Improving my acoustic guitar

[Lightning_Bug]

Try using bone bridge pins. They are cheap (under $20 online) and easy to install. If you don't like them you can easily switch back to the original plastic pins.

[srick]

Re: string ideas - try round cores : DR Sunbeams, Santa Cruz parabolics or Siminoff Straight Up Strings. They are all lower tension and easier to play. tuning down a half step achieves much of the same, but I have found can make the strings "too floppy" (Mr. Goldilocks speaking here).

And try playing in a different room. It's amazing what that can do. It's funny, but every year as the humidity changes (once in the fall and once in the spring), I find myself thinking the same thing. I end up changing the strings, tweaking the truss rod, playing in a different venue and then I'm happy again.

best,

Rick

[Truckjohn]

There are many ways to wreck a guitar and few to improve it.

You said your main complaint was the trebles. Trebles are tough because its hard to make a finished guitar top lighter without messing up the stiffness... Shaving braces almost always brings up bass and midrange to match abundant treble.

First - I would try heavier strings. 13's are magic on Martin guitars.

Then - if you have to change something on the guitar - check for bridge bolts. If it has them, remove the bridge bolts. They are treble killers.. But they dont hold the bridges on Martins... They just add weight. Their primary purpose is to kill some treble to make the guitar sound more "bassy"...