How does it play? Good. Like Gibsons do. The neck is pretty much the same as you'd find on a Les Paul. Nice 12" radius makes it easy to barre. The profile is somewhat round and full, nothing extreme. The nut is 1.725", pretty full- I would have preferred 1.75". I still have the bullshit stock saddle on there, and while my guy got it low, it still has the stupid slope on the saddle, the high E string is a 1.5mm, the low E string is at about 2.5mm. That sucks, I'd rather have it level with the radius of the fingerboard, and I will, once I get in a new bone saddle. For now it plays very well.
Frankly, it's not quite as strong a fingerstyle guitar as I had hoped, I think the new saddle will help dial that in, but the sound it makes with a flatpick is so great that I'm not even going to trip off that.
So, how does it sound? Loud. Brassy. There's still that Gibson "sweet" happening in there, though. I feel I can now start to say that I have some idea what the Gibson acoustic thing is all about and it's very good, there's a certain gentle sweetness in there. That being said, though, this thing cranks up. Strummed with a thin pick, it opens the hell up and gets about as loud and strident as my Taylor does. Pulled back and you get a nice clarity to it.
The sustain on it is moderate, I'll say that. I am starting to think that Gibson acoustics don't have the sustain that Martins do overall, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I'll be honest, I don't know if I would want this to be my only acoustic guitar. I mean, it would be fine if it was, it's just that I might pick something different overall. This guitar has a good amount of metallic string sound to it, that'll probably change over time as the top wood opens up, and a little less wood sound than I might like. It's a great guitar and I'm going to keep it, but I feel like it's probably going to be a great alternative in the group rather than the only guitar I would ever need, that sort of thing.
But this one...
Martin 000-18. Yeah, I'd be fine if this was my only guitar. It's pretty quiet, overall. It's not the scalloped bracing they are doing now, and I probably would have picked that if the budget allows (this was a Hail Mary eBay bid that I was the only bid on and I won). Still, the quieter nature of it is hardly a bad thing, it has a haunting sound to it that way.
Plays like a dream. I got the action super low on this one, and I can just fingerpick around on it no problem. It'll get going with a pick, but it's never going to be contender against my Taylor dreadnaught and shit. This one has a ton of sustain to it... I just can't say enough good things about this guitar. It's small, comfortable, fits like a glove, and like a lot of great guitars, it kind of encourages me to take chances with my playing on. Just an inspiring and forgiving guitar.
Let's take a moment of silence for the ones that almost made it, although this one is still sitting behind me...
And there is a chance that I sell a bass guitar instead of that one and keep it also. It's a lot of fun.
Something has to go, though. I went a little crazy for a while there but it's all good now.