Bought a Martin

Westerly Wood

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So, Wood, am I to presume that you wrestled the Santa Cruz out of your wife's hands?

I just put some Cleartones on my Huss and Dalton, and it responded with tone that I swear it never had before. It even muscled the Rockbridge (also with Cleartones) and Guild F-50R (Elixers) out of the way in the Battle of the Titans.

I almost sold my F-50 STD yesterday, but came to my senses...

I did. She likes the Guild but prefers the Santa Cruz playability . The guild is too hard to play for her due to fret divots and the SC just sounds and plays better. She wants us to hold onto Guild for the kids though I mostly play the D25. Kids don't really want to play guitar yet. The D25 is great plugged in. I got EJ17s on it which give it a little more power. But the tone of the Cruz is remarkable, even with dead EJ16s it sounds awesome. Kind of wish now looking back I had kept the D50 and D35. Ah well. We all got stories like that.

Glad to hear good things about Cleartones. I usually hear complaints about those strings. I bet the H&D would sound good with nickel even 😀
 

D30Man

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I'll jump in here since the thread is about Martins. I have a Blueridge BR-183A, which is a 000-42-style guitar with a 25.5" scale length. I recently bought (and instantly returned) a Martin 000-28 because I wanted to see how if I'd enjoy its 24.9" scale length. My made in China Blueridge sounds like the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Show -- the Martin sounded like a wet match, and it didn't play as well either. My appreciation for the Blueridge was re-ignited. Moral of this tale: caveat emptor Martin.

Yeah Stephen those BR's are hard to beat. I wouldn't trade my BR-72 for anything. I have absolute respect for Martin's history / legacy and the standards that they set many years ago. There will always be something to be said for that and the fact that their super high end guits ( D28 / 35 / 41 etc ) can be pretty amazing. However, when their upper low to mid range models ( x series - d16 ) are 2 - 4 times as much as a nice Blueridge or Eastman and only sound as half as good? Then there is a problem.

I have said it for years. Martin and the rest of the big boys need to focus in on upping their low to mid range to compete with the quality coming out of Asia. It would be one thing if Blueridge and Eastman were made in mobile factory caravans by slave labor. These guitars are made by people who strive to make a quality item that competes.
 

Westerly Wood

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Yeah Stephen those BR's are hard to beat. I wouldn't trade my BR-72 for anything. I have absolute respect for Martin's history / legacy and the standards that they set many years ago. There will always be something to be said for that and the fact that their super high end guits ( D28 / 35 / 41 etc ) can be pretty amazing. However, when their upper low to mid range models ( x series - d16 ) are 2 - 4 times as much as a nice Blueridge or Eastman and only sound as half as good? Then there is a problem.

I have said it for years. Martin and the rest of the big boys need to focus in on upping their low to mid range to compete with the quality coming out of Asia. It would be one thing if Blueridge and Eastman were made in mobile factory caravans by slave labor. These guitars are made by people who strive to make a quality item that competes.

I like the Blueridge dreads too. even the laminate b/s options sound great. I played a BR60 once and really wanted to buy it. there is a guitar shop in Denton, TX i would frequent while i lived in Celina back in 08-09. i bet they still have then on the wall.
 
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