NGD: Acoustic content

[peterherman]

I have always loved and wanted a Martin. Grew up a few towns south of Nazareth in the Lehigh Valley. Once Bethlehem Steel bowed out in the 80s, Martin was the next-most famous industry around.

I have always loved the Guild featured (but not played) on the cover of Bryter Later: 000 sized mahogany body = yes please.

A bunch of years ago, I fell absolutely in love with a Martin 000-15SM, but haven’t ever had the cash for one. The 12 fret/slot head setup is cool, but not the main thing here.

So I’ve shifted out a bunch of pedals to come up with the cash and…

Now, tonight, I’ve been playing this li’l one:


It’s a Martin 000RS1. Wasn’t made up the road, but down in Mexico and it’s sapele instead of full-out mahogany. Don’t care. Can’t hear the difference.
It’s the Martin version of the Guild Nick Drake never played.

It’s awesome.

[marqueemoon]

Yes!

I haven’t played the sapele yet, but the small bodied mahogany Martins are some of the best bang-for-buck new acoustics out there.

[schoolie]

Beautiful! Those are nice guitars. Enjoy!

[JSett]

Oooo, lovely looking one you've got there. That's a couple of nice Martins I've seen recently and it's getting my GAS fired up

I've been looking at the old 000-16SGT models and they tick basically every box in my acoustic checklist. Shame the prices are rising rapidly.

Happy NAG day!

[garyfanclub]

Oh man, I would LOVE to check out the 12-feet version of these guys - the 000-15S, I think?

Congrats, looks beautiful!

[Larry Mal]

Nice. Congratulations!

[JSett]

Oh man, I would LOVE to check out the 12-feet version of these guys - the 000-15S, I think?

Congrats, looks beautiful!

I took a trip down to my local guitar shop today - dangerously after seeing this thread - and decided to actually sit and try a bunch of Martins. Having had no real experience of them before I was surprised that they all had pretty slim neck profiles, way too slim for my tastes! The only one that had any real meat to it was the Eric Clapton signature and that was a weird V shape too.

They all sounded utterly lovely, but I was kinda disappointed that there only seemed to be one real flavour of neck. Maybe if I want one I'll have to hunt down an older one...but that brings the pitfalls of a long prolonged search that would likely end in a very very high price-tag

Maybe I'll just have to stick with my old 70s Yamaha FG

[Larry Mal]

Oh man, I would LOVE to check out the 12-feet version of these guys - the 000-15S, I think?

Congrats, looks beautiful!

I took a trip down to my local guitar shop today - dangerously after seeing this thread - and decided to actually sit and try a bunch of Martins. Having had no real experience of them before I was surprised that they all had pretty slim neck profiles, way too slim for my tastes! The only one that had any real meat to it was the Eric Clapton signature and that was a weird V shape too.

They all sounded utterly lovely, but I was kinda disappointed that there only seemed to be one real flavour of neck. Maybe if I want one I'll have to hunt down an older one...but that brings the pitfalls of a long prolonged search that would likely end in a very very high price-tag

If they were new Martins, you were probably finding the "modified low oval" neck that they do these days. I like it a lot, but it's not for everyone I guess. Anyway, they started rolling that out around 2012 on some models, so if you looked a little older then you might find their earlier neck.

However, those earlier necks are narrower at the nut. I'm a big fan of modern Martin necks.

[JSett]

If they were new Martins, you were probably finding the "modified low oval" neck that they do these days. I like it a lot, but it's not for everyone I guess. Anyway, they started rolling that out around 2012 on some models, so if you looked a little older then you might find their earlier neck.

However, those earlier necks are narrower at the nut. I'm a big fan of modern Martin necks.

Yeah, they were all new ones, no older ones in the 'vintage and used' room unfortunately. I looked it up when I got home and saw that 'modified low oval' thing. Narrow nut but thick profile is my happy place on an acoustic so that doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. I'll do some digging about, see what info I can scavenge from the internetz and start some saved-searches on Reverb/etc

I can see why people, including yourself, would like that profile...it felt very similar to a modern electric neck so I guess a lot of people will be comfortable with it.

[Larry Mal]

I can see why people, including yourself, would like that profile...it felt very similar to a modern electric neck so I guess a lot of people will be comfortable with it.

Yeah, they've mentioned in interviews that now a lot of people come from the electric to the acoustic, rather than other way around, so they feel they need to make their guitars be more accommodating to folks moving in that direction.

Personally, I like a wider nut so that makes the difference to me there.

There is, of course, the vintage series that they make, which will obviously have other profiles to them. You'll be paying, though. There are also models like the CEO-7 which have V neck profiles and such. The CEO series is basically Martin made Gibsons, if you like those necks.

Otherwise, I have a New Hartford Guild D-40, and it has a 1 11/16" nut and a fairly thick and round profile to it. Not sure how helpful that is, though.

[JSett]

I can see why people, including yourself, would like that profile...it felt very similar to a modern electric neck so I guess a lot of people will be comfortable with it.

Yeah, they've mentioned in interviews that now a lot of people come from the electric to the acoustic, rather than other way around, so they feel they need to make their guitars be more accommodating to folks moving in that direction.

Personally, I like a wider nut so that makes the difference to me there.

There is, of course, the vintage series that they make, which will obviously have other profiles to them. You'll be paying, though. There are also models like the CEO-7 which have V neck profiles and such. The CEO series is basically Martin made Gibsons, if you like those necks.

Otherwise, I have a New Hartford Guild D-40, and it has a 1 11/16" nut and a fairly thick and round profile to it. Not sure how helpful that is, though.

Yeah, the necks seemed to get bigger and bigger the more spendy the prices got. Most of the smaller ones were £2-2.5k, the nicer ones were £3.5-5k - which is not utterly ridiculous if you're genuinely going to buy yourself an 'acoustic for life' that a lot of people seem to regard their Martins as.

I could bring myself to - if I found a real peach - drop 5-6k on an old one. But it would have to be fucking perfect in feel and sound.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

...It’s the Martin version of the Guild Nick Drake never played.

Fantastic!!

I have the Chinese version of the Guild Nick Drake never played...

[JSett]

Fantastic!!

I have the Chinese version of the Guild Nick Drake never played...

That deluxe inlay around the soundhole shining amongst all the rest of the understated looks is *chefs kiss*

[zhivago]

Really cool guitar! 000 is my favourite acoustic guitar by miles. Mine is style 28.

[Caddy65]

Really cool guitar! 000 is my favourite acoustic guitar by miles. Mine is style 28.

I’m with you on that. OOO is by far my favorite acoustic size. Have a Martin OOO spruce/mahogany all solid wood and an Ibanez OOO all mahogany (solid top) far better guitar than the price would indicate.