Martin 000-18MC

2003 Martin 000 18 MC Martin Carthy model, limited edition (#51 of 84), 14 fret to the body, solid spruce top with bear claws, solid mohogany back and sides. The fingerboard is ebony and 1 3/4 wide. The bridge is ebony and the sadle and nut are bone. It has a unique set of bridge pins. The three lower ones are black with mother of pearl in the tops. The three treble strings are anchored by brass.
The guitar also has a zero fret. It came with a hard shell case and lifetime warranty.

I looked for a year at literally hundreds of guitars. I was searching for a tone that suited my light strumming and fingerstyle for jazz chord-melody playing. I also did not want to spend more than $2000. I walked into a music store with a friend one Sunday and spotted this model. I took it down from the hanger and immediately noticed it to be very light in weight. I tuned it and began to play and was excited by the sound I heard. It played very clear. The mid-range is very impressive and the trebles ring with a nice clarity and sustain. Jazz chords sound terrific. Although the bass E string is underwhelming, the A and the D and all trebles are strong and resonate nicely. The lack of a prominent bass doesn't matter to me. If it did, I would have shopped for a dreadnaught. This guitar has the sweet mahogany sound and the clarity impresses all those that I play with.

This particular model by Martin impresses me. The workmanship is fine.The fit and finish are very nicely done(and I must add that I am quite picky when it comes to quality of anything so for me to be happy with the fit and finish is saying something +). There is 1 slight problem that I might bring to Martin's attention. The D string buzzes between the second and sixth fret when I play hard and I mean hard. None of the other strings do this so I assume it is not a neck adjustment problem but perhaps a 5th or 6th fret need adjustment under the D string. The colors of the woods in this instrument are stunning particularly the mahogany back and sides, WOW.

I think this model will not take much abuse. As I said earlier, it is very light weight and I perceive it as delicate. I would not take it to play on stage but it is perfect for me in my or my friend's living room. The tuners are waverly's and it stays in tune nicely

I have not dealt with Martin as yet having purchased the guitar only 2 months ago but I plan to call them about the buzz in the D string.

I've come back to playing a year ago after being away for 20 years.
I own a Yamaha 6 string 000 body style and a garage sale classical.
This Martin is my first good guitar and I am enjoying it and my playing more and more everyday. It is much easier to play then either of my other guitars and the sound puts the others to shame.
I love the width of the neck at 1.75 and the neck is a V shape which I also love and will probably notbut another guitar without this shape and width. Both features make it easy to play. I would want another one of these if this one left me somehow. I compared this to all the high end models one could think of in a very obsessional way. I looked at Sant Cruz, other Martins, Goodall, Bourgeous, Larrivee, etc. This one beat them all when I compared sound and price and I particularly liked that I was getting a limited edition. In closing, I love this guitar and I am very happy with what I wound up with after an exhaustive year long search.