expiredhandymankev posted Mar 09, 2022 05:51 PM
Item 1 of 5
Item 1 of 5
expiredhandymankev posted Mar 09, 2022 05:51 PM
Martin Special D All-Solid Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Natural $700
$700
$1,000
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I'll offer my feedback in case this goes live again. I got this a few years back as a gift. Sad to see it is now no longer made in USA. It was the same price on sale years ago (but with a nice hard case and domestic) so this does seem slick.
This is a beautiful guitar. It smells heavenly.
If you want a Martin, this is a quality guitar, solid wood (not an X model). FYI, this is a "real" D model Martin, but one only ever made for MF, so there is no comparable model to shop against AFAIK, it is "bottom end" price for a D model but not bottom end materials or craftmanship.
It has a very light finish which looks great but is not a sealant. I do not use mine much and and I am not a sweaty guy at all but it absorbs sweat from inside of my forearm and stains the top of the body. Guitars are meant to be played, but if you are a sweaty guy/gal/misc. this will tell pretty quick and the upper top will be a darker color.
To echo the above point - When I got this in the mail I fell in love and spent an hour marveling in its beauty and smell, then finally tuned it up and played. I was assuming any real "D" Martin would automatically make me hear angels sing. Uh, what just happened? Changed strings. Tried every type of string I could find but it just sounds flat. Not at all bad, just not a great warm acoustic tone I expected. I tried to force myself to fall in love every year or so but my heart is not in it and it sits in its case for months all lonely, I only take it out if someone is stopping by and wants to have a look. It still looks and smells amazing and I love to open up that velveted case and look at it. But I can't remember when I last played it.
I later got a Yamaha on sale for one-third the price. Yeah, I know it's made in China of who-knows wood species. But it's CNC'd and fit and finish is great. It's on a stand next to me right now and I play it every day, it never sits in a case. I'm sure there's a more heavenly guitar out there, but this sounds like I think a guitar should sound. The strings are dead right now but to my ears the Yamaha with dead strings sounds livelier than my Martin with fresh ones. Plus if the dog trips on the guitar stand and knocks it over or I scratch it on my belt buckle, hey it's a tool that takes some wear and not some object of art to be admire.
I think some of us old school guys equate US made= good and foreign sourced = horribly manufactured trash, but let's face it, most of the premium wood is unavailable economically, and everything is CNC'd, so as long as there is QC and some final labor to set up and polish frets, etc. a very nice guitar can be made anywhere these days for a very reasonable price. I have a Chinese no-name Tele for $89 that sounds great. Half of my "American" car is hecho en MX so our hermanos can make stuff. It seems like a lot famous US guitar brands are leveraging their past glory for an unjustified premium.
Long story long, I would also recommend sitting down and playing this before falling in love with a storied brand sight unheard. MF and Guitar Center share a corporate parent so this model is probably available at your local GC to have a play and see if to your ears it's more than just a pretty face.
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