And Now, For Something (a Guitar) Completely Different

It all started at a wedding reception.

I was sitting next to a friend from Newman Church, and we were reminiscing about what wonderful liturgies were crafted (and still are!) at that beautiful sacred house on Saint Stephen's Green.  Along with my friend came her partner, a guitarist himself.  The conversation turned to "road axes," those instruments that we dare put on an airplane, perhaps having to entrust them to the luggage gorillas that lurk deep in the bowels of the ship....

I explained that, since being at Saint James in Black Mountain, I had discovered an entirely new material for use in acoustic instruments: carbon fiber.  After years of not being able to play the Celtic Harp (in Ireland, of all places!), I looked around and found an instrument builder right under my nose (well, just south of Asheville):  Heartland Harps is the name of the company.  At Notre Dame, I played a Dilling Model Harp, constructed partly of rock maple.  Weight: more than 48 lbs.  Heartland's instrument, a thirty-six string, 52-inch beauty's weight: just under 11 lbs.  And it's sound is truly remarkable.

By now I'm deep into discussion with my new guitar friend at the wedding reception, and he describes a builder in County Donegal – who creates nothing but carbon fiber guitars.  God must've been laughing, because we had just recently been in that beautiful, northwestern corner of Ireland, but had never heard of such a place.  The name of the company: Emerald Guitars.  So I started doing my research, and what I found online was nothing short of remarkable.  

The instruments are designed to have the depth of sound whose equivalent would come from, say, a dreadnought guitar built by Martin, Gibson, and others.  They have onboard electronics as well, allowing the player to plug directly into an amp (or a house system) without a microphone.  

And because they are built of carbon fiber, they are just about indestructible.  No cracking of wood, no fears of too much or too little humidity, which translates into ease of tuning.  

But it is the sound of the instrument that is the most compelling feature.  After researching video after video, I came away with reviews from guitar nerds that were superlative – every one of them surprised that such a massive, rich sound could come from such a design.

In my next installment, I'm going to go into detail about this discovery from the land of my ancestors.  As you can see from the photo here, this instrument ushers in a whole new concept of both guitar building and acoustic sensitivities.