#16
|
|||
|
|||
Okay kids ... the SAGA continues. (Martian's beware; there's about to be some noise down here, and one of you has misplaced something ...)
Fed-Ex woke me up early this morning, pre-coffee, and before you know it, the driver's hand was shaken, the box hauled inside, and the case was on the couch. Pretty good for someone with only one eye open. I'm a second shift person, and 8:30 a.m. is not my favorite hour of consciousness. I stumble, and stuff goes down. Fortunately, with the current temperature, no acclimation was required. No damage occurred in transit. A careful look from headstock to the end pin hole, and everything is in great shape. Whew! It's a good looking instrument, no doubt. I had been a little afraid of it looking cheap-ish with the thin finish and lack of pore filler, but actually it's very nice. Never had a satin-finished guitar before, and I'm happy to see that there won't be any fingerprints. The tuners already look old, and the ratio must be fairly low, as it doesn't take much tuner rotation to get up to pitch. It came strung with light Retro strings. I'm not usually a fan of Martin-style 'bursts, either, but this was excellently done. Pretty silking on the top. So far ... The neck profile is a winner. Comfortable, not too meaty on the shoulders, but deep enough to fill the hand. No dead notes, no wolf tones. If it hadn'ta worked for me, I might have stopped right there. Carpal Tunnel is no joke. Tone and volume: It's loud. Surprisingly loud. Jeez ... where is all of that coming from? I had thought there might be some boxiness due to the body shape and size, but really, there's very little of that present. There's a strong mid-range, with an underlying airiness coming from the sound hole that is a breath of fresh air (pardon the pun). Lots of resonance. The bass could stand to have a stronger fretted voice, and you have to dig in for it to match the mids. I suspect that a slightly heavier string would help with that. The trebles are clear and strong, but there's not much chime in the tone (perhaps my only let down.) However, the trebles up the neck sound big and sweet when playing lead; there's nothing thin about them. The projection out in front is unusual in a guitar of this size, IMHO. It's not just a bunch of trebles with everything else missing. The bass sounds much better in front of the guitar, a lot more articulate and balanced. In the fact, the whole guitar is deeper, cleaner, and more articulate when you get five to ten feet away. I might either have to back off when I play, or set up a microphone to get the balance in line with my voice. This 00 thinks it is a friggin' baby dread. Who am I to argue with it? Finger-picking is fun, and the mid-range resonance is a fine, pretty thing. The frets feel higher than expected, so sliding might take some mental adjustment, or maybe a little crowning will help. I had figured (assumed - whoops!) that using a pick might be only for light strumming, but it's much harder to overdrive this guitar than you might think, and flatpicking was, perhaps, even more fun than fingerpicking. Quick dynamic response, and those big, thick trebles are lovely to behold. Capo: (Yeah, I cheat. I'm also large and move bodies around regularly under the awed gaze of others, want to argue about it? ) To me, a key element is how well a guitar responds to a capo. Do I have to move it around 14+ times to find a sweet spot? Will the natural tone of the guitar translate well as the scale is shortened, or will it become a tinny mess? So I went with frets 2, 4, and 7. Several songs, several keys. Lo and behold, (and especially because it is as new as new gets) it did a credible job, and sounded much better than it really should have. Some guitars can take quite a while to warm up to a capo, and some just never do. This one didn't give me much of a fight, and settled right in. Sadly, the action and nuts slots immediately needed attention, and the guitar is already in the hands of my trusted repair tech. No point in fooling around, get 'er done. Sadly ... because it will be next week before I can play it again. But I have no intention of nursing bruises under my callouses, so by noon, it was half-way across town. He was kind enough to play it for me for a while, and I was impressed with how it responded. It was the first 0017 with a spruce top that he'd had come through the shop. We might have to rassle a bit to get it back. He's small, though, and I've got the cash. I feel an impending victory coming on. Now let's see how I feel when it comes back, and I can spend a couple of weeks really putting it through some fairly grueling paces. Sage Part 2 conclusion: I like it. I was resigned to sending it right back if I didn't, regardless of the name on the headstock. I'da been cussin', but nevertheless ... I'm hard to please, so it would have been scooted back in the box if I hadn't warmed up to it. Instead, I registered it. It's like a sign, man. ... JT
__________________
"Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again." - Robert A. Heinlein |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
Ay congrats! And welcome to the Martin club.
__________________
Guitars: Martin 000C-16RGTE Guild GAD-50 Epiphone Sheraton 2 Pro Gibson Les Paul Studio Fender Stratocaster MIM w/ noiseless pickups |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
Yes, welcome to the Martin club, the guitars I retired with, and make me smile every day...........
__________________
Rich - rmyAddison Rich Macklin Soundclick Website http://www.youtube.com/rmyaddison Martin OM-18 Authentic '33 Adirondack/Mahogany Martin CS OM-28 Alpine/Madagascar Martin CS 00-42 Adirondack/Madagascar Martin OM-45TB (2005) Engelmann/Tasmanian Blackwood (#23 of 29) |