Quote:
Originally Posted by Shades of Blue
Congrats! Lovely guitar, and I was happy to read your take on V and X bracing.
I think Martin did some great things to help capture the modern crowd, except for one thing.....price. Taylor was able to offer similar price points for their V Bracing, and even the Builder's Edition 517 and 717s come in well under the price of the Modern Series. Whatever Martin is smoking must be good for them to think they could charge $1K more per model.
I doubt I will ever play a Modern Deluxe Martin simply because of the price of admission.
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$1000 is list, not street (which will be less). What you get over the standards for that is: VTS top, 1 piece mahogany neck (vs 2-3 piece), Waverly tuners, longer lasting EVO fret wire, titanium truss rod, wood bindings, GE scalloped bracing (i.e. Marquis series), full gloss headstock and neck, some abalone inlay. Plus they don't put that ridiculous yellow top toner on these and they get protein glue (debatable efficacy but some appreciate). All these changes are easily worth 6 or 7 hundred dollars upgrade to some players (the GE bracing and VTS top alone are worth that to some players). To others, not so much. I think you could argue, though, that although the MD is more expensive than the standard, the MD may actually be the greater VALUE given the sum of the specific upgrades.