Martin’s Official “New Era” release

[datzus1]

Innovative skeleton bracing, sustainable woods, and balanced tones, utilizing walnut AND maple… initial response based on listening to the clips on headphones tells me that it is not for me, at least not at that price point.

Do these come with a pickup installed? If so, that plugged in sound could provide a lot less wonky boominess that can result when plugged in… perhaps another angle for the marketing. I’ll be curious to hear one for myself, but living in a rural area, that will probably have to wait. Time will tell.

[TomB'sox]

Cheap guitars made with maple may sound bright with limited bass, but it is my personal mission to save maple from these stereotypes. As I said, my maple is warm, balanced, full of bass and is anything but bright. Circa guitars with a 3 year plus waiting list builds a ton with maple. I know of a Maple guitar that in a blind sound test with a room of luthiers won as the best sounding guitar in the show!

Cheap factory made guitars (brand not mentioned) in the previous century have ruined maple's reputation and it still has not recovered for many folks. Saying you added walnut to take away the "harshness" of maple does nothing but further disseminate incorrect stereotypes, not to mention calling it "very bright and compressed".

Arrghhh

[mercy]

It was fun to see the new Martin. It may have acoustic advantages but my reaction is that it is just a fancy Martin and I like the look of the fboard inlays but my experience with maple inlay on Fenders is that they get dirty and dark and wont look good in a couple years. Of course Id like to have one but never will at that price. I dont think it will last cause there are not enough people that will pay that price for a modern Martin. Perhaps it could thought of as a lost leader, advertising for the name, as if it needed it. But the name sure has had a lot of interest over the last month.

[Tonewood777]

Interesting bracing, groove channels, etc. and I wonder how that will hold up over time? I guess if there is a future global ban on Mahogany and Rosewood exports because of climate change, world trade org, etc. then Maple it is, or is it?

[llew]

After all this talk about the newest Martin design I happened on this great YT video of Jordan Thomas playing "Don't Think Twice" on a 1943 D-28 Herringbone. This is what brought us to the dance and keeps us here. Wonderful playing/singing and incredible sounding old Martin...hope y'all enjoy!

[FOG01]

Originally Posted by llew

After all this talk about the newest Martin design I happened on this great YT video of Jordan Thomas playing "Don't Think Twice" on a 1943 D-28 Herringbone. This is what brought us to the dance and keeps us here. Wonderful playing/singing and incredible sounding old Martin...hope y'all enjoy!

No complaints with that at all. Very cool.

[baseball]

Originally Posted by llew

After all this talk about the newest Martin design I happened on this great YT video of Jordan Thomas playing "Don't Think Twice" on a 1943 D-28 Herringbone. This is what brought us to the dance and keeps us here. Wonderful playing/singing and incredible sounding old Martin...hope y'all enjoy!

That's AWESOME.
THAT is what I think about when I hear the name Martin. Just 'make me cry' good tone.
Maybe that's why I was less than excited about todays big news.

[jp2558]

IDK, while I applaud Martin for being progressive and sustainable, at this price point I find it hard to fathom the product. I have a 2016 GPC-35E, spruce/rosewood, which is a fantastic instrument that cost in today's dollars about the same. It wasn't until after I made my purchase Martin introduced the GPC-11, 13, and 16 models, the latter being what I'd have been happy with (at half the price for the same guitar with a satin finish) had it been available when I bought my GPC-35E. Based on my experience, a GPC-16 would be a much better deal for anyone looking at the GPC body size, which in terms of comfort factor is comparable to my M-36. And it has THE Martin tone.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

- I like that they are using sustainable woods and we’ll see where this takes them.
- Their aim is to increase sustain...

Hence, their use of sustainable woods.

[steelvibe]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

Hence, their use of sustainable woods.

Ba-doom-tish!

[BillyH]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

Cheap guitars made with maple may sound bright with limited bass, but it is my personal mission to save maple from these stereotypes. As I said, my maple is warm, balanced, full of bass and is anything but bright.

I must concur with this. I've got a 12 fret Maple 0001A Collings and it is the "warmest" balanced guitar I own.

Billy

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by baseball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMqxrkyvWg

special thanks to @JackB1

!!!!!!

Honestly, after watching and listening to this video, it's a "hard NO" for me. I think it sounds like a cheap guitar. Don't mean to be rude, just being honest. I'm pretty much a Martin fanboy too. This is a massive let down.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by Groberts

Honestly, after watching and listening to this video, it's a "hard NO" for me. I think it sounds like a cheap guitar. Don't mean to be rude, just being honest. I'm pretty much a Martin fanboy too. This is a massive let down.

Do you have bad speakers? It sounds pretty good to me.

[sinistral]

I posted this in a recent thread about maple as a tonewood, and it bears repeating here:

Originally Posted by sinistral

It seems that there are almost as many myths about maple as a tonewood as their are about 12-fret guitars…

For whatever reason, none of these builders needed to resort to “lasers” (said with a Dr. Evil accent) or tone channels or walnut wedges, and I suspect that the soundholes aren’t any smaller than on their other, comparably sized guitars. I’ve heard Martin guitars made out of maple that sound great.

The entire premise of the Inception—that Martin wanted to make a guitar out of sustainable woods, and maple in particular, but they couldn’t make a guitar out of maple that sounds good unless they completely redesigned the braces, routed channels into the top and back, and placed walnut behind the soundhole—seems misguided. They are trying to correct a perception, and not reality. Studies have been conducted that show that people perceive cola-flavored drinks without any food coloring taste less like cola than the same drinks with caramel-colored coloring. At least Taylor got that, and just stain their 600 series guitars dark brown.

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

Do you have bad speakers? It sounds pretty good to me.

I have high quality Studio monitors with a sub and run through a UA Audio Apollo interface. Good sounding guitars sound amazing through my system. I don't like the sound of the new Martin GPC guitar at all. Sounds cheap.