Anybody have a Martin SC-13E yet?

[Cecil6243]

Just wondered your thoughts on this guitar.





https://www.martinguitar.com/guitars...DuLap_PCyIE-jQ

[Pdubs76]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

Just wondered your thoughts on this guitar.


https://www.martinguitar.com/guitars...DuLap_PCyIE-jQ

I never played one but I’m curious now that you mentioned it. I like the idea of a low action, low profile guitar that still delivers on sound and projection.

[Cecil6243]

I see Sweetwater has it listed about $300.00 below others. Definitely affordable.

[Cecil6243]

Wow not in stock. Martin is shut down due to Covid and has been off and on? I will be in line though so not concerned.

[TDavis]

Maybe I'm just old, and set in my conservative ways...but I cannot cozy up to the body shape at all. Maybe the tone and playability of this guitar can and will make up for the...unique body shape.

[Cecil6243]

Originally Posted by Ozarkpicker

Maybe I'm just old, and set in my conservative ways...but I cannot cozy up to the body shape at all. Maybe the tone and playability of this guitar can and will make up for the...unique body shape.

You don't like the cutaway look?

[fpuhan]

Hmm, an interesting twist on a theme: Design an acoustic to be played as an electric, but still make it look like an acoustic. It appeals to me as a conflicted acoustic-electric-acoustic player, so I'd consider it.

The semi-hollowbodied guitars I own (ES-225, ES-335, Ibanez AG95QA) all look the part of electric-acoustics, but play well enough unplugged (for practice). I have a couple of acoustics (LXD1RE, GS Mini, BBT-e) that I rarely plug in, and seem to me to be primarily acoutics with electric components "added on."

This one appears to be in the latter category, but Martin's marketing slug says, "It was designed from the ground up to be plugged in." Hmmm.

[Coler]

Yes.

I like mine a lot. It's that rare thing that lived up to all of the marketing bumpf.

There's various posts and some Q&D recordings in my history. The unplugged tone is great. Incredibly balanced. Fantastic for recording and gigging. My 000-28 is more complex, objectively better, but for twice the price I would hope so.

Plugged in the SC13E is very nice too. The pick up is nothing special though.

The neck is everything they say it is. An incredibly playable guitar all told, and sounds great (action super out of the box buy intonation needed adjusting)

There are more posts and some recordings in my history. I will certainly be keeping mine.

Anyone offering opinion on how it might play and sound who hasn't tried one...lol (edit: I don't actually understand what the post below is supposed to mean but I don't think he has played one).

[Wade Hampton]

I’ve seen one in one store, our local Anchorage Guitar Center, but it was hung up in the top row in the furthest back acoustic guitar room and - as usual - there were no GC employees within sight or earshot.

Nothing unusual about that in any primarily electric guitar-oriented music store; a lot of the kids and young men who make up the majority of the stores’ work force have little knowledge of and less interest in acoustic instruments.

But you’d think that the store managers would assign an employee or two to at least keep an eye on the acoustic rooms, since that part of the store houses some of the most expensive inventory they carry.

That rarely seems to happen, though, for whatever reason.

Personally, I’m always delighted when I see young women working as sales clerks, not only in music stores but also (especially) in techie jobs at computer outlets like the Apple stores.

In those jobs women tend to have less ego, less resentment at having to answer questions from customers that the male techs clearly think to be idiots, and more sincere desire to help the people who wander in and want to spend their money there.

At the Apple Store I’ll actually wait for female techs to become available rather than have their male colleagues scowl at me whenever I ask any questions that they consider to be moronic.

So let’s hear it for the women of the world; most of them are much smarter than most guys. So get ready, and. Here. We. Go:

Hip hip HOORAY!

Hip hip HOORAY!!

Hip hip HOORAY!!!!

We return you now to our regular scheduled acoustic guitar programming:

So I haven’t yet had a chance to play the Martin in question, but I can immediately grasp how the slightly asymmetrical body shape will make it easier both to record and to get a good stage sound, by cutting back on a lot of the overtones that normally make those tasks more difficult.

So I plan to play a few the next time the opportunity presents itself.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[dnf777]

Originally Posted by Ozarkpicker

Maybe I'm just old, and set in my conservative ways...but I cannot cozy up to the body shape at all. Maybe the tone and playability of this guitar can and will make up for the...unique body shape.

Im with you. May be a fine guitar, but I cant get past the offset waist.

[MaurysMusic]

Originally Posted by dnf777

Im with you. May be a fine guitar, but I cant get past the offset waist.

FWIW, it looks even more offset in-person. I don't mind it, but it's certainly different.

[Matt McGriff]

I don’t understand why they put a single source piezo pickup in this model. If it is truly a guitar made to be plugged in, put a pickup in it that sounds good. Seems like Martin tends to turn to Fishman as a pickup supplier and from my consumer perspective they are lagging behind in the multi source/modeling area. The Aura was great 10 years ago. But think about the Baggs Anthem, Yamaha SRT and Atmosfeel, and Cole Clark multi source options. Heck, even a K&K would be a better choice.

[jonfields45]

Originally Posted by Matt McGriff

I don’t understand why they put a single source piezo pickup in this model. If it is truly a guitar made to be plugged in, put a pickup in it that sounds good. Seems like Martin tends to turn to Fishman as a pickup supplier and from my consumer perspective they are lagging behind in the multi source/modeling area. The Aura was great 10 years ago. But think about the Baggs Anthem, Yamaha SRT and Atmosfeel, and Cole Clark multi source options. Heck, even a K&K would be a better choice.

A single source UST is the most feedback resistant option short of a sound hole magnetic. I think high stage volume goes with the total electric guitar like marketing package.

With ToneDexter, Soundscape, or a NUX Optima Air, an IR can be used to perfect any type of piezo to a microphone of choice target (and reintroduce the loss of stage volume tolerance...). If you've got the money, the latest ToneDexter 2.x seems the best of the bunch.

[TDavis]

Originally Posted by Cecil6243

You don't like the cutaway look?

Although I prefer symmetry in the body shape of my guitars...I'm not against a cutaway.

The particular cutaway of the SC-13E just appears really odd to me. Not attractive at all.

Just my 2-cents...

[boneuphtoner]

Originally Posted by Ozarkpicker

Maybe I'm just old, and set in my conservative ways...but I cannot cozy up to the body shape at all. Maybe the tone and playability of this guitar can and will make up for the...unique body shape.

When I saw the release that was my reaction also - factoring in the laminate wood made it even more so. However, When I played one last month for the first time, I was very impressed. It was better (warmer tone with fingerstyle) than most of the Taylor grand auditoriums that were on display, and if I hadn’t already made other recent acquisitions, it would have come home with me that day. It had a much richer sound than I expected