Martin: 000X1AE Auditorium Electro-Acoustic Guitar

Just got my new Martin! I already own a little Martin travel guitar, which is fab, and great for busking, but I struggle with my sausage fingers on the scaled down neck! This 000 is a great instrument, looks amazing, plays wonderfully, action is ok for now! She has a warm deep tone despite the lack of traditional tone woods. I wish a case, even a soft case had been included to protect her and will have to search for a hard case to nestle her in. If you dream of a Martin but don't the thousand plus to splash on a USA model, then get this brilliant Mexican made instrument! Just factor in a few extra quid to get a hard case!

A high-quality, durable workhorse that leaves you smiling with every note. It may be built from odd stuff, but it delivers the Martin magic a treat.

I absolutely love this guitar. It's the first time I've bought a guitar even close to this quality and so far it's the best acoustic I've played. My last acoustic guitar was an ibanez aeg10nii which is a nylon string guitar and is about half the price of this martin and Is also another great guitar. It's very hard to compare the two because steel strings generally do have a more all round and better sound, also nylon string guitars tend to be easier to play esspecially fingerstyle songs but make no mistake the Martin plays just as easy as the ibanez. As for the build of the guitar its absolutely beautiful. The top is solid spruce and the back and sides are high pressure laminate the neck is made from a material called stratabond which I never heard of but it's FSC certified so it must be a renewable resource or something like that and it is probably the most attractive part about the guitar it looks amazing. The tuning pegs are standard martin ones but I barely have to tune it and the guitar seems to hold its tuning really well. The guitar is made in Mexico and is built to perfection and definitely what I expected it to be. It looks and plays like a £1000 guitar. But out of it all I'd have to say the sound is probably what's best about it because it literally sounds like a recording. Well worth the money and I would definitely recommend waiting and saving your money to buy this guitar over the cheaper models. I doubt I'll ever need another steel string after this.