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The flatpicked guitar reviews database is here to help educate people before they purchase an instrument. Of course, this is not meant to be a substitute for playing the instrument yourself!
161 reviews in the archive.
Where Purchased: Used
Year Purchased: 2010
Price Paid: 1300 ($US) (bought USED)
The D-28 sound is what has made it the standard for a rosewood dreanought. Bright trebles, edgy bass, punchy "in your face" kind of sound. Clear and distinct, and yet complex. Play it softly, and it is quiet. Play it hard, and it is LOUD. Ideal for lead and flatpicking. If you must have amplification with it, put it in front of a mic. I can find nothing to dislike about its sound. This 21 year old example has matured Very nicely.
Sound Rating: 10
The setup on this guitar was what I consider ideal, however this is a twenty-one year old guitar, so it doesn't have its original setup.
Martin's initial setup is what might be considered at the high limits, at the nut and at the saddle. Their rationale for this is that the nut and saddle may be cut down to suit the new owner's preferences.
Setup Rating: 5
Standard Martin appointments. Semi-gloss neck, high gloss body. You won't find any finish flaws on a new one. Built for function, with minimal "bling."
Appearance Rating: 10
It's a standard Martin. Everything on it will last if properly cared for.
Reliability Rating: 10
This guitar was purchased used, and has no warranty.
Martin warrants their guitars for a lifetime to the original owner, and they have a full customer service network for warranty and non-warranty repairs. I have no direct experience with Martin's repair department, but I have not heard any complaints about them. Their customer service has been very helpful in answering my inquiries.
Customer Service: 10
I can find nothing to dislike about any component of this guitar.
Components Rating: 10
The Martin D-28 is the standard by which all dreadnought guitars are measured. Someone who is not satisfied with a D-28 is going to be quite hard to please.
It would be unreasonable to expect a brand new D-28 to sound as exceptional as this 21 year old example.
All solid wood guitars can sound "tight" or limited when they are new, and the D-28 is no exception. A period of breaking in, or "opening up" can take years, before the guitar's tone really begins to become prominent.
Overall Rating: 10
Where Purchased: Used
Year Purchased: 2009
Price Paid: 1600 ($US) (bought USED)
Martin solid spruce/solid East Indian Rosewood, scalloped X brace, dovetail neck joint dreadnought. All these characteristics come together to produce the famous Martin sound. Distinctive loud, broad spectrum, well balanced authoritative tone from the low E on up. Well rounded tone that sounds great strummed, flatpicked, or fingerpicked. Some might call it boomy and bassy. Perhaps not a totally ideal flatpicking lead guitar, because of that, but it makes up for that in that it sounds great in any situation. It can hold its own anywhere in the hands of someone who knows how to light it up. (not necessarily me BTW)
Sound Rating: 10
I bought it used. It had obviously been well set up by a previous owner. I can't speak for the original setup. My understanding is that Martin guitars come new with a slightly high action. It is assumed that a new guitar should be set up to suit the new owners preferences. The high settings facilitate doing this easily without having to replace a nut or saddle.
Setup Rating: 10
Aside from the scratches and imperfections that were obviously made since the guitar was new, I can find no fault with the fit and finish. The year model I have came with the black plastic pickguard. (my preference would be a tortoise type.)
Appearance Rating: 9
The chrome enclosed tuners work smoothly. The nitro lacquer finish is perhaps not the most durable finish, but it has held up nicely on this example. The bridge pins are plastic, but they seem to be original, and are still in good condition.
Reliability Rating: 10
Martin warrants new guitars to the original owner for lifetime. Since I am not the original owner, the guitar does not have a warranty. Still, Martin customer service has been very helpful and accommodating to my inquiries. No one I know has anything bad to say about Martin customer service.
Customer Service: 10
The bridge pin holes are straight, and the pins are tapered. I would prefer tapered bridge pin holes. I would also prefer a slotted bridge and unslotted bridge pins.
Oh, and the standard 640 thermoplastic case seems substandard for a guitar of this quality.
Components Rating: 9
The Martin HD-28 is probably second only to the D-28 in popularity and sales. Of all the guitars I've owned, I bonded with this one the quickest. This is a lifetime keeper.
Overall Rating: 10
Where Purchased: Internet site
Good application for creating and editing professional grade sheet music with full guitar tablature. Multi-track capable. Built in MIDI capability for playback of written scores. Gives audible feedback on each note entry. Great for composing original music, or for tabbing in music from recordings. Fairly easy to learn and use the many features offered. Well thought out user interface.
Now for the bad:
Guitar Pro is a memory and resource hog. It uses a substantial percent of the computer's resources, and it will run slowly if there are any other applications running. This limits its usefulness in that it would be expected to be used in conjunction with audio recording/editing software such as Audacity.
Guitar Pro also has problems with memory leakage. After about fifteen minutes of use, error warnings of low memory will begin to appear, and the application will become sluggish. (The error messages are in French.) Even after shutting Guitar Pro down, it takes Windows about five minutes to fully recover.
These problems showed up on three different computers that I tried Guitar Pro on.
Support from Guitar Pro regarding this problem has been useless. After about a dozen email exchanges with their customer support, describing the problems in detail, their final response was that they could not resolve my problem.
It is a shame that such a potentially useful application is rendered pretty much useless by software bugs and inadequate customer support. I have to give it a thumbs-down.
Overall Rating: 2
Where Purchased: Ebay
Clip-on headstock LED/LCD tuner. Available for about $29.95 at most places. This tuner is the successor to the PT1. It compact and light. The contact surfaces are non-marring. It has two buttons, one for on/off, the other sequentially cycles the "A" pitch from 440 up to 450, and down to 430 in 1 hz increments. It will automatically power off after a brief period of lack of input.
The PT10 reads all the strings well, whether the string is struck hard or soft. When you hit a string, the PT10 immediately displays the pitch. The LCD display simulates a meter movement, with a range of plus or minus 50 cents with the center indicating in-tune. The LED backlight shows red until you get the meter needle centered, and then it turns green. It is easy to read an any light situation.
Unlike several other tuners this one has good pitch resolution. If it says the string is in tune, it's in tune. I rarely have to sweeten any chords after using it. Because of this extra accuracy, you might find it to be a bit fussy, but if you are patient, it will get you in tune.
The clip location dictates that the tuner must be mounted on the back of the headstock if you want the display to be right side up. That's not a problem for me because I prefer it there, but some users, particularly slothead owners might not like it. The button placement is on the clip side of the tuner, and that can make turning it on and off a little awkward. Also, if you inadvertently hit the other button, you will change the center frequency, and you have to cycle it through all the way to get back to 440. It doesn't seem to default to 440. Even turning it off doesn't bring it back to 440.
Overall, I am quite satisfied with the PT10. This is the best clip-on tuner I have tried so far.
Overall Rating: 9
Description from catalog:
Learn to play melody lines like Maybelle Carter, add back-up licks in the style of Doc Watson, flatpick fiddle tunes like Norman Blake, and more. It's all within your reach if you're already comfortable with chord changes in a few keys like C and G and are ready to expand your technique with patient, experienced teachers. Tablature will be provided. (Level 3)
If you've not heard of the John Campbell Folk School, look it up. It's a great place to take a week-long class in one of dozens of subjects from blacksmithing to gardening. Music is a staple here, from dulcimer to banjo.
If you've not heard of Steve Kilby, look him up. Listen to some of his stuff. He is a really great flatpicker. He's also an excellent teacher with a great sense of humor. He provides tablature for the music, and goes through it at a very slow comfortable pace, about a measure or two at a time. There's usually some beginners, and some accomplished players in the class, and they all come away having learned something. You'll come away from the class with some new tunes to work on, some new friends, and some great memories. I've not been to any other camps or workshops, so I can't compare this to anything else, but I enjoyed it, and I felt I got my money's worth.
Overall Rating: 7
Where Purchased: Musician's Workshop
Year Purchased: 2008
Price Paid: 1066 ($US)
This guitar sounds like no other I've ever played. It has a much deeper bass to it than I would have expected from a sapele dreadnought. It's tone has a pleasant ring or shimmer to it that I'm told is typical of Taylor guitars. I have never heard it played by another, but I suspect that it projects well. From a player's perspective, it seems to be a quiet guitar, but my recording gear settings based on a microphone in front of it indicate that it's loud from that perspective. It records well. It sounds very good flatpicked, if you remember to pick a little closer to the bridge than you normally would. It can sound a little muddy otherwise. It also responds well to bare fingerpicking. It feels light, and the whole guitar seems to vibrate when played.
Sound Rating: 9
Strangely, the setup was not perfect when I got it. The frets are perfectly level and nicely crowned and polished. The relief was about .005. The string heights at the nut were a bit high, and required some filing. The 12th fret heights were also high, and required a neck reset. (No big deal on a Taylor NT neck joint)
Setup Rating: 7
It is a plain guitar, with no fancy abalone trim or inlays, although it does have a beautiful bound fretboard. All the trim is plastic, but it is all precisely and perfectly placed and finished. The top and back are not bookmatched, but the wood is very tight, straight grained. It has no pickguard. Fit and finish are typically Taylor flawless.
Appearance Rating: 8
The tuners operate smoothly and consistently, and should not need any attention. The top is gloss finish, and the rest of the guitar is satin finish. All surfaces are durable. The satin finish will show heavy wear areas fairly readily as they polish out. Given reasonable care, this guitar should last a long time.
Reliability Rating: 7
The guitar is covered by a lifetime warranty. Taylor's reputation is impeccable as far as standing behind their products. I have required no warranty work as of yet.
Customer Service: 9
The NT neck has impressed me. The luthier was able to set the neck angle precisely to the optimum for proper string height/saddle height, in a very short time. The frets are perfect. There is nothing on this guitar that I can find fault with.
Components Rating: 10
The 3xx series Taylors are the least expensive of the solid wood Taylors, but they have all of the build quality and basic features of any of the top of the line models. This is an impressive guitar
Overall Rating: 9
Where Purchased: Musician's Friend
Year Purchased: 2008
Price Paid: 249 ($US)
A flatpicker's low bucks dream guitar. Very loud, bright, and punchy, typical of a solid spruce/mahogany dreadnought. A bit lacking on low end/bass tho.
Sound Rating: 7
The strings are crap. Take them off and throw them away. Put a good set of 80/20 mediums on it. The frets needed to be leveled and dressed. The neck relief was not set, but a tweak on the truss rod fixed that. The string heights at the nut were a bit high, and the nut was not in good alignment with the neck. Re-gluing it and filing the string slots fixed that. The strings were also a bit high at the saddle, and the intonation was close, but not perfect. There was plenty of saddle height to correct this. Other than the fret dress, these issues are to be expected to some degree on a new guitar.
Setup Rating: 4
It's a gorgeous guitar if you don't look too close at it. Solid Engelmann spruce bookmatched top, and solid mahogany back and sides, and good quality wood too. All the trim is plastic except the abalone headstock art, which IMHO is tasteful. The gloss finish has aging toner in it, and it is very thick, too thick for my tastes. The pickguard is reasonably good faux tortise, but looks like it was cut with a utility knife.
Appearance Rating: 6
The tuners are cheap, and rough feeling, although they are functionally adequate. The bridge pins and end pin are soft PVC plastic. The finish seems to be poly and is fairly tough.
Reliability Rating: 5
The guitar is made in China for Musician's Friend and Music123. It comes with a 45 day return option. Beyond that there is no warranty. Quality can vary greatly among Pacific rim products, and it is possible to get a guitar with unacceptable flaws. It would pay to look the guitar over very thourougly, and don't be afraid to send it back if it is unacceptable.
Customer Service: 5
This guitar has surprisingly good quality solid wood construction, and prewar Martin style forward shifted scalloped bracing, and an outstanding sound and tone that reflect those facts. It comes with bleached bone nut and saddle, unusual for an inexpensive guitar. You could upgrade the bridge pins, tuners, and perhaps the pick guard if you feel you have to, but the ones that come on it are acceptable.
Components Rating: 6
This guitar has numerous good points and bad points. It is made in China, and a lot of corners have been cut to produce it at the price it is offered at. Still, it has an exceptional tone for such an inexpensive guitar. I would call it a "poor man's D-18." That makes it a good value to me.
Overall Rating: 7
Where Purchased: Ebay
Year Purchased: 2008
Price Paid: 250 ($US) (bought USED)
Rounded tone, typical of a solid spruce/rosewood dreadnought. Good tone, fair volume, fair projection, but nothing outstanding.
Sound Rating: 6
About the same as my D160. The frets needed to be leveled and dressed, but they were better than the D160. The neck relief, string heights and intonation were OK, but I suspect that the previous owner had already dealt with these issues, along with the strings. Other than the fret dress, these issues are to be expected to some degree on a new guitar.
Setup Rating: 4
It's a gorgeous guitar if you don't look too close at it. Solid Engelmann spruce bookmatched top, and solid rosewood back and sides, and good quality wood too. All the trim is plastic except the abalone headstock art, which IMHO is tasteful. The gloss finish has aging toner in it, and it is very thick, too thick for my tastes. The pickguard is reasonably good faux tortise, but looks like it was cut with a utility knife.
Appearance Rating: 6
The tuners are cheap, and rough feeling, although they are functionally adequate. The bridge pins and end pin are soft PVC plastic. The finish seems to be poly and is fairly tough.
Reliability Rating: 5
The guitar is made in China for Musician's Friend and Music123. It comes with a 45 day return option. Beyond that there is no warranty. Quality can vary greatly among Pacific rim products, and it is possible to get a guitar with unacceptable flaws. It would pay to look the guitar over very thourougly, and don't be afraid to send it back if it is unacceptable.
Customer Service: 5
This guitar has surprisingly good quality solid wood construction, and prewar Martin style forward shifted scalloped bracing, and an outstanding sound and tone that reflect those facts. You could upgrade the bridge pins, tuners, and perhaps the pick guard if you feel you have to, but the ones that come on it are acceptable.
Components Rating: 6
This guitar and its counterpart, the D160, both have numerous good points and bad points. It is made in China, and a lot of corners have been cut to produce it at the price it is offered at. This D170 sounds good, but I don't think it compares well with other solid spruce/rosewood dreadnoughts.
Overall Rating: 6
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