Kip Winger gets his hands on Chip’s custom X20 Woody acoustic guitar

One of our customers came to the rescue of well-known American rock band frontman Kip Winger when he was in need of an acoustic guitar for a live performance.

Chip is the proud owner of a purple X20 Woody, featuring a quilted maple veneer and a Celtic knot relief carving (which includes his initials) hand-made by Alistair.

Chip said ‘strange luck’ makes up his life. Last week he witnessed one of his favourite artists perform on his custom Emerald acoustic guitar at the Sellersville Theater in Sellersville, PA.

A few weeks ago Jeff Teets of the Pennsylvania-based female-fronted Melodic Metal band MindMaze announced he was having guitar issues and was looking to borrow a guitar for the band’s set opening for an acoustic set by Kip Winger, as he didn’t feel he had time to get his repaired.

Winger

Kip is the frontman of American hard rock band Winger from New York City who first rose to fame when their self-titled debut album achieved platinum status in the United States and gold in Japan and Canada in 1988 and spawned such hits as Headed for a Heartbreak, Seventeen and Madalaine (as performed in the video above).

Chip said: “Since Jeff is someone I knew and trusted, I offered to let him borrow my X20. When I dropped it off, I half-jokingly said ‘Hey, the night of the show, if Kip sees this guitar and shows the slightest interest, by all means please let him try it’.

“Fast-forward to last night (Thursday, April 6) – when Kip went to play, the electronics in his prized 12-string started to act up. Since my guitar was still on-hand, it was offered to him to use with my blessing. After the show, I got Kip to autograph the back of the headstock.”

Kip also performed the song Daniel, from his first solo album This Conversation Seems Like A Dream, on the X20.

A couple of performances of MindMaze’s Sarah and Jeff performing with the X20 were also caught by an audience member (Hat-tip to YouTube user Sasawings108). Check out their songs The Machine Stops, Sign Of Life and Goldilox (King’s X).

We would like to thank Chip for telling us about the fun mini adventure his custom Emerald went on and we hope the artists enjoyed performing on his X20 Woody.

The X20

The X20 is a guitar designed with the player in mind and not tradition. It features an ergonomic forearm bevel and a beveled cutaway to give even greater access to the fretboard.  Our unique asymmetrical back contours make the X20 sit more comfortably and securely on your knee.

Tonally this guitar has a big voice, We developed a new laminate structure to give it a richer fuller sound and with the unique soundhole placement it gives great projection to the player, while still giving your audience the fullness of your performance.

The X20 can come in various packages from the in-stock Opus models, built-to-order Artisans or Emerald Custom Shop models, where the possibilities are endless.