Martin D-18 - Ambertone Review

D18

This guitar sounds amazing and plays very easily and the neck is comfortable. It is worth every penny.

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What a beautiful Guitar~!

.beautiful features, beautiful sound. beautiful partner.I'm so happy with it.thank you sweetwater.

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Best overall I own

Love the mahogany sound. Id like a tad taller frets but its good. Mine is 14 years old and immaculate... Im happy.

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It's what you would expect after playing for 25 years

It's a good guitar. By that, I mean it sounds great. It plays great. It looks good. It's expensive. So I am rating this a 4 star based purely on value. I really love the sound. I am not fond of the price point. I've been playing a long time. I've played a lot of guitars. This is the most expensive guitar I have ever purchased, but I"m 40 with disposable income. I am the target… read more market for Martin guitar. But it is exactly what I want and what I expect at this point. Capitalism at it's finest. No major complaints although I received the guitar with a pretty obvious blemish on the back of the body. It's a couple of inches in length and very obvious in the light (picture attached). It looks like the poly finish was disturbed during the drying process. So maybe Sweetwater's 55 point inspection needs a to move to a 56 point inspection. Check the body for really obvious blemishes and possibly adjust the price. I buy scratch and dent items all the time, but paying full price for this guitar and seeing an obvious aesthetic blemish is a little frustrating. But I did not return the guitar or even contact Sweetwater (which I'm sure would offer an exchange). I kept it because it sounds great, and it plays great. That is the most important aspect for me. And it looks great (looking at the front side). So let's be honest. There is no reason to return it. And I plan on keeping this guitar for decades and imparting my own blemishes over time. I went back and forth between the Natural and Ambertone finish. And since the Ambertone finish is a strong competitor with the D28 natural in price, I wrestled with that one too. All in all, I'm happy. The tone difference between the D28 and D18 is there when viewing comparison videos, but it's subtle and not a question of "better". I played both models at different stores and loved both. The natural look is not super appealing to me so...again, I'm happy with the Ambertone. So if you want a great guitar, it's a safe bet. But you will be able to find excellent guitars at a fraction of the price. Also I purchased a 000-15 a few months ago and returned it. Relatively, the D18 is much louder and with the 1.75" nut, finger picking is easier especially with larger hands. Play-ability is slightly improved with the D18. See my review on the 000-15 Streetmaster on Sweetwater. I loved the look of the Streetmaster 000-15 (wow), but I love the sound of the D18 better. Cheers

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D18 Ambertone

Martin really improved the d-18 when they changed the bracing back to the forward shifted scalloped and the set up done at Sweetwater is perfection! Couldn't be happier with it.

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