History:
Purchase: I purchased this guitar used from an individual for $1800. The guitar was in near mint condition. It is a D-18 modeled after the specs of a 1934 D-18. Mahogany body, simple rosette, black fiber binding, ebony fretboard, ebony bridge, 1-3/4" spacing at the nut, Waverly open back tuners, forward shifted scalloped bracing, Adirondack Spruce top.
What I Like About This Unit: This guitar is a bluegrass cannon. It has a very loud punchy sound which is great for lead bluegrass runs, but it plays rhythm just as well. It exhibits a very deep, growly bass for a mahogany guitar. The sound is well balanced across the strings and the mids and trebles ring like a bell. It has great note seperation and clarity. This is a very punchy sounding guitar which will just knock your socks off and can stand up to banjos and mandolins very well in a bluegrass jam setting.
The appearance is very simple, which is a plus for me. It has the old style tortise colored pick guard. I love the 'v' neck profile and the wider string spacing. Great for flatpicking or fingerstyle. This guitar comes with Fossilized Walrus Ivory nut and saddle which help the punchy sound in my opinion.
What I Do NOT Like About The Martin D-18GE (Golden Era): I can't think of much that I don't like about this guitar, but the nut slots are a bit tight on this guitar and the bass strings stick and 'jump' when tuning up or down. I guess I could fix that easily enough, but will probably correct itself over time.
D-18GE (Golden Era) Quality: My guitar is in fantastic shape and the construction is immaculate. I couldn't be happier. The only thing that might bother some folks would be the striped appearance of the Red Spruce (Adirondack Spruce) top. Mine is particulary striped and I thought it was quite unattractive at first, but my buddy liked my guitar so much he went out and bought one. It sounds so good I have people out looking for striped topped guitars.
Summary: This is an expensive guitar ($3795 list I believe with a discounted price on new guitars of about $2300.) But it compares well to hand made guitars and Collings I think which makes it an exceptional value. Try one, but be prepared to purchase it cause you won't sleep till you have one after playing it!
Rating of this product: 5
This Martin Acoustic Guitars Review Submitted By: Rick C.
Date: 2002-11-29
Martin D-18GE (Golden Era) Acoustic Guitars
Usefulness Rating: 3 out of 5. 54 reader(s) voted.
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