Martin CEO-7
 

Hi ; any opinions on this guitar? Does anyone own one? Just wondering about it. Thanks.

I had one, it was wonderful and I still regret having sold it. If you are looking for an acoustic small body, there is nothing better.

There's one for sale in the classifieds (outside US).

There’s also one listed in the classified that’s from the US.

I had one and traded it in on another guitar. It sounded good but I prefer bigger guitars like dreadnoughts. If you like smaller guitars, it's pretty loud and tonally rich given its size.

Yes. Its a great sounding guitar. Neck is v-shaped on mine - not sure if they all are. Very light which takes some time getting used to, if you're coming from something bigger. Loud for its size. Don't like the tuners, is my only complaint.

I play mine almost every day and have for the last two years. My other guitar is a Gibson J15 but it does not get played much. The CEO is great for fingerpicking and sounds warm. The sustain is like 50% longer than the J15.

They are wonderful guitars. I had one and would still have it if I was a finger picker. But I’m not. My heavy handed picking/strumming style was too much for that little beauty...so I sold it and went back to dreads.

I loved the tone of mine, but after 2 repairs by the local authorized Martin repair person for binding separation at the waist, I would make sure you purchase one made after 2014.

My 2015 CEO-7 is at the local authorized repair station for the binding separation problem so 2015 isn’t safe either. From what I’ve read the problem with the glue was fixed in 2016.

I also didn’t like the tuners and swapped them out for Gotoh’s.

But other than that I love my CEO-7. I bought it new in June 2015. Until last month when it went into the shop it got 95% of my playing time. With it in the shop I am rediscovering my long neglected Martin OM-21.

yeah another guy I know had this guitar and had a problem with it. Not sure what it was .

Mine is an all-mahogany Custom Shop, wonderful guitar. I am a dreadnought guy, generally speaking, but I love this little Martin. Terrific fingerpicker, great fun to play. Very responsive, dynamic, and plenty loud too.

How different is the CEO 7 from a standard 00-18? I know the neck profile is different, so if you prefer one or the other, that will affect feel. And the CEO has an Adirondack spruce top rather than Sitka spruce - how different do they sound?

-Ray

I still have my early CEO7......

The specs are great for my fingerpicking...chunky neck etc. I played it a lot when it first landed and then I had strings on it I didn’t like and still no pickup decided for it....into the back closet it shuffled unintentionally until I watched the Yesterday movie on satellite TV and grabbed it out, put new strings on it.....and played it and played it until I remembered....no pickup AND my Baggs M1A and M80 ...and others except Fishman....doesn’t FIT in the soundhole!

I will get a K&K put in plus it needs a few setup tweaks....

BluesKing777.

I had an older CEO-7 made around the time of the switch to Sipo from mahogany. It was a beautiful guitar that sounded great and I loved the v- shaped neck. BUT, it needed a neck reset and the binding reglued after less than a year and I never felt that I could fully trust it afterwards. I sold it, with a full disclosure, and replaced it with an 0-18. Hopefully the manufacturing problems were resolved by Martin on later models.