Description
The Eden Artist Edition
Munson × Emma Howell
Eden: A Figment Of Your Meditation is a one-off Artist Edition created in collaboration between Munson Guitars and Cotswolds-based artist Emma Howell.
Built on the Munson Tempest platform, Eden brings together traditional guitar making and Emma’s meditative approach to painting in a single instrument.
Across the English ash body, flowers, leaves and organic forms gradually build into a vivid botanical composition. Emma describes a process in which “each painted shape informs the next”, allowing the work to develop organically rather than following a rigid predetermined design.
The finished piece explores ideas of paradise, calmness, patience and “triumph over adversity.”
Painting as meditation
Emma’s painting process is slow and deliberate.
The composition develops through sustained concentration, controlled movement and an emphasis on allowing each new element to respond to what is already present.
That gives Eden its distinctive visual rhythm: layered and expressive, but still cohesive.
The guitar is not simply a surface carrying an image. Its contours, timber and proportions become part of the composition itself.
Music, memory and family
The collaboration also carries a deeply personal connection to music.
Emma grew up with music as a constant presence. Her father played bass in local bands and spent many years running his own shop before his death in 2016.
That musical heritage forms part of Eden’s story.
Working with Munson allowed Emma’s connection to painting and music to meet another tradition of making: instrument building.
She describes the collaboration as a “meeting point between two crafts, two legacies and two ways of telling stories.”
Eden sits at that intersection: painting, music, memory and craftsmanship brought together in a unique playable instrument.
Two creative practices. One instrument.
Artist Editions are not just Munson guitars with artwork applied afterwards.
The aim is for both creative practices to influence the finished piece.
Eden began as a hand-built Tempest, but its English ash body also became Emma’s working surface. The shape of the guitar, its timber, hardware and construction all interact with the artwork.
Emma refers to the resulting instruments as “living artworks”, pieces intended to carry sound and story as well as visual expression.
Details such as the brass artist-signature inlay carry that collaboration beyond the painted body and into the construction of the instrument itself.
Made together. Built as one.
English ash and maple
The body is built from two-piece English ash, giving Emma’s artwork a natural timber surface while retaining the character of the wood beneath.
Once completed, the artwork is protected with a traditional nitrocellulose finish.
The neck and fingerboard are North American maple, with a satin nitrocellulose neck finish, 25.5-inch scale length and 12-inch radius.
Paua shell position markers are complemented by a brass artist-signature inlay, giving Emma’s involvement a permanent place within the instrument itself.
Hand-wound Munson pickups
Eden is fitted with a hand-wound Munson bridge humbucker and neck P90.
The two pickups offer deliberately contrasting voices: the fuller weight and focus of the bridge humbucker alongside the more open and immediate character of the neck P90.
CTS master volume and tone controls keep the layout straightforward, with a three-way Switchcraft selector providing the main pickup combinations.
A push-pull control splits the bridge humbucker for an additional single-coil voice.
The result is a versatile passive electronics layout that gives the player a broad tonal range without unnecessary complexity.
Specification
Model
Tempest — Eden: A Figment Of Your Meditation
Type
Artist Edition
Munson × Emma Howell
One of One
Status
Available
Body
Two-piece English ash
Original artwork by Emma Howell
Protected with nitrocellulose
Neck
North American maple
25.5″ / 648 mm scale, 12″ / 304.8 mm radius
Dual-action truss rod
0.73″ / 18.58 mm at 1st fret, 0.87″ / 22.21 mm at 12th fret
Satin nitrocellulose finish
Fingerboard
North American maple
Frets
22 medium nickel-silver, 2.4 mm wide, 1.3 mm crown
Inlays
Paua shell
Brass artist-signature inlay
Nut
GraphTech Black TUSQ XL
Neck fixing
Stainless-steel M5 bolts with brass threaded inserts
Electronics
Hand-wound Munson bridge humbucker
Hand-wound Munson neck P90
CTS master volume
CTS master tone
Push-pull coil split for bridge humbucker
3-way Switchcraft selector
Hardware (Gold)
Gotoh SG381-MG-T staggered locking tuners · 1:16 gear ratio
Gotoh GTC101 hardtail bridge with brass saddles
Metal knurled knobs
Schaller S-Lock strap buttons
One instrument. Available now.
Eden is a one-off Artist Edition.
The guitar shown on this page is the actual instrument available for purchase.
Once sold, there will not be another Eden.
