My First Blog

Well here it is, the start of a whole new era at Emerald Guitars.

For far too long I have been tucked away in my factory working on new stuff and now it is time to share it with the world. I intend to keep regular updates here in the coming days and weeks so keep checking and feel free to bug me if I am not keeping up with the posts.

Those of you who get the Emerald news letter will remember the sad news in the last one 18 months ago that declared the end of Emerald Guitars. At that time I suffered difficulties that were all beyond my control and basically the un cooperation of a third party put the lights out over night but they never really went out for very long.

It was a difficult time but I guess looking back it may well have set a new course that is way more positive. At the time I stopped We were flowing well producing good numbers of guitars but the reality was I wasnt enjoying it. I started building guitars because I loved to build guitars but the irony was that the bigger the company became the more I was removed from building guitars and for nearly three years I hadnt built a guitar from start to finish. My day was consumed with office work, marketing, purchasing and sorting out other peoples mess and any one who knows me knows that what I love mess is being at my bench being creative. It had to change!

For the past year I have been working on new ideas and doing some amazing custom builds and I love it. The past 18 months havent been a breeze because alot had to be resolved but being back building guitars from the start through to playing there first note has been amazing.

I guess I should walk you through some of the highlights.

It all kicked off last year when I got a call out of the Blue from a gentle man looking for a rather unusual guitar. It turned out this guy was the assistant to Leehom Wang, one of Asia's biggest stars. He had seen some of my previous work and was looking for something special for an upcoming concert. What that something special turned out to be was a guitar (which is now called Bahamut) shaped like a dragon spiraled into a treble cleff.

it was an exotic design but the kind of thing I love so within days construction started and I had a 6 week window to build the most incredible guitar of my life.

It was early morning and late nights but it was worth it. It turned out amazing and when Leehom Unveiled it to the world it became an instant success. You might not speak Mandarin but you will get the jist of the impact it had.




The Guitar was unveiled in September and has been touring Asia since making quite a name for itself. Check out some concert footage here.

Since all this it has led to some amazing opportunities and I had the privelage of being a guest at Leehom's concert in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in May. What an experience to see your work being played in front of 25,000 people, this is what I started building guitars for.

The last 3 months have been spent building another Dragon for a customer in Bangkok and currently I am just putting the final touches to it before I fly out to deliver it next week. Soo many doors have been opening in the last year that the difficultes of the past have melted away. I have 2 weeks in Bangkok where I will be working on more designs for this new customer and then we are flying on to Beijing to see Leehom perform in front of 50,000 people. Thats going to be an amazing trip and I hope to do regular posts here during the trip. So what of acoustic guitars? after all that is what my true purpose is on this planet. Well over the last 18 months I have built some real beauties and have been doing alot of development. The big new development has been the wood veneer guitars. I have finally perfected the art o fusing the most exotic veneers to the carbon body to give a guitar with all the structural and tonal benefits of carbon with the beauty of exoic woods and the best part is that I can use just about any type of wood as its not structural or tonal so you will see things you have never seen before on an acoustic guitar.

I am just completing a new website and the new series will be available there very soon.

As well as the new finish options I have been tweaking the structure a little to give the guitars a bit more projection and enhance the tone somewhat. I am always tweaking the guitars and I always try to make my next guitar my best guitar. Its been great being back building right the way through as I have picked a number of areas for improvement and now there is noone to blame but myself.

For the past 18 months it has just been me building and thats been great but a valued friend is going to be joining me very soon to keep me from talking to myself. I intend to keep things small for the forseen future and I am definitely sticking with the direct sale policy as I love being able to get to know my customers and build a guitar that will bring out the best in their playing and inspire new music. I learn so much more about my guitars by having this direct connection ad I hope in turn you get a better guitar. I know its not for everyone to buy a guitar they havent played before from half the way around the world but for those who do you are sure to get the personal experience whether its a €595 X5 or a €20,000 Dragon and in the unlikely event that you discover that you dont like the guitar I am happy to take it back.

Thank you to everyone who sent me all the kind emails of support over the last 18 months. You are the guys who inspired me to overcome the substantial hurdles.

Its a new Dawn with an exciting future, I hope you will follow that future through these posts and please give me your feedback.

Alistair Hay