Martin 000-15S

US-made Martin. All-mahogany. All solid. Lifetime warranty. 12-fret, blah blah blah -- it's been covered. Case included. I'm not rating it, 'cause it is what it is. Features is a silly category for acoustic guitars, IMHO.

I started out on a good-sounding, inexpensive Art & Lutherie and was looking to upgrade. Decided I wanted an heirloom quality guitar -- something that would make me stop wanting to buy other guitars (yeah, right.) I was willing to spend up to $2500, if that's what it took -- though that would mean some pretty serious sacrifices for me (I'm a graduate student.) Looking for a versatile guitar primarily for fingerstyle, mostly blues and early jazz.

To put it bluntly, the only guitar whose sound I could characterize in any way, "better" was a Santa Cruz 12-fret (like $3000+ new). And saying it was "better" is maybe not honest. I fell in love with the sound of the 000-15S. It's a unique sound, and maybe the Santa Cruz just sounded "different." The martin sounds warm, deep, sweet...

No troubles. Well made guitar, to my relatively untrained eye.

Seems solid to me. Martin apparently backs up their product. I have a 1974 D-12-20 as well.

Great guitar. It has fully satisfied my GAS for 6-string steel acoustics, and now I just want a resonator, a dobro, an archtop, a hollow-body electric, a nylon-string, etc etc...

Seriously, this is a hell of a good deal. I played everything out there. There are some great $700 guitars, but this one just has a certain vibe to it. I got it set up, and the guitar tech started playing it, and just kept on playing it, letting the phone ring, etc. Said, "this is a hell of a guitar. Solid Mahogany. Damn, 20 years or so, it'll just sound better. (plays some more) You know, man... this is why I'm a guitar tech... millions of guitars, most of 'em crap. But every once in a while, you get to play one like this, that just... just... well, it's just got the VIBE, man... you know? (plays some more)... great guitar, man."

I felt like I'd made the thing myself. I'm never selling it!

A U.S. built Martin, 12 fret, with solid top and back and sides, all of mahoghany. It came with no electronics, but I have had a Fishman Matrix II installed. Came with Martin hard shell case. I have had guitars that look more visually appealing, but the sound more than makes up for the plain visual appearance

Well, let's put it this way--I sold a '73 D-28, and a $4000 custom guitar since their sound didn't match this guitar! It has a depth, warmth, and haunting clarity that I have yet to hear from any guitar in my life (and I have owned and played many many guitars)

The guitar was set up higher than I liked at the factory, but a $25 action adjustment at the bridge put it right. It is now incredibly comfortable and easy. The fit and finish are perfect. No flaws in the guitar.

Well, again, I sold the D-28 to keep this one, and it is a Martin, so I expect to have it, and have it sounding even better, in 30 years. I have been playing it every day, and it looks like I just unpacked it. Everything is solid, and I would depend on this guitar without any worries. I do use it at gigs without a backup.

Martin--'nuff said.

Been playing 36 years. This is my favorite and now only steel string. I sold the others since I always found myself picking up this one. Amazing that after all these years, I like best a $700 guitar! If lost or stolen, I would immediately buy another. There are no features I hate (although a cutaway might be nice)

Came with a flattop case instead of an archtop case, good tuners, rosewood bridge, fingerboard. All Mahogany Body. Slot headstock is cool, and the twelve-fret body is cool. This guitar is either ugly (my sister says) or 30's retro (I say).

This guitar is RIDICULOUS!!!! I sold a great 1956 D28 and bought this, what's that tell you? I went to Elderly instruments in Lansing Michigan and picked out the best guitar under a $1000 I could find. This particular guitar not only beat out everything in that category, but it competes in ANY category. I played two of these up there, and both were good, but this one is awesome.

The small body makes it loud and very balanced. Great for fingerpicking or flatpicking. The 12 fret body connection gives a more robust bass and fuller midrange than the 14 fret 00015. Every note from top to bottom has the same volume. The mahogany top has a zillion overtones. The high end is crisp and clean.

I play a variety of styles, although primarily bluegrass/folk styles. I wanted something that would be more versitile than a dreadnought, and have a really dry mahogany sound, like on "Man of Constant Sorrow." This does everything I wanted.

Purchased from Elderly Instruments, the biggest Martin dealer around, and they always do their own setup, which is great. The guitar is solid. The neck joint isn't completely clean, but there's nothing wrong with it, and it sounds great, so who cares?

Yeah, this is a really solid guitar (super light, by the way). I would not be afraid to take this anywhere, either to a campfire because it's so cheap, or a real gig because it's so good. Tuners good, bridge good.

lifetime warranty. I called Martin once a few years ago, and the guy who answered the phone was really rude to me. Oh well, the guitars are great anyway. Generally they farm out repairs to local Martin Certified repair people. The guy I had do some work on my D28 was named Paul in Davenport, IA, and he was great.

I've played three of these no, and they are all good. I think that the combination of the Rosewood bridge, mahogany body, lonng scale, small body, and the 12 fret neck, really falls together in this model. The D15 doesn't work, the 00015 sounds good, but not great, the 0015 sounds small. This one has everything.

2001 0015-S made by Martin in the U.S. All solid mahogany throughout. Rosewood bridge and fingerboard. 12 frets to the body, a modern repro of a 000 twelve fret with slotted head produced by Martin from 1924-34. that cost me $769. instead of $24,000. Came with a very nice plush case. I put a Fishman Acoustic Matrix Natural 1 in it.
The finish is satin and comfortable, not a gorgeous guitar, no extras but it sounds better than my $2,500. Taylor.
I own a Larivee parlor guitar and the construction is very similar, no frills but quality materials that sound good.

I play fingerstyle and love this guitar for the warm old-time John Hurt, Big Bill stuff plus it inspires songwriting-I can't put it down.
I've been tuning my guitars down a whole step. The first three days I had it I played in Standard and loved the sound. It felt slightly stiff for what I was used to and I decided to de-tune. It is so rich,balanced from string to string and sings like a mo-fo. It is perfect for what I do. Even with the action low(I play pretty lightly) and de-tuned I have no buzzes all the way up the neck even strumming with a pick.

I dropped the action a bit in the store and fell in love. First, to find a grand auditorium 12 fret in this price range is amazing in itself. Honestly, I never liked Martins! Even the expensive ones I played over the years always sounded muddy to me. This is very well constructed inside and out-no glue anywhere,no gaps-and sounds and plays like a dream.

It is very light which is why it's so lively, I like the tuners very much. Because I take good care of my guitars it should last a lifetime. I surely intend to use this alot live. It sounds great with the Fishman. I use them in all my guitars

Don't know. Lifetime warranty to original owner

I've been playing for 37 years, acoustic and electric, guitar, dobro and bass. I will use this live because I know that if anything happened to it I could replace it. If it were original it would live at home.Thank goodnes for this trend toward retro models.You can use them!

I submitted a more detailed review previously (which incidentally hasn't shown up yet!) but wanted to add one observation since. As I look into the soundhole on the inside of the upper and lower bouts, there are what appear to be cracks in the wood, presumably as a result of bending, located precisely at the most agressive part of the bend and transversing the side completely from top to back. Those cracks do not appear on the outer surface, and there is no problem whatsoever with structural integrity.

Hence I conclude that the sides of the sides of the instrument must be laminate. No big deal: the thing still sounds great!

New Martin 000-15S, twelve fret to the body slotted headstock. All solid mahogany top, sides, and back. Satin finish. 1 3/4" width at the nut. A decal for a soundhole rosette. Absolutely devoid of binding. Compensated saddle. Martin Phosphor Bronze light strings.

Overall, pretty near as butt-ugly a musical instrument as one might imagine. But you won't care.

As my interest has evolved to fingerstyle, I've been struggling with an appropriate instrument. Last year I bought a Collings D2HS twelve fret slotted headstock dreadnought, and while it has absolutely killer tone, complex harmonics, great volume and sustain, and a comfortable, wide string spacing, I've concluded that it's really not articulate enough for what I'm looking to accomplish.

So along comes this little thing. I really wouldn't have given it a second thought, having an unjustifiable prejudice against all things mahogany, particularly a mahogany top of all things! I was really astonished when I picked it up.

The geometry of a twelve fret guitar seems to expand its low end response. The Collings has beautiful, deep bass. In fact, after playing a twelve fret dreadnought one can understand the rationale for going to fourteen frets: more cut in a body that size. Here, in an instrument with much less internal air volume, the lowered soundhole just makes a nice, well-balanced bass tone. It's wonderfully articulate and loud for those alternating bass lines.

The instrument is all solid tonewood which I'm sure contributes to its sound. The little sucker is LOUD. But not loud and raggy. It holds up to some intense picking. The tone is wonderfully balanced.

I've seen folks say, "well it's a Martin so it's great." Well, that ain't necessarily so. I'm not disparaging them or anything, but I have had incidents with braces coming loose and tops cracking (the classic 'pickguard under the finish' problem) etc. They always made good on their lifetime warranty, so I have no complaints.

And now of course with the advent of modern milling machines and other modern production techniques, their instruments are much more predictable.

But I must say that the upside of Martin replacing a lot of the hand work with machinery is that they can offer guitars of this quality in this price range. There are no flaws I can see in my instrument. The finish isn't the most attractive I've seen, but I trust that whatever space-age crap they're using, it's letting the wood breathe properly, as would a nitrocellulose lacquer.

There's plenty of height on the bridge should the top decide to bulge a bit (hey, this thing is so green it smells like the inside of a sawmill...once it dries a bit who knows what might happen?)

I could only hope that the finish might wear off with playing...that way it'd look a little more hip.

Ahhh, well, in a quirky sort of way, one might talk themselves into believing it looks pretty hip just the way it is.

But definitely the thing ain't gonna fall apart. No way.

These Martin folks are great people, all the way around.

Lifetime warranty means lifetime warranty. Just be a little patient...it'll take a while for them to get to your instrument.

I've been playing for less than fifty years. But more than thirty.

I've owned a few and played a whole lot more, including some killer specimens.

I only wish it had a Britney Spears decal on the top.

But seriously, even without the decal, this thing's a wonderful value for a budding fingerstylist.

This is an update of an earlier review on this guitar now that I have had time to gig seriously with it and enter the recording studio with it. My earlier review in this section remains the same

After having played this guitar for several months, my evaluation of it tone has nothing but improved (and I gave it a 10 before). Although it has a mahogany top, it is sufficiently loud to play in a duo context with an old D-28. It's tone can be described as warm, mellow, yet having nice brightness on the high end with a hint of edge to the tone, like all good mahogany guitars. The overall tone has a nice pleasing "soft" quality to yet, while retaining volume and dynamics. The sustain is remarkable, and this was especially evident in the studio, where the recorded quality was remarkably alive with very little need for equalization.
The guitar has a wonderful tone quality for "old-time" music, backing up a fiddle. In our neck of the woods, guitarists prefer old Gibsons for this job, but this guitar does a wonderful job at this.
This Martin is equally adept at both flatpicking and fingerpicking, a good all-around size.

A simply fantastic guitar for the money.

Brand new. All solid mahogany, no veneer. Rosewood bridge and fretboard. Decent-enough hard case. Good tuning pegs. Satin finish. Nice wood, as all Martins tend to have.

The neck is a tad wider than I'm used to, but I love it. I'm also getting used to it fast.

The whole deal with this guitar is the slot head and the neck being attached at the 12th fret. Sure, it cuts back a tiny bit on playing up the neck, but it lengthens the body and is what gives this guitar its incredible sound. A great, classic body shape.

Just gets better and better. Very articulate. Not as deep as a slope-shoulder Gibson, but it's not supposed to be.

Just a great sound that makes you think about each note. Chord voicings sound different entering my brain with this guitar.

I love it.

Perfectly built.

It's a Martin.

It's a light guitar, which is why it sounds so good. I wouldn't sit on it, but it's also very well-built.

Martin rules.

Playing a long time. I love Gibson slope-shoulders and need a new one, but this guitar falls into a completely different niche. Great for blues stuff, but don't want to peg into into just one style. You can play anything on this guitar. Really great tone.

I'm going to keep it. Now I want another 000.

This all solid mahogany guitar is one of the latest editions of Martin's extremely successful 15 series of bare-bones mahogany guitars. This guitar is built in the "old" 12 fret style with elogated body and slotted peghead. It reminds me of my old 1928 0-18K which was such a lovely little guitar.
This guitar is solid wood and very basic. It features no body binding at all and a very thin dark brown stain finish. The bridge and fretboard are rosewood and the rosette a simple gold herringbone decal. The pickguard is the typical "pepperoni" plastic that Martin uses for most of its guitars. I replaced it with a "Tortise" pickguard from Greven which is more authentically antique looking than Martin's and has beveled edges.
About the only thing "fancy" on this guitar is the very nice set of tuners with pearloid buttons. They are probably gotah and are much better than the Grover tuners on my old D-18S which tended to fall apart. Strings are Martin SP phosphor bronze light gauge.

This guitar is truly remarkable. I previously owned a D-15 which I thought was very good sounding in the mid-range but rather subdued in the bass and weak in the trebles, probably due to the mahogany top. This guitar seems to be the perfect size and shape for a mahogany topped instrument, because it is perfectly balanced all across the spectrum. Not only does it have the wonderful mid-range, but it has a very clear bass and the high end just sings. This guitar is the perfect tonal blend of mellowness, crispness, and clarity. It displays no boominess. The separation is to die for. And it's loud to boot. Above all, this guitar tonally displays the unique Martin sound and vibe, which is reason enough to choose it.

This guitar, although simply finished and appointed, is built to Martin's customary impeccable standard. Everything is is tightly and cleanly put together, just like the more expensive Martins. About my only complaint is that the nut slots are a little high, but all Martins come this way and it's simple to file the slots to my personal preference. The mahogany is straight grained and looks good to me. No complaints otherwise.

This guitar is very lightly built and lightly finished, but it's a Martin and they have stood the test of time since 1833. I see no reason why this guitar won't last a lifetime. But even though this model is not an expensive instrument, it probably deserves more care than an Asian import, because it is a lightly and precisely built musical instrument and not a toy.

Martin has been there for us since 1833. I've owned numerous Martins and have never had a problem with the company. And they have aneat free factory tour right there in beautiful Nazareth, PA.

I have been playing for nearly 40 years. My music is old-time, bluegrass, Celtic, etc in both flatpicking and fingerpicking styles. I also own a wonderful Martin SPOM-16, a Mid-Missouri mandolin, two Mike Ramsey banjos, an old Washburn D-60SW which I resurrected from the dead, and an old Hohner classical guitar of nice quality.
The 000-15S is a good tonal alternative to my SPOM-16. The 16 is fuller and more "modern" sounding. The 15S is a little thinner and crisper in tone, imparting a more vintage quality to the sound. It's wonderful for old time music. It lost or stolen, I wouldn't hestitate to replace this rig with another just like it. It's a great deal.

This guitar was purchased from Elderly instruments. There was approximately a 6 month wait. The wait was worth every minute. The
guitar came with a great case. It is a 000 size solid mahogany guitar
with 12 frets clear of the body. It has a slot head. It is a beautiful guitar, and Martin all the way. This is a solid mahogany guitar, and is the second Martin I own. I also own a 1969 Brazilian
D-35, and a Gibson Hummingbird, (Montana). The finish is wonderful, and I am extremely happy with the sound. In some ways, it sounds as good or better than my D-35.

This is a wonderfully balanced guitar. It is solid mahogany, so it has a really great "twangy" guitar type of sound. The sound is mellower than spruce top guitars, but perfectly balanced. It is excellent on the mid range. A well balanced guitar. I have used it at song swaps that we have locally. Everyone has commented positively. It is also as good a sound as a 1955 00-17 I played many years ago. I am so glad I waited. The guitar is a fingerpickers dream. Forget spending money for the Clapton model. This guitar has a warmer sound, and compares well.

Everything was done well. This is a Martin all the way.

I would do a gig with this guitar. Amplication would certainly be an issue if it was a very large room. The guitar has a nice warm sound. In many ways it is a "porch guitar." Woody Guthrie played a
0-15.

Lifetime warranty. Just don't keep it in your car during the summer, or next to your fireplace in the winter.

I have been playing for over twenty years. I own a 1969 Brazilian D-35, a Bozeman Hummingbird, a 1923 Gibson Snakehead "A2Z" mandolin, Various Vega banjos, from the twenties. I do not go lightly with musical instruments