Alex Ryan reviews his new X30

Alex was looking for a Carbon guitar with a full rich tone with lots of bass yet still wanted comfort and playability so of course we recommended our X30 to him. To make the Aesthetics as special as the tone he chose a beautiful Padauk veneer and we added a subtle curvature to the end of the fretboard to make his guitar unique.
Alex has sent us this great written review and a wonderful video where he compares the tone and ergonomics to his Martin.

“Lingering on the past, in the case of traditional wood acoustic guitar design, serves only to anchor us in a time when the wonders of the modern world weren’t yet possible.” – Alex

No one insists that horses are all we need and airplanes are unnecessary; likewise it’s odd that some still regard carbon fiber instruments with suspicion.  The X30 is, to the world of acoustic guitars, what spacecraft, the electric car, cutting edge medicine, and virtual reality are to the rest of the world — a phenomenal leap forward in human ingenuity, the sparkling futuristic dream that speaks to our dramatic era of progress

Alex Ryan – Emerald Guitars X30 Acoustic Jumbo Review

A confident, symphonic sound projects from this wood-free guitar.  I urge you to find a spectrogram app on your phone and watch it bristle from a plucked string.  We can only imagine what wizardry was required to design a body that leaps to life with such power.  Strumming the X30 acoustic guitar, feeling it reverberate through you, brings a wide-eyed smile to anyone who tries it. Friends all say the same thing: “You can feel it through your whole chest!”

What really set the X30 apart, though, are its design innovations.  Body sculpting makes this jumbo guitar, with a 17″ bout and 5″ body depth, physically smaller than a Martin dreadnought at the points where it contacts your body and arm.  A side-hole projects the sound equally to you and your audience and also allows for easy access to tone/volume controls, a tuner, and a pick dispenser (added by me), all without cluttering the outer contour of the guitar or interfering with the use of cases or hanging stands.  One-piece construction, stainless steel frets, well-engineered headstock, and a deep cutaway behind the neck for unprecedented high fret access ice the cake. The carbon fiber construction is impervious to humidity changes and resistant to high temperatures that warp and ruin wood guitars.

If you can think of a way to improve the acoustic guitar beyond this astonishing creation, I’ll be amazed — but do it!  The outstanding team at Emerald Guitars will work with you to make any vision for your personal perfect guitar come true.  My customisations were a pin-less bridge, for a muting technique I like, a very specific contour to the bottom of the fretboard, and glowing fret markers; every feature came out perfect!

Alex Ryan