Imperial Guitars Royal Hawaiian Rosewood XL This is a brand new model that Imperial has just released for 2014. It's the Rosewood and Spruce version of their Royal Hawaiian Limited Edition called the Rosewood XL. The Royal Hawaiian Rosewood XL starts with the same features as Imperial's Limited Edition: • Extra deep body and hollow neck for increased volume and resonance • "Rope" binding on the top, back and fingerboard • Rosewood bridge and fingerboard with maple markings • High quality die-cast tuners • Fishman Presys+ pickup system But instead of using the traditional Mahogany or Koa, they've built this model with a solid Spruce top and Rosewood back, sides and neck. Besides the visual differences, the tone of the Rosewood XL is a little different from traditional models. It sounds a little brighter to me, with a more open or "lively" tone. The tonal range is more like a good acoustic guitar than the typically dark tone of Hawaiian guitars. The Rosewood XL uses the Fishman under saddle pickup with their Presys+ preamp system. This system features 4 bands of EQ as well as a notch filter for feedback busting and a phase switch, which is another tonal variable that is particularily useful for adding some extra fullness at low volumes. The + part of Presys+ is the built-in tuner, always handy in any case, but especially if you're going to be changing tunings in the middle of a set. As with Imperial's other limited editions, there are no options. The Royal Hawaiian Rosewood XL comes with everything they've got, including the Fishman Presys+ pickup system and a custom fit extra deep hard shell case. Imperial has only made 8 of these for this year.
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