SCARLET BEGONIAS Emerald Fan Fret Baritone .MOV
Channel: Seismic Folk
Date: 2011-06-29

A Little fun with a Dead tune here, 'Scarlet Begonias'. 
    Please allow me to introduce Ms Fanny, who has given me a truly unparalleled playing experience, and I'm not even used to her yet, having barely settled the strings! Alistair Hay of Emerald Guitars  designed this Amazing, thus far one-of custom carbon fiber baritone guitar in my requested scale length specs.  It' s pure genius; 
   One comes to expect this from Alistair.  Sure he's a Phd polymer chemist, comes in handy here.  He's a proven bold, driven by adventure, and highly artistic designer with an earlier history of boat building..., now provides custom and way-out custom sculpted carbon fiber composite guitars to Many of THE BIGGEST names in the biz.... Yet he remains easily accessible to all, a true gent...
    Upon completion, Alistair asked Peter Vail for a demo of this very same guitar,  also on youtube... Please search under 'fan fret baritone' and enjoy a great perfomance. He then unveiled her it at a local Jazz-fest in Ireland, before she shipped-out to me ultimately. 
   The scale length is a most all baritones, 28-30".   Adorned with 24 frets with the last 5 frets 'floating' above a slightly radiized top. The floating bits were Alistair's surprise, and floored me!! The frets are gorgeous, and required only a very light leveling with my long block, straight to the fine grit. on with the dressing.
   The bridge is moved well down the body to make for a greater vibrational surface area.  This is a really ergonomic design and the overall length of the guitar is a couple inches shorter than my Emerald 28er (which is on an Opus X-30 Body).  She's About 6.5# in weight.  
   The Tap -tone of the top AND back are a nice consistent B, an octave above my lowest B.  Sound emits from the ENTIRE body like a cello! Gotta love the way the sound-port sits right under your chin. This bathes the player with a balanced monitor in both ears. I'm Now back to using the std EXP-23  string-set after having attempted, and not really liking an improvised lighter set. She kind of demands tension. The truss is fairly snugged. Which is how one would hope to have a neck adjusted, just minimal relief. There is serious tension at these string lengths.
    I think the B-band electronics with tuner now work great, really. 
     I'm using the BlueChip TAD 100 pick here, really works great with this guitar, and with most instruments! Nice and heavy, warm and lubricious pick, very complimentary choice i think. The fretmarkers and headstock accents are Glow-in the-Dark Tape I easily added, (but the camera didn't really "see" them in the video's short/dark intro, as planned...)  Cheesy, yet functional and looks nice, really.
     I really wanted to post a  comment on Peter's Demo video.... so "signed-up to sign-in" Finally, I'm a youtube member, so figured might as well post this..Look-out!!!
   Just a mini,  but very nice... ~$300? Nikon S9100  HD camera with an onboard mike on this video, and all acoustic, sweet.  I'll do another demo with an amp... soon? Thanks Alistair! (and Mike for having the camera/brains/patience and all...!) More to Come...Slan! Bill