July 12, 2025

Latest Acoustic Guitar Reviews and News

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM / Review

Martin D-222 Review

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In honor of the original Ditson Dreadnought

Martin’s D-222 is a terrifically torrefied, modern mahogany magnificence

D-222 specs include: Standard 12-fret body size; all solid wood construction throughout, including traditional Big Leaf mahogany back and sides; Sitka spruce top with M2 level of Martin’s Vintage Tone System, scalloped 5/16″ bracing; grained ivoroid binding on body and neck; Modified V neck profile with 1-3/4″ width at nut, 2-1/4″ at 12th fret; ebony fingerboard and straight pyramid bridge with 2-1/4″” string spacing; bone saddle and nut; vintage Ditson appointments for the fret markers and rosette, tortoise colored pickguard; slotted headstock with Indian rosewood faceplate; StewMac Golden Age tuners.

“A suntanned siren with soft, round shoulders, broad across the top, with wide hips, and a husky yet sultry voice both pleasing and powerful.”

Read the full review of this model with video HERE

D-222 full front large

Acoustic Guitars / Artists

El McMeen with a Bit of the Irish

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day with El McMeen’s Arrangement of

“One Morning in May” and “Boys of the Old Brigade”

Arranged and performed by Mel Bay author and teacher El McMeen in the Celtic C tuning (C-G-D-G-A-D) and played on a Tippen Crescendo with mahogany back and sides.

Bill Tippen’s Crescendo model has a 14-fret, slope shoulder design, with a lower bout width of 15-1/2″ and a depth of 4-5/16″.

Artists

Highland Shatners tonight, St. Pat’s at Freddy’s

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The Highland Shatners reunite to play a St. Patrick’s Day set at

Freddy’s Bar – 627 5th Avenue, Brooklyn

One of the Best Bar in America – Esquire  and a Perfect Bar – NY Times

7:30

Songs from the Celtic past and the Star Trek Future

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM / Review

Review – Martin 000-42 Authentic 1939

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A Rarefied Martin Lives Again in the 000-42 Authentic 1939

The First Affordable Pearl-Trimmed Martin in the Authentic Series is a Beauty

Specs include: All solid woods with hide glue construction; Madagascar rosewood back and sides; Adirondack spruce top, thinned to pre-war specs, treated with Martin’s Vintage Tone System torrefaction; VTS torrefied Authentic Series scalloped bracing and bridge plate; grained ivoroid binding; solid abalone top purfling and rosette; mahogany neck with 1-11/16” width at nut; vintage V profile unique to this model; ebony fingerboard with solid abalone fret markers; ebony bridge with 2-1/8” string spacing; unique reproduction tuners; extra-thin high gloss finish

“It is an emotionally expressive instrument that naturally inspires nice bluesy string bends, and even subtle little waggles of a fretting finger translate into evocative alterations in the tone of each note, which then spawn echoes that radiate within and without the lively 000 body with its scallop-braced VTS top.”

Read the full review with video HERE

000-42 Authentic 1939 pearl

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM / Review

Martin 00-18 Authentic 1931 – Review

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A time machine 12-fretter, the 00-18 Authentic 1931 is superb

The new featherweight champ with heavyweight tone

00-18 Authentic 1931 specs include: All solid woods with hide glue construction throughout, including traditional Big Leaf mahogany back and sides; Adirondack spruce top with M1 level of Martin’s Vintage Tone System, and VTS treated Authentic Series 1/4″ bracing and bridge plate; short-scale mahogany neck with a shape unique to this model, 1-7/8″ at nut; ebony fingerboard and bridge with 2-3/8″ string spacing; bone saddle and ebony nut; Vintage Style 18 appointments for the fret markers and rosette, tortoise colored pickguard and binding; Madagascar rosewood accents; thin, Vintage gloss finish.

“From the first note, I felt that of all the Authentic Series, the 00-18 Authentic 1931 would fool me most easily if I was blindfolded and told I was playing a pre-war Martin.”

Read the Full Review with Video

00 18 Authentic 1931 side

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM / Review

Martin CS-OM True North-16 Review

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The Compass to a Koa Wonderland is Found in Martin’s 2016 CS-OM

Elegant marquetry graces a classic Martin Orchestra Model from the Custom Shop

CS-OM True North-16 specs include: Top Shelf all-solid wood construction, including exceptionally-figured koa back and sides, a master grade Adirondack spruce top with 1/4” Adirondack spruce braces and high color paua shell purfling; unique True North motif with marquetry of a compass rose on the back in flamed Claro Walnut, flamed jarrah and waterfall bubinga with paua pearl accents; genuine mahogany High Performance neck with high gloss finish, Modified Low Oval profile, High Performance taper to the ebony fingerboard with four-point star outline fret markers; ebony bridge with 2-5/32” string spacing; ebony binding on body, neck, headstock; waterfall bubinga rosette with outline star inlay; high color paua pearl top and rosette purfling; ebony headstock face plate with figured koa “parchment” and compass rose, C.F. Martin script logo in paua pearl.

“I love how the True North’s crystalline lens of Adirondack spruce etches such fine detail into the warm koa undertone and shimmery high harmonics, as they sustain, fluctuate, and slowly fade, with each undulating glimmer as languid as lamplight on a tropical lagoon.”

CS-OM True North-16 vid cap

Read the Full Review with Video HERE

Acoustic Guitars

That sinking feeling…

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I sat there watching the golden shot of Paddy’s sinking down through the clear C. F. Martin pint glass filled with ice and bubbly soda water

shortly after the past 7 days hit me like a slow but unstoppable snowplow.

I had finally found time to re-read and comb my article about the new 2016 Martin Guitar models, and rewrite various bits for clarity and flow.

And then, I remembered all those various pages and articles that now had to be edited, or rewritten, like my (now revised) Understanding Martin Model Designation guide.

I have a feeling there will be a lot less Paddy’s for the weekend than I at first anticipated.

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM

New Martin Guitars

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Two Days of New Martin Guitars

No fewer than twenty-four new Martin models were released for Winter NAMM

More than double the typical January release of new Martin guitars for our listening pleasure

Thursday, January 21, 2016, the Winter NAMM Show opened in Anaheim, California. And while Martin dealers converged on that sunny clime to place their orders for these budding beauties, I made my annual pilgrimage to chilly Nazareth, PA, home of the C. F. Martin & Co., est. 1833.

There, I could actually hear what these new Martins sound like, far from the white noise of the vast trade show floor.

New Martin Guitars OMC-18E Spoon Phillips

Read all about my first impressions of the new Martin Guitars for 2016 and see the sampler videos for the Authentics, Limited Editions, and the Core Ranger models.

HERE

 

 

 

Acoustic Guitars / Review

1-23-2016 Guitar Comparison Needs Your Ears

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While I iron out some technical difficulties with my sound editing situation, it will be early next week before I can post any videos or reviews of the 2016 Martins. So I thought I might offer instead something I have wanted to post for some time.

Here is an A/B comparison of two similar guitars, via three short excerpts of music. It is a .wav file that I put on Youtube with a blank background.

I would love to hear what people think, and more importantly what they HEAR.

How are they different? Which has more of X or less of Y? How are they similar? If you think they are in certain ways, a lot or a little.

Hear the guitars and leave your comments HERE

Acoustic Guitars / Artists

Pete Huttlinger – Guitarist Spotlight

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Pete Huttlinger has died at the age of 54, after suffering a stroke.

A phenomenal arranger, composer, and performer of fingerstyle guitar music.

Huttlinger’s precision playing made the most challenging pieces appear easy as pie, even though the degree of difficulty was anything but.

Here is his signature arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, with the original story of how he came to perform it. There was once a very clean video of Pete in a TV interview telling the same story before playing the tune, but it is no longer on Youtube. So this one will have to do.

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 Born in Washington, D.C. in June, 1961. Pete Huttlinger was a 1984 graduate of Berklee School of Music, in Boston. He toured with John Denver and has performed with and for many other A List recording and touring artists. He also won the 2000 National Fingerstyle Championship.

Steely Dan’s “Josie” ala one-man-band Pete Huttlinger.

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Born with congenital heart problems, Huttlinger had a massive stroke in 2010 and heart failure some months later. But after a long and arduous recovery, including a battery powered pump to keep his heart going, he regained the ability to play the guitar. His final performance was in Atlanta, on January 9, 2016.

He released the album Parnassus in 2015 in collaboration with Mollie Weaver. And his 2013 album McGuire’s Landing was critically acclaimed. Here is the title cut.

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