Emerald X10 Artisan Woody

€3,300

Of the many attempts by intrepid designers to use alternative materials in the construction of both electric and acoustic guitars, carbon fibre might once have seemed the future. For Emerald Guitars, based in Donegal, Ireland, it certainly is. The company was founded in 1999 by Alistair Hay, who’d made his first carbon-fibre guitar the previous year, and in 2001 he made the Ultra Guitar for Steve Vai. Since then, there have been challenges aplenty, but today the Emerald range is huge.

Our featured X10 reflects nearly 20 years of craft with a very precise feel and appearance to the amber-toned woven carbon-fibre construction (all moulded in-house), the top faced with a customorder koa veneer. Yet despite a full 648mm scale, and 24 frets on a uni-directional carbon-fibre fingerboard, it’s not a big guitar: 350mm across the lower bouts with a generous depth of 120mm tapering to 104mm by the cutaway.

If the concept of melding the acoustic world with the playability of a high-level electric is part of the X10’s aim, it certainly succeeds. The neck is around 20.3mm deep at the 1st fret with minimal taper to 20.9mm by the 12th. There’s no neck heel, so access to the top frets is very easy, if a little unnerving. Likewise, the soundhole on the upper shoulder allows you to peer inside or feel that there are no braces, for example. It also throws the sound out to you – quite a delicate, balanced piano-like voice with surprising low-end and a very sustaining tail with detailed highs. If the unplugged experience is surprising in a very good way, the amplified voice – or should we say voices – hints at immense potential. The Krivo magnetic humbucker in the neck position is implausibly thin, but its sound is extremely flattering with a smoother attack than the slightly brasher piezo. It handles anything from fingerstyle jazz to ultra-modern zing. Then, of course, the world of MIDI is just a plug-in away. If there is such a thing as an acoustic guitar without frontiers, the

Emerald X10 is it. Exceptional.

2. Made by Krivo in Portland, Oregon, the pickup is based on the Nuévo single coil with an added noise-cancelling coil and a ferrous backplate to warm up the tone. “It provides a warm yet clear sound with a very sweet midrange,” says Krivo 2

3. The rotary controls and mini-toggle switches provide extensive control for MIDI, magnetic and piezo. The unlatching mini-toggle switch next to the uppermost MIDI volume allows patch up/ down change; the switch adjacent to the middle magnetic volume offers guitar (mag/piezo), MIDI/guitar mix or just MIDI; the lower switch next to the piezo volume selects magnetic, piezo/ magnetic or piezo alone 3

4 4. These aged gold Gotoh 510 tuners are about the most conventional feature here! Options include plating, three electronic levels, the colour and top veneers. The X10 starts at €1,850 and ships with a custom Hiscox case, a gigbag if you prefer, or both!

1. The Level 3 electronics have been developed with Graph Tech around its Ghost Acousti-Phonic system. The piezo in each height adjustable saddle can be combined with the magnetic neck humbucker and offers MIDI output 1

5 5. The standard jack output allows mixed mono or with a stereo lead dual outputs of the piezo and magnetic pickups to two different destinations. The dedicated 13-pin output hooks you up to the world of MIDI