remove the native system.

I love to tinker.

More to follow.

Marshall, the nice thing is that the low cost of the guitar lends itself to some peace of mind when experimenting with it. Have Fun!

[Marshall]

Thanks.

Strange thing I discovered as I reached around inside. The bridgeplate is not a solid material. It's a hexagonal waffle type hard plastic material. There's enough room to mount a SBT. But the SBT won't have full contact across its surface unless I would fill the voids in the bridgeplate material with something. Seems strange to me. I suppose it saves weight. But not very much at all.



Don't know what I'll do with that.

[Marshall]

Well I did it. (Or at least part of it.)

I installed the Skysonic Mag/SBT/Mic pickup in the Enya. Went well. I did not remove the Enya pickup system. So there are 2 pickup systems in there. I left the UST for the Enya in there and just placed the SBT next to the wire-out hole for the UST. So the bass side of the SBT is not directly under the saddle. But pretty darn close. And I didn't do anything to fill the hex holes in the bridgeplate. So the SBT does not make 100% contact with the bridgeplate. That's just going to be the way it is for a while at least.

I drilled a new endpin hole through the end block. There is a thickened hunk of plastic in there. And strangely, in the middle of that plastic hunk is a piece of good old plywood. Whodda thunk it ? ? ?

I plugged the new pickup into my amp and the guitar indeed does sound very much like my other guitars with that pickup. And there's no ZING in the sound. It's very MAG-like. But the SBT and the Mic help tame that somewhat.

I will experiment much more with the new pickup and the old one. I never downloaded the Enya APP. That's how you control the FX on the unit. (Yet another APP of my phone ) I'll try that sometime and see if there's a way to shape the sound better with the Enya gear.

But the offshoot is I can use this thing as I would one of my other guitars. And that's what I wanted out of a plastic guitar.

[Marshall]

Never one to let a sleeping dog lie, . . . , I went back inside the Enya and moved the SBT from the waffle bridgeplate to a clean area on the top right behind the bridgeplate. And I put everything back together and get a decent response from the SBT now. When I combine that with the Mag (Skysonic Pro1 pickup), I get the amplified sound I'm used to. Mag clarity with acoustic punctuation.

This will work.

I still have the native Enya system in there. I will fiddle with that in the future. But all is well in the mini CF world.

[brainfertilizer]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Never one to let a sleeping dog lie, . . . , I went back inside the Enya and moved the SBT from the waffle bridgeplate to a clean area on the top right behind the bridgeplate. And I put everything back together and get a decent response from the SBT now. When I combine that with the Mag (Skysonic Pro1 pickup), I get the amplified sound I'm used to. Mag clarity with acoustic punctuation.

This will work.

I still have the native Enya system in there. I will fiddle with that in the future. But all is well in the mini CF world.

Fiddling with a guitar violates the natural order of the world, Marshall. Like dogs and cats living together!

[Per Burström]

Thanks Marshall for writing about your opinions and experiments with the X3 Pro Mini!

I have a X3 Pro Mini on order. I actually got second thoughts and cancelled it, but then I changed my mind again and placed a new order. Will probably not get it until after the holidays though.

As I have written earlier in the thread I have a Nova Go SP1 which I really like. And especially I like the sound port on the upper side which means I actually get a really nice acoustic sound from this tiny guitar when lying down on the couch playing. So I have been playing with the idea that maybe I should cut out a small sound port on the X3 as well. Maybe it's a bad idea?!?

Per

[Marshall]

I like the X3 Pro mini. It's small scale like a GS-Mini. The X3 is a full sized guitar. I don't know anything about that.

The price on these things is incredibly reasonable. Not a serious mistake if you don't like it.

Good luck !

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by brainfertilizer

Fiddling with a guitar violates the natural order of the world, Marshall. Like dogs and cats living together!

I guess no one told Jimmy Page.

[MikeSRC]

Originally Posted by Marshall

The price on these things is incredibly reasonable. Not a serious mistake if you don't like it.

Wow, currently $280 on Amazon. Hard to pass up at that price. Thanks for all your info about it, especially the mods (I like to tinker with guitars too).

[Marshall]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Never one to let a sleeping dog lie, . . . , I went back inside the Enya and moved the SBT from the waffle bridgeplate to a clean area on the top right behind the bridgeplate. And I put everything back together and get a decent response from the SBT now. When I combine that with the Mag (Skysonic Pro1 pickup), I get the amplified sound I'm used to. Mag clarity with acoustic punctuation.

This will work.

I still have the native Enya system in there. I will fiddle with that in the future. But all is well in the mini CF world.

As an update the SBT location; it was a bad idea to put it on the top behind the bridgeplate. When I tested it all through headphones, it sounded great. But at an open mic with a floor monitor, the SBT in that location is a feedback generating machine. Not brilliant. So, back to the drawing board on that.

[Marshall]

I'm having good success at home using the native UST running through the NUX Optima Air into my amp using one of the stock piezo IRs that come with the NUX. I like #9-D45-piezo IR program the best. I'm going to an open mic tonight and will try it thru a house system.

[sparkysings]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Interesting. The X3 Pro Mini is a 24" scale length small body guitar. There's also reference to an X3 Pro which is 41" long guitar. I can't find anything about the scale length. Plus the X3 Pro seems to not be available.

Both are center hole guitars with an X-braced top. That's very interesting.

I'm in Canada and just bought the Enya X3 Pro Mini for $380 CAD. It came with a perfect setup right out of the box. For myself, it's a sweet travel guitar. I tried the Nova Go Pro, but didn't like it as it wouldn't stay in tune and was a bit too small. The X3 Pro Mini, however, is a very well built guitar for an inexpensive price, that sounds remarkably good. AS well, the SP1 sound system in the guitar as a definite plus.

[Marshall]

As a further update: The neck width is 1 5/8" . String spacing is kind of narrow. I can work with it, but it's tighter than Gibson spacing (1 7/16 nuts) I'm used to. So on a lark, I bought a black Tusq nut for a Gibson guitar from StewMac. And it came yesterday. And I set it on top the guitar, and it will move the strings ever-so-slightly further apart. And it looks like the strings will still sit comfortably on the frets. So, I will definitely endeavor to swap out the nut on the guitar.

There's a zero fret on the Enyas, so I don't have to worry about getting the thickness dead-nuts (ha ha) right on the money. I can just shave/sand the bottom of the new nut until it gets me to a string height just below the zero fret.

Don't know when I'll get around to doing it. I've also ordered some Bondo, and am contemplating filling the Hex holes in the bridgeplate so I can properly install a SBT. . . . But that's a BIGGER project and I'm not sure I'm really going to go through with that.

On a good suggestion from a guitar friend, I’m getting some epoxy wood filler to experiment with for the filler, before trying anything on the guitar.