Скачать или смотреть Emerald X20 carbon fibre acoustic guitar assessment

Gary sent me his Emerald X20 carbon fibre acoustic guitar because he wanted my assessment of it (and any small action / playability tweaks I though were appropriate). His only issue with the guitar was that the fret ends felt a bit sharp - something that Emerald offered to put right immediately for him. However, because he wanted me to have a good look at this beastie, he declined and send it down here. It's the first carbon fibre acoustic guitar I've ever played or explored and I'd listened to some detailed reviews and sound comparisons before the guitar arrived so I had some idea what to expect. I played the guitar for a couple of hours before taking it to the workshop - once there, my measurements showed that the guitar was pretty well set up. There was no need to adjust or replace the nut (it was working perfectly well with the right 1st fret action) so all I had planned was to smooth out the fret ends and lower the playing action to see how it worked with the Plek'd neck. For a target I used my normal electric guitar target action: 1.5mm at the low E last fret and 1.2mm high E. What was apparent immediately was how the neck handled this new ultra-low action; it took to it without either buzzes or chokes or any fret 'slap'. This, to me, points to one of the biggest advantages of this carbon fibre construction: a perfectly even neck which, when curved under load, assumes a perfectly even curve. By comparison, most wooden necks have a series of 'hills and valleys' which have to be tamed to enable them to play at a low action.
While this video isn't intended as a review, it ended up being my personal impression of this guitar - and whether I would want to buy one or not. Because I REALLY dislike the structural flaws in the modern wooden acoustic guitar that results in so many of them collapsing under normal string loading, this guitar represents a way to leave the 'bad taste' of guitars only a few years old needing neck resets behind. Assuming the manufacturer's claims for the structural strength of this guitar are true (and only time will tell I guess) then this really could be a 'guitar for life' and one that remains easy to play with a beautiful low action and consistent, dependable tone for the rest of its (my) life. If I had £1800 to treat myself I'd definitely be interested.
I hope that my impressions of this guitar are informative. Did I have any criticisms of this guitar? Only that the fret ends are a bit sharp and this particular model is teetering on being neck-heavy on a slippy strap. This could be easily remedied I'm sure. The tone is very nice. Based on someone else's tone comparison video, it seemed that the Emerald has a 'carbon fibre' sound signature which is different from the Martin chosen which in turn was different from the Taylor also featured. Not a bad thing; just different.