I picked up one of the X series Martins. Made in Mexico. Originally I got the dreadnought DX1AE, but I took it back due to the size and got the 000X1AE instead. Both are the same price ($499.99). Acoustic/electric hidden inside the body, from the looks of it, you will need to loosten the strings or when you change the strings, you should change the 9v battery at the same time. It has a real nice smell (like wood, duhh LOL!), and a real nice sound to it, though, the dreadnought did have a much nicer sound. If Fender can do it, why can't Martin? Fender has been making guitars in Mexico for many, many years...
The body is made of a HPL (I suspect it stands for High Pressure Laminate), a solid Spruce top, some kind of composite fingerboard and bridge, it feels really nice. It has no inlays on the fingerboard, and when I was picking it out, I thought that might give me problems, but with the side markers I don't have any problems with not having fingerboard inlays. Overall, a very nice guitar, very well made though, it is my first acoustic guitar, so I'm not exactly any kind of expert.
A questions for those of you that have accoustic guitars and have had them for a while: Proper care storage- I have my electrics in stands, I only have 2 gig bags (one is a Godin, really heavy duty, the other is a Road Runner, kinda heavy duty). For my acoustic, I picked up a Road Runner gig bag (like the electric one, kina heavy duty) and a humidifier (a planet waves with the little sponge in it, sits in the sound hole between the D and G strings). Obvously, the hard case and electronic humidifier would be best, but problaby another $250 on top of the guitar price and I just didn't have that kind of money. Did a make a useful purchase, or did I waste my money on what I got? Any suggestions?
Thanks all.
"...and I am outta here!"
Scott
Guitars:
Dean EVO Exotic Burl, EVO Special, Vendetta 1000 FR, Stagg Les Paul copy, Squier Standard Telecaster, Squier MIK Stratocaster
Amps:
Fender Princeton 65 (solid state), Vox AD15VT, Peavey Windsor Studio, Crate Vintage Club 50 2x12
Pedals:
DOD FX40B (x2), FX50, FX52, FX55, FX65, FX67, FX80
Washburn LSESLD, LSBOD
BBE Free Fuzz
Behringer EM300, VP1, PH9
Dunlop GCB-95
ProCo Rat II "The Rat"
DigiTech Bad Monkey, RP90
Rockman Soloist
and many, many, many more!