Emerald non-standard colors

[mountainmaster]

In another thread there was a link to a turquoise Emerald guitar. The standard colors offered by Emerald are black, blue, green, red and amber, but that turquoise (or its darker brother teal if you prefer) looks very classy.

Personally I am not a big fan of the wood veneers, so if I want to pick a custom finish for my next Emerald it has to be done with just color.
Today I made a few photoshop mockups to figure out what a custom colored CF guitar could look like.

Turquoise (teal)


Lime Green


Purple


Pink


Plain Yellow


As we know a color on top of black carbon fiber often turns out much darker than the glossy photographs would have us believe.
However, in a recent shipping video Alistair showed off a bright blue guitar. He had used a special silver carbon fiber weave which made the color beautifully vibrant. Now that's what I want!

[jdinco]

They can do it, it just costs a bit...

Can they do a white where the weave is still apparent?

[jdinco]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Can they do a white where the weave is still apparent?

I've only seen the solid white, and inquired about it. Kevin said that the solid colors are a lot of work and the price quoted for solid white was $500. I may have misspoke, and was thinking of solid colors, I don't think I have seen different colors over the carbon weave.

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by EvanB

Can they do a white where the weave is still apparent?

Well, white (or nearly white) carbon fiber exists. The question is whether it is suitable for guitars.

[Melt in the Sun]

Hey, that pink is pretty cool...and the lime, and definitely the turquoise. That yellow though...ew!

I think the possibility of more guitars with the bright (kevlar?) weave in the first layer will really brighten up the look of the color library. One of those guitars in a clear ("black carbon") finish would look black and silver and would probably be striking, but not white. Only Alistair could say how these not-actually-carbon fibers affect the sound. Sure it's only one layer, but still...it must have an effect and it may be significant. Or it may not.

In wickedwahine's order thread a few weeks ago, I posted a picture of an obnoxiously blue Les Paul and wondered why Emerald doesn't seem to do stained finishes like that, instead choosing only to do tinted polyester clearcoats. I suspect it has to do with the order in which things are assembled. On a normal guitar, you put all the wood parts together, then do the finish on raw wood. In this case, by the time the finish is going on the wood has already been fully impregnated by the resin. Even if you had a nice flat bare surface, staining that wood is not possible anymore. Maybe to dye the veneer prior to assembling the guitar would work, allowing for such colors? Sounds difficult.

All speculation...I'll quite rambling.

Originally Posted by Alistair Hay

All our guitars come out of the mould with a natural black carbon fibre look.
we dont use the colored fibres on these guitars although I have used these fibres in the past on custom projects, rather we use a transparent color in the top coat to create the colors.
the color then is very much dependent on what you spray it over which is why it looks bright red on the masking tape and dark red over the carbon.
Its the interaction between the color, the carbon and the ambient light that makes the color always seem different and fluid.
I like how carbon looks in its natural form but I love how it looks when we add a little bit of color.
Alistair Hay

[Methos1979]

I loved the look of that turquoise X20 as well but as is the case with all Emeralds, I'll bet in person it's nearly black in all but the brightest light like flash photography, stage lights or direct sunlight.

I recently saw an Emerald shown by Alistair where the color actually did pop in normal lighting and it was because he said they used a silver carbon fiber weave instead of the black so the color popped much more.

If I was going to do an oddball, one-off color (like the turquoise) I'd likely request it be done over the silver weave so the color popped in normal light. It will interesting to see if we start seeing more of these on AGF from custom orders.

[GuitarLuva]

I must say that turquoise really does look nice!

[MayaTambien]

Love the purple!

[David Eastwood]

I’m very taken with the pink - like strawberry icecream.

[Earl49]

Purple, turquoise, then pink for me. And they would all be much more subtle in real life and real-world lighting conditions. My bright red X30 looks like a very dark maroon under most light. My green X20's basically look black with some green highlights on corners.

Another option would be an opaque paint, which could be anything. Look in the Emerald custom archives for the American flag and the Texas state flag versions, plus many others.

[MayaTambien]

Originally Posted by Earl49

Another option would be an opaque paint, which could be anything. Look in the Emerald custom archives for the American flag and the Texas state flag versions, plus many others.

If I've got a CF guitar, I want to see the weave....

[Earl49]

Agreed. The only CF guitar we have that is painted is the Cargo, because my wife liked the metal flake blue version - and it is her guitar. They did stop the paint short of the edges so it has the weave as "binding".