Fingerstyle guitarist Joel loves taking his carbon fiber guitars on trips

Joel Blumert loves taking his carbon fiber guitars from Emerald Guitars on trips, whether it’s long haul to Taiwan or cycling around Connecticut.

A singer and fingerstyle guitarist who lives in Salisbury, Connecticut, the northwest corner on the border of New York and Massachusetts, Joel has been a very loyal customer of Emerald Guitars for nearly a decade.

Playing a variety of blues, ragtime, bluegrass and an assortment of other styles, Joel mostly performs 1920s to ’40s American Songbook standards in elder care facilities around Western Connecticut.

During the late 1990s Joel began looking into carbon fibre guitars as he didn’t want to take his custom-built wooden guitars on long haul trips and ‘be sweating about their survival’. “I found a used Emerald X10, matte wine red finish, bought that, liked it so much I moved up to a blue graphite weave X10. I sold that blue X10 to a friend, also had one of the first X5s made, gave that to my older daughter when she graduated Maine College of Art a couple of years ago.”

“My daughter is so focused on her artwork (See Dark Leaf Designs on Facebook) that she rarely plays, which is too bad because as she is a gifted songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The X5 is hers for when she gets the urge.”

Emerald collection

Joel has a number of carbon fiber guitars – a green custom X10 10-string, a marbled green Amicus, a kingfisher-over-marbled finish X20 6-string, currently awaiting delivery on a rustic copper/marble X20 12-string, and will soon get an X7 to replace the X5 he gave his daughter.

Joel said: “Aesthetics of a guitar were always important to me and I used to have some spectacularly figured woods on my custom guitars and tinted tops. Emerald offers such incredible options and possibilities for colours and finishes that it’s just no contest compared to other guitars.

“I also love the balance of tone, especially the full brightness of the highs, and really love the consistency and dependability of the composite.

“The blue X10 went to Taiwan with me in 2006 when I played Blues Bash 3, the X5 went on a lot of day hikes and bike rides, strapped to the back of my recumbent bicycle’s seat, and the X7 will follow suit when I get it.”

We love hearing from our customers. If you would like to be featured in our series, send us an e-mail to sales@emeraldguitars.com with the subject ‘Emerald Stories’.