Oh dilemma of dilemmas!
I have a ‘44 Martin 0-17........tone with a capital T.......like some vintage leather car seat, fabulous til it needs work! While I prefer a 1 3/4” nut for fingerpicking, I can get away with a capo on the 2nd fret, but my preferred size guitar is.....a 00!!!
I use to own a 000-15 for 10 years from new, but sold it after getting the 44 0-17.....it needed another 75 years of being belted to approach the tone of the 44.
So, my opinion, a new 00-17 Custom Shop like above is going to need a lot of years and work to get the old wood tone, maybe leave it outside for a week then leave it in an attic through summer, then.....get it repaired a few times! Same might apply to the Waterloo all mahoganies, though I am a big Waterloo fan and may go that way.
I played my 0-17 at lunchtime today - capo on 2, glorious but I need a little more body! Then tonight I played my 2007 000-28ec then my 2015 OM18 Authentic.....great, great guitars with the right amount of real estate but.....they still sound new!
But really, for me, for fingerpicking blues, give me a 1937 Martin 00-17 with 1 3/4” nut please! (Would I sell my 44 0-17 if I bought a 37 00-17? Nope, they are too hard to find these days!)
BluesKing777.
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