Oh the Excitement of a new Guitar

[Celtic983]

Friday after Thanksgiving, we joined the million others and went shopping. After endouring countless antique stores, and furniture stores, I convinced my parents that we needed to go to the guitar shop. I wanted to show them a certain martin guitar, that I liked. I had played all different makes and models, and kept coming back to this guitar. I kinda hoped that everyone would get together, and just give me money towards getting one. (as a christmas present) My hopes werent too high on this happening. However, after a lenghty disscussion on the importance of saving money, and being responsible, my mother wrote the check and bought me a Martin DC-16RGTE. Wow, what a nice guitar. It just fits my playing style so well. Can't wait to get off work and play

http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/cho ... 2890bc4a98

[JPcares]

That is a cannon of a guitar! I played one a guy brought into a session and it filled up the room in a hurry! Congrads-enjoy. Get it set up to your liking (that's VERY importent).

[Cynth]

Wow! Congratulations. What a wonderful instrument to have. It sounds like that lengthy discussion was worth listening to patiently! Thanks, Mom! I'm sure you know this, but you're going to really need to keep your eye on that thing---a lot of people would like to have it.

[Celtic983]

Thanks, Jp and Cynth
I guess what I like about it is that it has the playability of an auditorium, but the boom of a dreadnaught. Believe me Cynth, I am going to go to the army navy store and get me a set of handcuffs. One on my hand the other on the handle of my case

[fearfaoin]

Get it set up to your liking (that's VERY importent).

What does that mean, exactly? I'd hate to be missing a trick...

[Cynth]

The first couple of pages of this thread had a pretty good discussion of how to be careful with instruments:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... ne&start=0
I think it was posted shortly after someone had lost a precious instrument. You probably can't prevent muggers from taking something, it's not worth your life, but you can prevent the problems we all have when we get distracted and set something down like in airports and cabs and the like.

[Celtic983]

well, for example, all martin guitars are set up to play with light strings, if you like a heavier string, you would need someone to adjust the guitar to be able to use heavier strings so that there is no buzz.. Adjust the action on your guitar...just make it how you like to play it. Things like that, fortunately, this guitar, was set up to my liking.

[JPcares]

String height off the frets (saddle/nut adjustment and amount of relief (truss rod adjustment). There are all sorts of other smaller issues. Often the guitar comes out of the factory with too much material above the slots in the nut which causes the ping sound and makes it difficult to tune. The frets may not be perfectly level. You may not like the bridge pins or saddle material. My OM-21 came from the factory playing right nice but I have made some really nice adjustments over the 2 years I've owned it.

Note: not all Martins come with light strings. a D-28 standard, I think would have mediums. Your D-16 has scalloped braces with light strings.

[Darwin]

Congrats. Great guitar--cutaway, too!

My first good guitar was a little Martin--all mahogany, a 00-17, I think, much like the current 00-15. It was also purchased in Houston for Christmas--in 1961, for just $99.95. (For comparison, my parents' new three-bedroom brick house in the then-new Westbury development cost $19,000.) I was fortunate, because my mother had owned a Martin ukelele for some time (which I destroyed by leaving it out in the rain--but that's another story), so she knew that it was worth the money. I know that my enjoyment of that guitar contributed a lot to the advancement of my playing.

Forty-four years later, I'm on my third Martin. (Second was a D-35 that I had for almost 30 years, from 1976 until this year. The current one is an HD-28V, just a couple of months old.)

I'm very paranoid about my current Martin. Here's why:

Martins are sensitive critters. I was playing the 00-17 once while sitting on the ground. I started to stand and leaned my hand on the side and pushed up, and put a nice little crack in the middle of the upper side of the hip. It wasn't bad, and the guitar lasted me through a couple of years in college and a hitchhiking trip from Texas to California and back. Unfortunately, while I was off in Army Basic Training, I left it hanging on the wall in my bedroom. My four-year-old niece wanted to play it and pulled at it. It slid straight down the wall and landed on the strap peg, and that was the end of that. The already weakened sides split in several places, running all the way up past the waist. It was 14 years before I managed to get myself another Martin.

The moral of this story is--when you aren't playing it, put it in the case--and fasten at least one latch, so that it doesn't fall out when your mother comes in and goes to move it. (This subject reminds me of a friend who leaned his fiddle against a wall for "just a second". It fell over and the whole fingerboard just popped off.)

In a place like Houston, heat will be one of your worst enemies. Never, ever, ever, ever leave your guitar sitting in the sun in that black case. Nor in a hot car--especially the trunk.

Apparently it can even cook in the case due to direct sunlight coming through a car window while driving. That's the only way I can explain how the glue that held the bridge on my D-35 melted--traveling to and from Bluegrass festivals in North Carolina. The results of the repairs left the sound a bit on the muddy side, which is why I finally traded it in.

[Joseph E. Smith]

Nice axe!

[Celtic983]

Note: not all Martins come with light strings. a D-28 standard, I think would have mediums. Your D-16 has scalloped braces with light strings.

You are correct, I think most come with light....but definately not all..thanks for catching my mistake