Martin 000-16RGT

This is a 2002 Martin acoustic guitar made in USA, Bought from Elderly Instruments on line. Solid sitka gloss spruce top,solid rosewood Matte back and sides.Mahogany neck. 1 11/16 nut. This is a 000- size auditorium guitar with case.

This guitar has a beautiful rich full sound. Set up was perfect. I play many different types of music and would recommend this guitar for all types of music.

I could not have asked for a better finish or set up on this guitar. Perfect!

This guitar will withstand any type of playing. I also have a 000-15s Martin guitar that I use for outdoor jam sessions or parties the reason being that I prefer the 000-16rgt and want to keep it in perfect condition. I am know to bang a guitar up a bit when things get a little wild. Everything is solid on this guitar and I would use it anytime without a back up.

I called Martin a couple of time when trying to decide what guitar to buy and they were most helpful. I have never had to use the warranty so I don't know how they would handle a problem.

I have had this guitar over a year and I love it. I also have a couple of other guitars, another Martin,Taylor and a custom made guitar. If this guitar were lost or stolen I would have to replace it with the same. The size and ease of playability are my favorite points on this guitar. In this price rang I could not have asked for more.

This is a 2003 Martin, custom ordered from the manufacturer in December of 2002. It has 20 frets, solid sitka spruce top, rosewood back and sides. I had a B-Band installed with a Mic and Bridge pickup afterwards by a Martin Authorized Repairperson. This is a small bodied guitar.

My style of music is eclectic, with everything from fingerpicking to flatpicking, bluegrass, funk, country. The shorter scale gives me problems, and I ordered this way but since I'm left handed I didn't really get to try out a guitar to realise the scale length makes the guitar sound not crisp enough, especially on the higher frets when I do solos. Otherwise this guitar sounds beautiful. Huge bass, (more than on a jumbo Epiphone J-200 Acoustic I have) and nice volume response as far as being poignant with soft fingerpicking and the wood moves when you dig into it and the volume projects well. Sometimes I notice the mid frequencies seem non existent, and for a guy who likes twang near the bridge for a hard picked solo, that kind of bites the biscuit. This guitar is not bright or crisp, but mellow and warm. Not my cup of tea - I like them brighter but it's not bad sounding at all.

The action this guitar came with was impeccable. I have a real problem with this guitar though. The factory told me it would take 3 months to build this guitar from scratch, but it took 2. When I got the guitar there were finish cracks behind the bridge. One of my guitar buddies told me it could possibly be attributed to structural flaws in the bracing. When the top cracked along the middle behind the bridge a week after I got it, I brought it to the Authorized Repairman, and he filled the hairline crack for 40 bucks. I felt like I shouldn't have had to even pay a cent for it, especially after I took out a bank loan for 1800 bucks to pay for it. The guitar buddy of mine mentioned that the crack might be caused by bracing and that I should send it back to Martin. I was convinced otherwise by some other people at the music store, and told it wasn't the case. This friend told me that the bridge would most likely start to lift within a year, which as of now (7 months later) it is. The ends of the bridge are lifting. I have other friends telling me to return it to Martin. Should I? Maybe they'll say it's a warrantable repair - I just put a down payment on an Epiphone J-200 so I have something to play in case I have to do without my Martin for however long due to this situation.

This guitar seems fragile, even though I bought it with a gloss top so the top wouldn't go "willie nelson" on me. I already scratched up the back and sides a bit, just in the typical craziness of a gig (bumping things by accident etc) and the sides and back are not laminated, so they get the beating. I decided this winter that I should buy the Epiphone J-200, because the authorized repairperson around here tends to take a long time repairing things, and the last thing I need is the bridge to lift off this winter (which it probably will) and I'm stuck without a guitar for four months. I bought this guitar for quality, and because as a left hander (boo-hoo) I'm often stuck with crappy floor models of lower end brands while I'm a professional musician. So I ordered this left handed to end my problems, instead of getting slapped with more. These guitars can be workhorses, but I would opt for a Guild or Gibson for durability rather than this particular model.

This company, when my top cracked, gave me the whole spiel about how "everyone even down here in the South is calling about cracked tops". I have had guitars for 10 years that are worth 450 bucks that haven't cracked, and they were solid tops. Yamaha has a lifetime warranty on the top, no questions asked. A company as rich as Martin should be able to afford this as well, rather than having their "scapegoat" warranty, and have their Service Repairpeople admonish us rather than the forces of nature, however cruel they may be.

I've been playing and performing since 1991. I'm also an owner of a Jasmine 12 String Acoustic, and a Yamaha acoustic. I've gone through many guitars in my life including several Simon And Patrick and other Canadian company guitars made of soft cedar woods not designed to last forever (especially if you play and work hard). This particular guitar I'm fond of, but have lost some faith in. I wish I would have had my friend build me a guitar instead, since he could have used the money and given me repairs as a friend, for free possibly. If this guitar was stolen, I'd probably be upset only because I'm paying for it for another three years. I'd like to trade it in for a full scale neck model like a D-1 or something, but I doubt my music store would give me a deal I could live with. Plus I'm left handed, so who wants one of those anyway? When I took this home I might as well have just said "for better or worse". This is how it works when you are left handed.