TedEH
Cromulent
It's a Martin D-15M!
My birthday recently passed, as well as Xmas, etc., so this time of year is usually my "lets buy myself something nice" time.
I've been digging around for a new acoustic for a while, so I finally pulled the trigger on the Martin I've been talking about in another thread. Martin won't ship here in the winter, but they had one in stock at an L&M in Toronto, so that's the one I ended up with.
It basically does all the things I wanted in an acoustic - it's easier to play than the one I had. I get along really great with the neck shape. It's less nasally/boxy sounding that the old one. It's still got lots of low end. In store I wouldn't have described it as "bright" but it's definitely brighter than the previous acoustic I had. I suppose a good way to describe it is that the previous one I owned was very forward - in your face, bold, hard not to hear it - whereas this guitar sort of sounds like you took the general idea of the previous acoustic, scooped out the nasally/boxy part of the sound, and compressed it into a more personal kind of sound. Something about the mahogany makes the sound very "personal" in the sense that the body resonates a lot instead of projecting everything forward - it sort of feels like you're enveloped in the sound instead of it being projected ahead of you. You could sit quietly in a room full of people and play quietly to yourself with this, as opposed to some guitars that would just be loud and obnoxious. A side effect is that it's a bit less dynamic, but in kind of a good way. Playing some light finger style stuff is very audible, but digging in or strumming hard isn't obnoxiously loud.
Balanced is a great word for this guitar. It's like you took the sound of an acoustic in my head and processed it already. You hear every string clearly - there's lots of low end but not in a way that overpowers the rest of the sound.
The only downside - the action (same as pretty much any Martin I've ever tried) is a bit high out of the box. It's not so high that it bothers me, but I know it could be improved upon. L&M offers one free setup any time you buy another guitar, but I think the adjustments I'd want are outside of what I'd trust a box store to do. I plan on waiting a bit and if I decide I still want the action changed, I'll bring it to a tech that I trust.
If I find some time, I'll record some clips, maybe in comparison to the previous acoustic I had.
I didn't have time to get out a good camera and take good/fancy photos, but here it is in front of a pile of other instruments:
My birthday recently passed, as well as Xmas, etc., so this time of year is usually my "lets buy myself something nice" time.
I've been digging around for a new acoustic for a while, so I finally pulled the trigger on the Martin I've been talking about in another thread. Martin won't ship here in the winter, but they had one in stock at an L&M in Toronto, so that's the one I ended up with.It basically does all the things I wanted in an acoustic - it's easier to play than the one I had. I get along really great with the neck shape. It's less nasally/boxy sounding that the old one. It's still got lots of low end. In store I wouldn't have described it as "bright" but it's definitely brighter than the previous acoustic I had. I suppose a good way to describe it is that the previous one I owned was very forward - in your face, bold, hard not to hear it - whereas this guitar sort of sounds like you took the general idea of the previous acoustic, scooped out the nasally/boxy part of the sound, and compressed it into a more personal kind of sound. Something about the mahogany makes the sound very "personal" in the sense that the body resonates a lot instead of projecting everything forward - it sort of feels like you're enveloped in the sound instead of it being projected ahead of you. You could sit quietly in a room full of people and play quietly to yourself with this, as opposed to some guitars that would just be loud and obnoxious. A side effect is that it's a bit less dynamic, but in kind of a good way. Playing some light finger style stuff is very audible, but digging in or strumming hard isn't obnoxiously loud.
Balanced is a great word for this guitar. It's like you took the sound of an acoustic in my head and processed it already. You hear every string clearly - there's lots of low end but not in a way that overpowers the rest of the sound.
The only downside - the action (same as pretty much any Martin I've ever tried) is a bit high out of the box. It's not so high that it bothers me, but I know it could be improved upon. L&M offers one free setup any time you buy another guitar, but I think the adjustments I'd want are outside of what I'd trust a box store to do. I plan on waiting a bit and if I decide I still want the action changed, I'll bring it to a tech that I trust.
If I find some time, I'll record some clips, maybe in comparison to the previous acoustic I had.
I didn't have time to get out a good camera and take good/fancy photos, but here it is in front of a pile of other instruments:
