Anyone own a Martin D Junior?

[smalltownjoe]

Originally Posted by Gmountain

What are you waiting for?

Gotta sell my Takamine dreadnought first....

[Good_Vibrations]

I own the Spuce top version with electronics, although I played the all Hog version as well. BOTH are Excellent instrument with the Sapele being a little warmer.
Bass- Excellent
Mids - Superb
**Highs - WARM (think D chord) **
I have owned MANY guitars over the years, and I can tell you you would be hard pressed to find ANY guitar at this price point (Martin or Not) the plays and Sounds as good as these GEMS !
The one thing you almost never get on a Sub $1000 Guitar is warm Highs. It's annoying (Cheap Chinese Tinny Sounding Highs)
My search is finally over for a COMFORTABLE Excellent Sounding and playing instrument.
Hey," of course you know how it is though, if I find something better i'm all in, regardless of Name Brand.

[BabyBoomer]

My grandson has one. It get a lot of playtime. Good beginner guitar.

[stephenT]

Way more than a beginner guitar IMO. Mine stands alongside my more expensive guitars in sound (for the buck) and playability.

I do wish for a solid wood fingerboard and bridge which would make the guitar perfect, but at $510 new w/ electronics, it's and unbeatable value. I've played some full sized D-18 that didn't sound as good.

[lowrider]

I've had my spruce topped Djr for almost a year. I bought it to take on vacation but it's become the one I grab to take when I go somewhere. Naturally smaller tone than the bigger Martins, but it sounds like a Martin all the way.

[buddyholly713]

I have a Martin DJr 10 I recently purchased online brand new. Much to my surprise and disappointment, it arrived with a black pickguard, unlike the listing which clearly showed the normal faux tortoise shell pickguard. I called the vendor to discuss and he told me Martin is having a supply problem with the tortoise shell variety and is putting black ones on many of their guitars, not just the DJrs. I emailed Martin to confirm, and they did. They hope to return to the tortoise shell ones as soon as possible.

So I had the option to return it, but thought I would just get used to the black one. My family calls this a YGUTI -- "You'll get used to it." Turns out I didn't. The brown pickguard goes well with the overall acoustic look, but black doesn't IMO.

So I bought a Proline brand tortoise shell replacement from GC after reading tutorials online on removing the old one. Looked messy and complicated. I decided to see what would happen if I just pulled the black one off. Much to my surprise and relief it came off as easily as if it were a Post-it note, and left no residue. I peeled and stuck the Proline one on and viola, a nice looking top once again.

I'd like to post a picture, but I see you have to put your photo on a website first. This seems odd, since eBay and many other sites let you pull it from your computer. I wanted to show that the Proline, made for a standard guitar, is slightly oversized for the Djunior, but to my eye it's insignificant.

[buddyholly713]

By the way, I know this thread is titled "Martin D Junior" and mine is a Martin D Junior 10, the follow-on model with a slightly more shallow body, but otherwise pretty much identical to the original Junior. I didn't see a thread for the 10 model, though I may have overlooked it. Anyway, my comments about the black pickguard would not apply here, I suppose, since the older versions surely all shipped with a tortoise shell pickguard. But if you have a recent 10 model they may be helpful.

[phydaux]

I considered one before I bought my GS Mini. Even traveled a fair bit to get to a store that had one in stock. After playing it for a while it didn’t convince me to NOT get the Mini.

If I don’t fall in love with a guitar immediately then I don’t buy it.

[blakey]

If you thought the Martin Djr was susceptible to humidity the Taylor academy series are even worse. Thinner tops and no back bracing. Mine was like a papier mache yoyo, so glad to have got rid of it.

[stephenT]

Originally Posted by phydaux

I considered one before I bought my GS Mini. Even traveled a fair bit to get to a store that had one in stock. After playing it for a while it didn’t convince me to NOT get the Mini.

If I don’t fall in love with a guitar immediately then I don’t buy it.

you'd be surprised at the number of AGF threads with the opposite result.

[phydaux]

Originally Posted by stephenT

you'd be surprised at the number of AGF threads with the opposite result.

No, many posters had no problem telling me how wrong I was. Don’t care. My ears. I bought the guitar I loved.

[buddyholly713]

Anyone given any thought to, or had luck with, replacing the tuners on your dreadnought junior? I find them to be perhaps the one weak link in an otherwise fine guitar, especially at this price point.

Some of my tuners are better than others, but at their worst they don't fine-tune so well, in that they will move the tone up or down noticeably with just a gentle turn. The open-gear Grover tuners on my 000-18 are far more precise. Of course, that's comparing a $2,200 Martin to a $500 instrument.

The current Martin closed-gear turners are held on with one screw, whereas the open-gear ones have two screws. I'd like the footprint of the new ones to at least cover the current footprint.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[stephenT]

Originally Posted by phydaux

No, many posters had no problem telling me how wrong I was. Don’t care. My ears. I bought the guitar I loved.

I'm a fan of both guitars, great designs and great pricing.

[ish5]

Love when people call a $500 instrument “beginner” or “entry level.” I just bought a DJR-10e a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it. I looked at the GS also but I liked the sound of this one better. I have no use for the electronics but I wanted the all sapele model and I couldn’t find one without the “e” so I went with it.

The guitar is very simple. No bling. Light finish. Sounds great. Not as boomy as a dread but definitely plenty loud. The body is actually a 000 depth with a dread shape, so it’s a little more comfortable to sit with. You can get discounts on it, so shop around a little. I can’t say enough good things about it.

Like the poster above mine came with a black pick guard but it’s the sapele model so I’m not sure if that one has always come with black or not. I think it did.

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by buddyholly713

Anyone given any thought to, or had luck with, replacing the tuners on your dreadnought junior? I find them to be perhaps the one weak link in an otherwise fine guitar, especially at this price point.

Some of my tuners are better than others, but at their worst they don't fine-tune so well, in that they will move the tone up or down noticeably with just a gentle turn. The open-gear Grover tuners on my 000-18 are far more precise. Of course, that's comparing a $2,200 Martin to a $500 instrument.

The current Martin closed-gear turners are held on with one screw, whereas the open-gear ones have two screws. I'd like the footprint of the new ones to at least cover the current footprint.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

I recently did a tuner swap on my Djr with some help from Mak2525. I chose Grover open gear oval buttons. Unfortunately, neither the top or the bottom screw hole line up but I drilled new ones. I believe Gotoh and Waverly should line up with one of the holes but you'll need to drill another. It's not too difficult. The most difficult part is probably making sure they're aligned correctly and widening the holes on the headstock for larger bushings. I used this video as a guide from Bryan Kimsey. Find a drill bit the same size as your new bushings and use that. I think I may be doing this again to another Djr and if I do, I'm going to try using Gotoh SE700s.

https://youtu.be/IGrFNit7308?t=772