I had to get my fingerprints today… (again), for TSA and renewal of my Haz-Mat CDL endorsment (37 years of this now, what a crock)! Anyway, I thought I’d do this in Fort Wayne and head on over to Sweetwater afterwards.
I’m in the market for a nice mahogany dreadnought and thought I’d try a standard Martin D-18. They’ve totally reconstructed these in the last few years and I still had not tried one. The specs resemble the discontinued D-18 Golden Era (like Mike’s) but not quite as high end. Instead of Waverly tuners they have Grover Sta-Tite open gear tuners (which are actually good tuners) and they now come standard with 1 3/4" nut. I’m not sure what else because I’m really not a Martin guy but they definitely have improved them.
I tried two of these and both were great other than needing a setup (action was rather high on both). The sound of both was really good and made me not want to stop playing.
They also had a new Modern Deluxe D-18 which I had been curious about for awhile. This is a fairly new concept for Martin I believe. It has tortoise binding rather than black and the headstock is full gloss with the Martin logo inlaid in pearl instead of the usual Martin decal under a satin finish. The back of the neck is still satin if I remember correctly. Also, it has really weird bridge pins. If you’re looking for a traditional Martin, this is not it!
So, my Sweetwater helper got that down for me and I tried it and yes there is a definite difference. The sound was bigger and more even across all the strings and the playability was much, much better. I switched back and forth and definitely enjoyed playing the Modern Deluxe more. As far as sound, all three of the D-18’s sounded great… The Modern Deluxe did sound better, but the other two also sounded great. If I had taken any of the three home, I’m sure I would have been very happy with any one of them.
Lastly, there was an HD-35 on the wall I had to try. Big mistake because now I’m totally confused and not sure if I’m in the market for a Mahogany Dreadnought anymore! This thing sounded incredible and played great too! After playing all four back and forth for over an hour, I believe this was my favorite.
I kind of posted this as somewhat of a review in case anyone else is in the market for a Martin. To sum it up, I don’t know if I’d pay the extra $1000 - $1200 more for the Modern Deluxe D-18. I think the standard D-18 is simply that good and with a proper setup would make about any picker happy. And, I didn’t care for the modern appearance of the Modern Deluxe (just my opinion which doesn’t really count). The Hd-35 was slightly less than the Modern Deluxe but still about $800 - $1000 more than the standard D-18.
I really enjoyed trying these fine guitars and my trip to Sweetwater (as always)! Finally, if anyone cares… I left with two packs of picks I’ve never tried, a Paige capo and and a Ham and Swiss Sub courtesy of the Sweetwater Cafe (which I highly recommend… their food is great)!.. and a headache!
Sorry so long on my post… Go try out some instruments for yourselves, it’s fun! And don’t take my word for any of this… I’m wrong all the time and these are just my opinions!
That $900 guitar has something special about it.