DADGAD tuning with Ed on an Irish-made guitar

DADGAD is a very popular tuning in Irish traditional music as wonderfully demonstrated in this video on an X20.

Ed van Gasse recorded this bagpipe march called Return to Fingal on his red X20 with our crystal ice finish on the back, sides and headstock that he recently received.

He said the piece is dedicated to the late Davy Graham (Tuesday, 26 November 1940 – Monday, 15 December 2008). “Davy gave us the modal DADGAD-tuning and Pierre Bensusan took it to extremes.

“This bagpipe march is based on Pierre’s arrangement. Military marches have repeats that can go on for hours, but I kept this one under two minutes.

“The tune was written about 1014 as a tribute to the greatest king of Ireland, Brian Boru who organised several Irish kingdoms to defeat the Vikings in the decisive battle of Clontarf.”

South of Spain

Originally from Antwerp in Belgium, Ed retired to the south of Spain where it can be very hot at times and therefore he started researching guitars made out of carbon fibre.

Ed first found out about Emerald Guitars through the Acoustic Guitar Forum where he researched carbon fibre guitars having bought a carbon travel guitar from our friend Rob Bailey and his team at Journey Instruments.

He said: “I always was a firm traditionalist when it came to guitars (I really disliked Ovations in the 80’s). But my experiences with carbon changed all that.”

Following a number of discussions, Ed place an order for an X20. He said his Emerald is ‘the perfect combination of sound (soundport etc), ergonomics (bevel, weight), looks and structural sound design’.

Thank you so much for to Ed for sending us his video from the south of Spain. If you would like to find out more about the X20, click here or get in touch.