Double neck acoustic guitar by Emerald in Belgian band’s latest video

A Belgian musician has just featured his carbon fibre double neck acoustic guitar, Emerald’s Chimaera, in his band’s latest music video.

Gaspard Vanardois is a member of the band Wata Wata which mainly performs Balkan music from Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.  His fellow band members are Orphise Labarbe (vocals) – Emmanuel Haessig (clarinet) – Marc Renders (double bass) – Anaïs Lambert (violin) and Romain Karsenty (accordion).

Gaspard’s got his first Emerald, a custom X5 7-string, in 2014. Two years later Alistair built the musician another custom Emerald, this time a Chimaera featuring a 12-string and a 7-string neck.

Custom order

When Gaspard placed the order for his double neck acoustic guitar, he told us that he wanted to have the ability to switch between piezo and magnetic pickups on each neck, depending on the sound and effects he wants to run. The Chimaera is such a great platform for customisations. The possibilities are endless.

We used the B-Band A2 stereo pickup system under the saddles, which was our standard at the time, and then added a pair of Lace Ultra slim magnetic pickups at the bridge. For controls we have used a simple configuration of two blend pots, one controlling the Magnetic pickups and one for the Piezo pickups with separate outputs for each.

Gaspard first got his hands on his Chimaera last summer and he told us soon after that he thought it was ‘an incredible instrument’. “I’m so happy, it’s like a dream come true,” he said.

This is the first time we have seen Gaspard performing with his custom Chimaera. The piece featured in the new video release is a traditional Bulgarian tune call Panasonic.

We would like to thank Gaspard for sharing the video with us and wish him and Wata Wata all the very best! If you are interested in listening to more of Wata Wata’s music, visit their Soundcloud page.

If you have an idea for a custom Emerald, why not get in touch with us!