Anyone try a 00-17 1931 Authentic

[PiousDevil]

If so I would love to hear your reviews, and if you have also played a 000-15sm how it compares. My 000-15sm has become my favorite guitar and I regularly drool over the 00-17 authentic

[Llewlyn]

There is a long thread on umgf where it seems to be quite liked.

Ll.

[Stringmaster]

Yes—check out the UMGF thread! I have a 00-17A and love it. It’s light as a feather and very responsive. The quality is up there with any boutique guitar I’ve owned or played, especially the finish which is “glassy” for lack of a better description—no stickiness at all. The neck feels great—full with a mild V. You have to be ok with a wide nut and string spacing; I have average sized hands and had no problem with the neck width, but the bridge spacing took some getting used to. Now that I’m used to the spacing it’s hard to play instruments with narrower string spacing (for fingerstyle). I don’t feel the 00-17 is the most versatile guitar, but it’s not a one-trick pony. It works for me for finger and flat picking (especially) and strumming, but I don’t love it for comping swing chords. The guitar is just a pleasure to play! I also love the aesthetics—plain ornamentation, no headstock decal, Brazilian fingerboard, bridge, and so on.
I used to own a Martin 000, 12-fret, all hog (don’t remember the model number) with a satin finish. It was a fine guitar, but it wasn’t built lightly like the Authentic. I could maybe slam on it more, but it was less responsive. Hopefully you can find one to try, to see if it floats your boat!

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by PiousDevil

If so I would love to hear your reviews, and if you have also played a 000-15sm how it compares. My 000-15sm has become my favorite guitar and I regularly drool over the 00-17 authentic

I was you up until a few weeks ago. In this sense anyway...

I got a 000-15SM last Summer and have completely fallen in love with it. I have an Emerald X7 that had been my one and only for almost a year, but the 000 has gotten almost all of my playing time and I just sold the Emerald - I really didn't think I'd ever consider selling that.

But I had the same thought. I absolutely love the 12 fret 000 with the full scale and reasonably wide string spacing and I figured the 00-17 A was the ultimate guitar of that type. It was on my list as a "someday" guitar because it was really out of my price range, more than I've ever spent on a guitar by a lot. Then I heard that Martin was in the process of dis-continuing them and I figured it was now or never - there are so few out there I didn't figure it was gonna be something I'd come by used very often. And with the lack of a truss rod, I really wanted to buy new so I'd have Martin's warranty on it. I found one for $3700 with a 30 day return period and bought it. I returned it two days later.

What I found - and most of this is just a matter of personal taste, so YMMV

• The neck is REALLY wide and beefy with that 1 7/8 nut and 2 3/8 string spacing. I have pretty big hands and like big necks but this one pushed my limits. I loved it for fingerpicking, with it's incredibly wide string spacing. But for just strumming and flat picking, not as much. I could get used to it, it wasn't a deal breaker, but it wasn't a positive.
  
  
• The tone was sublime for fingerpicking, just sweet and complex where the 15SM has a bit more raw and funky sound. Hard to describe, but I LOVED the tone for fingerpicking. A major positive. But I'm not very far along with fingerpicking and I can make any guitar sound equally bad, so that wasn't gonna be my determining factor either.
  
  
• I really didn't love it for strumming. I LOVE the 15SM as a strummer, it's got that heavy mid-rangy sound and will really bark and growl if you push it. And it's pretty loud. The refinement of the 00-17A tone just didn't work as well for me - it's better balanced and more complex, lotta sustain, but not near as much punch as the 15SM. I just didn't like it near as much for strumming. And since this would have had to be my one and only acoustic, probably for the rest of my days, that was a deal breaker.
  
  
• Ergonomically, I love the larger 000 12-fret body but didn't get along with the smaller 00 12-fret body. I've played 00 14 fret guitars and loved the small body. But the problem with the 00-17A for me is that the shorter body and narrower lower bout meant my arm hung over the guitar (I play seated basically all the time) in a way that my right hand naturally falls way to the left of the bridge, almost over the soundhole. I like to play with the edge of my palm anchored on the bridge pins both for leverage, comfort, stability when fingerpicking, and for palm muting. This guitar was not comfortable for me to do this at all - I had to pull my arm way back to the right, a very un-natural feeling. It made me realize this is also part of why I wasn't playing my Emerald X7 anymore - it's got the same issue in spades. Didn't bother me when I first got it, but I guess once I got used to how my hand fell on the 000-15SM, I wasn't comfortable without that. This is purely a matter of how these guitars fit my body. Another guy who recently moved form a 000-15SM to a 00-17A had exactly the opposite reaction - I think he's smaller than me and he found the 00-17A a personal revelation. So this is just me and might not be the case with you at all. Interesting to me that I haven't had this issue with 14 fret double O bodies - I think they tend to be a big wider and the bridge is further from the back edge of the guitar, so my arm hangs over it differently. I think a CEO-7 may be in my future if I like the tone of it. That slightly larger than normal 00 body with the wider string spacing sounds pretty sublime to me. And at around $2000 instead of almost $4000, it won't have to be a one and only - I can keep the 000-15SM as well if I want to.

Either of the last two issues would have been a deal-breaker for me. The combination, along with the fact that it would have had to be my only acoustic and the cost of it and how difficult I was realizing it might be to sell all of my other stuff to fund it as implications of the pandemic started to become more clear made it a very quick and easy call. The 00-17 A is a wonderful instrument. If you could have it among a bunch of other guitars as a specialist and it works for you ergonomically, it's awesome. But as an only guitar, it wouldn't have worked for me at all. On balance I prefer the 15SM despite it being roughly 1/3 of the cost.

There are long threads over on UMGF about this - I made the same observations over there. Most of the folks over there who have it love it. I think I ran into one other guy who had it and the 000-15SM and also preferred the 000. But since I've ventured back over here after having stayed away for a while, when I saw your question I figured I had pretty relevant experience.

As always, what's right for me might not be for you. It's probably worth trying if you can find a way to.

-Ray

[yaharadelta]

I've not played one, it sounds like it's right up my alley. All mahogany, 12 fret, wide string spacing. I like a 1-13/16 nut, haven't played a guitar with a 1-7/8 nut. I'm just jumping in here to say that Guitar Center is offering 48 months 0% interest on Martin guitars priced at over $1499. It's tempting me, that and 45 days to return it if I don't like it...........?

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by yaharadelta

I've not played one, it sounds like it's right up my alley. All mahogany, 12 fret, wide string spacing. I like a 1-13/16 nut, haven't played a guitar with a 1-7/8 nut. I'm just jumping in here to say that Guitar Center is offering 48 months 0% interest on Martin guitars priced at over $1499. It's tempting me, that and 45 days to return it if I don't like it...........?

Call around. I bought (and returned) one a few weeks ago for $3700 with a 30 day return. In that process a Guitar Center rep wouldn't go that low, but offered it at $4200 - not sure if they'd do that plus the financing but they might. The $4799 you see listed is the Minimum Advertised Price at 80% of list. You shouldn't have to pay near that much. A lot of Martin dealers will go as low as 60% of list price, which would be $3600. I suspect with what this pandemic is doing to business right now, many would go that low, maybe even lower... I bought mine back before we realized quite how dire this mess was gonna be, medically and economically. Also if you buy from a smaller out of state shop, they probably won't charge sales tax.

Definitely a guitar worth checking out - I thought it might be my ultimate guitar, already being a 12-fret hog lover. It's really nice, just didn't work for me in a couple of areas.

-Ray

[zoopeda]

Oh man, these are great guitars. I borrowed one for a few weeks once in a local swap. Incredible tone, aesthetic, feel. More versatile than I expected—handle flatpick and fingers well. Hugely resonant. I’d played the 15 series Martins and had sort of given up on hog top guitars. This one blows my hair back and totally shattered that impression. Get one in your hands and decide. Weirdly, I expected the nut width to be too much, but the profile on this feels perfect to me. So ergonomic and feels very manageable for the width. “If I had a million dollars...” (and even if I could only have a small handful of guitars), this would be one. Go for it!