Help! That pesky Martin Headstock Scribble!
 

I just spent nigh on 5 hours yesterday in Gear4Music trying out guitars with my wife. Exhausting stuff. I tried out a couple of yamahas I was thinking about, but not satisfied with the unamplified acoustic volume I was after (wanted a guitar smaller than a dread but louder than my current OM size for acoustic session).

Anyway, wife tried a number of yamahas, and Martins (D13 and similar - not Standards as those are scarce around these parts). None cut the mustard for a fingerpicker. Tried a Gibson J35, same too. Then she tried a Sigma SDM SG5 - an all solid spruce top, mahogany B/S Hummingbird copy. I though it was brilliant!. Great balanced articulation throughout. Lovely 'musical' tone - not thumpy or woody etc. I played it and said to her that I'd buy it. Looked nice too. Much noodling and humming and hawing later, she angled towards it,

Then another Martin appeared - and SC 13 e Special :the Sunburst modern offset looking one. It is the most playable guitar I have ever clapped my hands on. Zoomed up anddown the fretboard, and the back of the neck 'seems/feels' slightly assymetrical - but boy was that comfortable. Plugged in it sounded great, acoustically different from the Sigma, but nearly as good fingerpicking. The Sigma still had the advantage acoustically. But we got the Sigma for £783 (15% off the list price of £959) because of a flaw in the pickguard edge. The SC13e special would have been £2130 or so. No contest for me, but wife is different. Trust me, the Sigma is a fab guitar. Even the guy in the shop told her to take the Sigma! The £1300 difference wasn't justified to me guitar wise.

Last night we were at Bluegrass concert - everyone playing Martins as it's compulsory of course. Wife was getting headstock remorse. Tried to convince her: she doesn't play bluegrass stuff:D I offered to buy it from her if she changes her mind rather than return it ... but it's just the name ... not the guitar.

Is there a cure?

Not sure if there’s a cure for insecurity, but there are plenty of self-help books, and there’s always therapy.

yep there's a cure

buy her the martin!

!LOL!

:guitar:

Sure, stop attending bluegrass concerts.

Remember the key to happiness. Happy wife, happy life. Is it too late to swap it for that Martin?

Funny,

Buy for tone. Playability can be addressed.

Though not that easy to find in a store. My "Maple" J-185 is probably the loudest Small-ish body guitar I own.

Very comfortable body. 24.75 scale. Took a bit of work to get playability where I like.

I now have a cutaway as well as a 1952 reissue.

Makes it really hard to pick up a Martin.

Billy Strings plays kind of Bluegrassy sometimes.

He don't need no steenking Martin.

It's easy to sit back and say stuff like "buy with your ears", "All that matters is tone" or whatever but the truth is that the best guitar for someone might not be the best sounding or the one with the best specs or the best bang for the buck. It's the one that you want to pick up and make music with. There are a million intangibles that can go into why it's the one and one of them is definitely the name on the headstock. We can pretend it's not but we all know better. It can work so that someone really wants a Martin and that's what they feel great playing and it can work the other way where someone is proud of how little they spent on brand X that's just as good. It can be that you want the same brand as your favorite players or it can be that you want to be different from everyone else. You can fall in love with a guitar in a store or at a friends house. There is no right and wrong but I know from personal experience that having a guitar that you don't love is a bummer and you rarely grow to love it.

The way you worded the story, it sounds to me like she preferred the Martin in the store, and you and the sales dude convinced her to take the Sigma, because you preferred the tone. Did *she* actually prefer the tone of the Sigma? I'd say, unless the cost is a big issue, return the Sigma and get the guitar she actually wants.

I just bought a used Sigma. No remorse here. It's an *excellent* guitar, and it was dirt cheap. When it became apparent that I couldn't put it down, I decided to buy it. NO REGRETS!!! I kind of like the quirk factor(?) of the faux Martin scribbled name on the head stock. That's what made me pick it up, but the way it plays is why I brought it home. Sigma is part of Martin's history, too. The main thing is that the guitar feels great to play and sounds great.

I was practicing a few days ago, going back and forth between the "real" Martin and the Sigma, and at some point, I just lost track of which one I was playing. I'm sure that has some significance, even though I can't articulate exactly what it is! Probably, once you're in the zone and you're focused on playing and making music, you don't really care which guitar you're doing it with.

FWIW. YMMV. All the usual disclaimers apply.

The cure could be a smaller bodied Martin...

Sounds like she liked the Martin (played one, loved it, should probably go back and buy it), but was “logically” convinced to buy the Sigma. Emotionally, she may have really wanted the Martin, and that won’t go away. If you can go back, assuming you’d be allowed to swap, I’d bring her there, set her up with whatever guitars she wants to revisit or check out, then leave the room. If the dollars don’t really matter (outside of the logic you used), tell her to pick the one that makes her heart happy. Throw logic out the window and buy the one that makes her smile most, without discussion or pressure from you or the salesman.

That's what I was trying to say, you said it better :)

A Fabulous answer^^^...and the ABSOLUTE TRUTH!!!

You have to LOVE...not like...LOVE all aspects of the guitar, how it looks, how it feels, how it plays, and how it sounds.

But YOU have to love it, not your wife/hubby/boyfriend/girlfriend/brother, nor sister nor best geetar buddy in the world, nor sales person. YOU have to love it, no matter what anyone else tells you.

And you have to LOVE it from deep inside yourself, in your musical heart and soul, not your analytical head. Your mind can talk you into and out of all sorts of things about a guitar, and the longer you sit and think and go back and forth and to and fro, the farther you get from your musical center and truth...what your musical heart is telling you.

Your musical heart and soul always find and fly true north, you just have to trust in them.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

He may not need one, but he sure sounds good on them!