Guitarists: Any experience with the "Little Martins"?

In My Humble Opinion
1

In this thread I crowed gleefully about an Ibanez hollowbody archtop guitar that I had just gotten. Now, I am still enjoying the guitar, but the truth of the matter I have it on a rent-to-own trial basis. The music store has a policy by which the first three months of rent money go to the purchase price of this guitar…or any other! So, I thought it behooved me to stop by the music store occasionally, and try out some of the other axes.

So I found this three-quarter-scale Martin. Surprisingly for a Martin, it goes for only about $479, and plays like an utter dream. It’s made in Mexico, but I don’t know if that matters one way or another. But the action and tone were both excellent, and the smaller scale was helpful as I have smallish hands. And it looks cool, too. The neck has no inlays on the fretboard itself, much like a classical model, thought the guidespots are still on the upper edge of the neck in case I need them in a moment of weakness. This looks impressive to the listener because all they see is my fingers dancing about the unmarked neck.

Still another thing to consider is that I want to go back to school, which would severely impinge upon my available time for hooking up with other musicians, setting up jam sessions, and the like. This is not such a problem for solo accoustic playing since with that it’s so much easier to grab a few minutes of practice time. I’m actually tempted to turn in the Ibanez when the time comes and buy the Martin…but then I’ll have two accoustics and no electric. But then for the reasons stated above maybe this isn’t the best time in my life to have an electric, since that usually implies playing in a group.

Have any of the rest of you had to face this difficult decision? And is there something wrong with the “Little Martins”?

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Might as well give a link:

This is the one I was looking at. On closer inspection of the link, I find that the neck is made of something called “Stratabond”…and now I’m wondering if I should be considering it. I can happily dispense with the position inlay markers if it makes the guitar less expensive, but guitar necks should be made of wood, dammit!

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You should also check out the Baby Taylor - the original of this type of guitar. Martin started off making a “Backpacker” which is a smaller type of travel guitar, but after Taylor had huge success with their Baby, Martin and other came out with theirs.

I have a Baby Taylor which is great for all the reasons you mention, but haven’t played the Martin equivalent. They are great guitars as you describe.

Getting a guitar made by Martin for that price, you would have to expect them to compromise on something.

Also - check used and on eBay - good deals to be had…

Best of luck!

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The neck on those baby Martins is cool! I played one at Guitar Center last week. I was skeptical of the laminated wood but it played as smoothly as a solid wood neck. Plus it looks much cooler and that’s really all that’s important.

5

Precisely! What is this “textured HPL” I hear about, as well as the Stratabond?

Regardless of whether I keep the Ibanez, I’ll still have to consider this because I might trade my Takamine in on a guitar of this type. (Or, perhaps on one of the full-size Martins that come in under a grand. The day I got the Ibanez, I checked out a Martin that was right around that price and, oddly enough, was a steelstring model with only 12 frets clear. I’ve never seen that before; I thought it was a classical model until I noticed the strings weren’t nylon.