So, let's get the pictures out of the way:
The things plays great, now that the action has settled in. I love what Martin is calling the "Modified Low Oval" shape with the "High Performance Taper". Basically it's a round type neck with a shallow carve, and I gather the taper refers to the guitar's neck staying fairly narrow as it travels to the body. Whatever they call it, combined with the 1.75" nut and the short scale (24.9") it's among the most comfortable guitars I've ever played.
The sound of this guitar is what did it for me, though. I had never even heard of these until I played one in the store for like an hour. First of all, the sustain of the things is something to behold. That top will just keep ringing out on these, not sure if it's the 12th fret join (this is my first smaller acoustic) or what, but it rings out for a noticeably long time.
The dynamic range of the thing is pretty wonderful, also. It's basically a fingerpicking guitar, and you can use your fingers to coax a very nice range of usable sounds out of it, quiet to loud, and quickly. Like a piano, frankly.
The bass is very strong on it, like you might expect from a Martin, not flabby though. The highs are clear and present, that being said, the high range of this guitar isn't the most prominent part of the instrument's sound profile. Bear in mind I usually play it with only my fingers, though. With a pick the treble is more prominent, of course.
This guitar is also very loud. It's got that Martin sound I've been missing for a while, my old D1 is out of commission and while I have some great acoustics otherwise, Martins have a certain sound profile and I, uh, like it.
I got it used, barely, for $1200. I feel it's a great deal at that price. I'd recommend this guitar to people.
I did have to work on the action, though. I have it down to a fairly low setting, still not as low as my freakishly easy to play Taylor 410 nor where I have the Gibson Dove I got from Maggie dialed in at. But I'm a weirdo about low action and this would be probably insanely low to a lot of you- about 2.5mm at the 12th fret bass E string.
That being said, though, I was able to accomplish this by sanding the saddle down as low as it can realistically go. That wasn't all I had to do to it, but the scary thing is that I have no ability to further regulate the action at the saddle. If this guitar drifts over time, I am pretty much powerless to do anything about it short of a full neck reset that I can see. That's why I was considering sending it back.
But the sound of it won me over. I came home after class one night last week and was having my beer, tired, and I started playing this guitar absentmindedly while Mrs. Larry caught me up on the day. I began to notice this E-D-C progression I was playing on the A string, and I started focusing on how fucking great that sounded. I knew right then I wasn't going to let this guitar after that.
It's a winner. Anyone interested in this type of guitar, I'd recommend checking it out. I got it for $1200 barely used. You might notice that I already switched out the Golden Age tuners for my favorite Kluson Revolution locking tuners, but the stock tuners that came on it are wonderful tuners. If I didn't hate stringing guitars so much with standard type tuners, I would absolutely have kept those, as it is, I'll sell them on soon now that I'm going to keep the guitar.
