Martin 000C12-16E Nylon Review

Martin 000C12-16E Nylon Acoustic-Electric Guitar - Natural

The purchase from Sweetwater, as always, was very professional and easy transaction. The Martin 000C12-16E is certainly a quality made Martin guitar. It is a good finger picking guitar with a decent sound and comfortable to play. Overall, a good, quality guitar but not worth the Martin price of $.

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Alex List

This guitar was designed for playing with pick. If you are not familiar with nylon string and playing with pick it might not work for you. When I bought it I was very skeptical but after awhile it became my main instrument. I've been playing classical guitar since childhood and own many of them. Don't listen to guys who are saying that it doesn't sound good. It is an amazing guitar!… read more And Martin did an absolutely great job designing it! Thank you and good luck.

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Very nice instrument!

I was looking for the nylon string sound without the wide flat fretboard and decided to try this one. I am very pleased! Along with the to-be-expected overall Martin quality, the sound is good, intonation perfect and it is very playable without additional set up. The onboard pickup also produces a very natural sound. Thanks Martin and Sweetwater!

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Martin Tone Wins Again

I took a friend and we sat and played two Cordoba Fusions (rosewood and maple), A Taylor Ovankol Nylon and the Martin side by side for a couple hours. First of all the playability of the Martin neck is outstanding. It is a long scale unit at 26.5 inches vs 25.5 on the others. So I was immediately comfortable switching from steel string acoustics to this hybrid. The nut is slightly… read more wide at 1 7/8" but that creates a favorable string spacing for finger picking and works well for me with fat fingers. The depth of the neck is really thin and comfortable. Although the Taylor and Cordobas were very nice guitars in the hybrid genre, they didn't compare at all to the Martin for action, tone, resonance, projection volume and reverberating overtones. The 000 Grand Auditorium body is just as rich and lush as you would expect any Martin to be. The electronics create a vast palette of tonal variation and are well hidden so as not to impact the body structure much at all. A strap pin is already included at the neck and a nice medium-hardshell case rounded out the package. Martin also strings up this guitar with their proprietary 'Magnifico' set which is perfect for this unit. I can honestly say this is the finest hybrid nylon I've ever heard. I was expecting to walk out with a much less expensive guitar, but I never would have been fully satisfied after playing this Martin. No disappointments at all.

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This one is a keeper!

First impression, out of the box: Wow, very nice padded gig bag. Unzipped the bag: WOW! Beautiful instrument, fit and finish flawless! The tuners, the rosette, mahogany grain and color, the gloss top, all eye-catching. The slightly smaller body shape is very lightweight and comfortable to hold, the satin finish and shape of the neck and the radius of the fretboard make for fast… read more fingering. The slightly wider neck at the nut is a happy compromise between a steel-stringed acoustic and a wider classical flat neck, not a difficult transition at all. The real surprise was the volume and sustain from this smaller guitar! Amazing! I had not expected that! I was already familiar with the Fishman Matrix preamp as my GPCPA4 has it. It does a great job of not coloring the natural sound of the instrument while giving the option to boost the bass or treble to your taste. It sounds great with a little reverb and delay too. Of course I had to tweak it, just personal preference stuff, so I lowered the saddle and changed the strings. With that done, I am a happy man! Only negative: waiting for the nylon strings to stretch and settle in. Retuning every couple of minutes is a pain, but I still can't put it down. So many new colors available in the tonal palette. It's a keeper.

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