Martin used or new?

[leo12]

Thanks for all the feedback! Going in today to discuss it and play again. If I have them restring it which strings are recommended with these it says it comes with the MSP4100 SP Acoustic Strings which the ones on it are gold so not sure if those are the original strings or not. I have read Martin strings on a Martin sound the best?

[mawmow]

in my opinion, if an OOO-18 2017 hung there for three years and shows some marks as it has been played many times, it is now a "demo" and you should get a rebate on the sale price.

That being said, it should have opened up...

[M19]

Originally Posted by leo12

Thanks for all the feedback! Going in today to discuss it and play again. If I have them restring it which strings are recommended with these it says it comes with the MSP4100 SP Acoustic Strings which the ones on it are gold so not sure if those are the original strings or not. I have read Martin strings on a Martin sound the best?

Without an experienced preference, I'd say stick with the strings recommended by the factory. However, if you tell them what style you intend to play, they may have a different recommendation (80/20 vs. PB, etc,).

[Wade Hampton]

Dru wrote:

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

If the strings aren't fresh then ask the dealer to put on a new set, even if you're just trying out the guitar. They should for a prospective buyer...

One thought - what I’ve found easiest is to offer to buy a set of strings and offer to put them on myself. If you as the prospective buyer just say: “Put some new strings on this guitar” it can engender both annoyance and resentment on the part of the staff, particularly if they don’t already know you.

There are a lot of tire kickers who are perfectly happy to generate extra work for the store employees but have no intentions of actually buying anything. Expecting the sales clerks to drop what they’re doing to change strings for you can come across as entitlement.

But if you offer to pay for the strings, you no longer come across as a bored dilettante and time waster. Their attitude will change accordingly.

I’ve taken that approach in music stores many times, and what almost always happens is that one of them will put on a set of strings but won’t let me pay for them. There’s only ever been one time when I had to pay for the strings.

It seems if you offer to pay for the strings you’re no longer seen as a freeloader taking up their time, but as someone who’s willing to put his money where his mouth is. That will evaporate instantly, though, if you pull your own set of strings out of a pocket. So don’t bring your own strings with you!

Just a thought.

So I agree with Dru that getting the strings changed is a good idea, but making the offer to pay for them will make the sales clerk happier.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by leo12

I have read Martin strings on a Martin sound the best?

Not necessarily. I doubt that any of the four Martin guitars I once owned had Martin brand strings on them, ever. There will be different brands/gauges/alloys that sound better or worse on any given guitar. It's like changing the oil in your car using a Fram oil filter instead of a Ford branded one. (Aside: I've been in a filter factory and saw all of the various brands coming off the same assembly line, but going to different paint areas depending on the brand and its signature color).

NOS (new old stock) is a real thing. The oldest NOS guitar that I bought in the fall of 2014 was built in summer 2010, but it was still considered new for warranty purposes. It also did not have any appreciable shop wear.

[leo12]

Well I ended up taking home the 000-18 and being I loved the current way it sounded I left the stings and they gave me an extra set at no charge.

I am a beginner but this guitar makes everything sound better and that's saying something! It is so much easier to play than the gs mini. If I had to describe it I would say a balanced sweet woody tone.

[emtsteve]

000-18's are fantastic guitars. Enjoy!

[Earl49]

Congrats! A 000-18 is a great guitar. Now get off the forum and play it until your fingers bleed!

[leo12]

It hurts to type but hey that's part of the journey!

[ChrisE]

Ahem...

Photos, please. (It’s a law).

[Br1ck]

Don't Taylors come with Elixers? Cheap insurance that the strings don't go dead before the guitar is sold. Other point of sale decisions are low actions.

Martin strings on Martins are more about selling you strings than anything else.

[sakar12]

Ernie Ball sounds way better on my Martin than any other brand.

Originally Posted by Earl49

Not necessarily. I doubt that any of the four Martin guitars I once owned had Martin brand strings on them, ever. There will be different brands/gauges/alloys that sound better or worse on any given guitar. It's like changing the oil in your car using a Fram oil filter instead of a Ford branded one. (Aside: I've been in a filter factory and saw all of the various brands coming off the same assembly line, but going to different paint areas depending on the brand and its signature color).

NOS (new old stock) is a real thing. The oldest NOS guitar that I bought in the fall of 2014 was built in summer 2010, but it was still considered new for warranty purposes. It also did not have any appreciable shop wear.

[bufflehead]

Originally Posted by leo12

I have read Martin strings on a Martin sound the best?

As a general rule, no. However, on a series 18 Martin, you simply must try a set of Martin Retros. I've got two Martins with mahogany back and sides, and I'm running Retros on both of them.

Congrats on the new guitar. Of course, no one on this forum will believe you truly took that guitar home without photographic evidence.

[ChrisE]

I’ve tried all the various coated strings on my D-18–Elixir, Daddario XT and EXP, Martin Lifespan and Lifespan 2.0 and they all sound great. So do the Martin Retros.

I’ve also tried medium, light, and bluegrass and they’re all great, too.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by leo12

I have read Martin strings on a Martin sound the best?

Leo, I have just read this question of yours now.

No, it’s a myth that the strings that come on a guitar are the brand that you should use on it forever after. Most strings that get used by guitar factories are the result of business agreements between the string company and the guitar company. In the case of Martin guitars the string manufacturer is another division of the same company, but in most instances the strings that come stock on the guitars are the result of business negotiations between two different firms.

For the guitar companies, it’s simple: they want good-sounding strings at the best bulk price they can get. For the string manufacturers, what bulk price they’ll give the guitar company depends on how much publicity they’ll get in exchange.

If the guitar company lists the strings used on their website and in their printed PR materials, that’ll get them one bulk price. If the guitar company agrees to put hang tags on their new instruments saying: “To get the best sound from your new guitar, we recommend you use X brand strings,” that will get them a better bulk price.

If the next time you go into a music store you see any hangtags like that, you’ll KNOW that that’s the result of a mutually beneficial business agreement.

Some guitar owners simply don’t want to believe that, and I won’t be surprised if someone posts a vigorous (even strident) response to what I’ve written here in this thread. If you’ve always believed that recommended strings are the ones you need to use, in their case the mutually beneficial business agreement I mentioned has been doing exactly what the string manufacturer had hoped: made a long term, possibly permanent customer out of that person.

But it’s simply not true. No guitar company will knowingly use bad-sounding strings (which scarcely even exist in this day and age,) but which brand of strings gets chosen is almost always a business decision, not a musical one.

When Elixir pioneered the use of coated strings they quickly captured an unprecedented percentage of the strings put on new guitars at the factories, because for the first time they offered a practical solution for the problem of potential customers killing the sound of the strings on guitars hanging in showrooms, either from skin chemistry or personal hygiene. But as soon as other string manufacturers got up to speed making their own coated strings, Elixir’s market share of strings put on guitars at the factories dropped accordingly.

It still comes down to price, and large string manufacturers like D’Addario can offer a lower bulk price than smaller companies like Elixir, which doesn’t make its own strings but buys strings in bulk from subcontractors that they then coat with their proprietary coating.

That said, I will say that one exception to that general rule is the use of Elixir strings on Taylor guitars. That particular brand of guitars is noted for its treble response, but the coating on Elixirs seems to help tone that down and give Taylor guitars a “warmer” sound.

So I do think there are tonal benefits to using that brand of strings on that brand of guitars.

But that’s the rare exception to the general rule that the choice of string brand that gets used by guitar manufacturers has more to do with materials costs and business agreements than anything else.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller