MARTIN SC-13E Acoustic-Electric Guitar

The quality of this guitar is very impressive including the gig bag. Unplugged or amped up, the sound is Martin 100%. I have owned several Martins and loved them all but this one is quite special. Love the smaller size, so comfortable to play. So much fun to play. MIM????????? who cares! This is a quality guitar all the way. KOA fine laminate is just beautiful. Times have changed and Martin again is leading the way. Thanks Martin for this one. I love everything about it! Oh, the neck is fantastic all the way. Nothing like it!!

Costs, Tuner not sensetive (cheap).

Really interesting guitar. Plays like a Taylor, sounds like a cross between a Martin D and Taylor 214. Really easy to pick up and play, sounds great plugged in, beautiful Koa sides and back. Would prefer made in US solid wood, but this is a wonderful guitar for the $! Would absolutely buy again, kudos Martin.

I researched this guitar for months before purchasing. It looked to be everything I personally needed in an acoustic electric. I am a HUGE Martin fan and trusted that this would be an an awesome purchase.
Here’s the deal. The neck design on this guitar is built to enable quick adjustments to action and intonation. And theoretically it should be extremely easy to do. BUT:
The guitar arrived with terrible action. Not unplayable but clearly in need of a big change. I thought no problem, the design should make that a piece of cake.
Martin states in the documentation that to change action you remove the built in the shim / elevation plates under the neck and swap for a different thickness to change the action. This just requires loosening to the two neck bolts on the back, loosen the neck and remove the shim. The shims are built with plastic clips that you just pinch and remove.
The problem is that Martin does not provide those shims with the guitar. I attempted to find a place to order them. Nothing.
I called every certified Martin repair shop in the state, and two other states and began to hear the same story over and over, “We can’t get the shims”. After multiple conversations I was told that Martin won’t provide the shims to anyone at this time because they need everything they have for production. In other words they’re too busy selling these guitars to provide the parts to actually make these guitars play as they advertise. Everything I read basically bragged about the low action, easy play, electric guitar feel of the neck.
I also heard from multiple techs who worked on this model of guitar that the design was definitely not easy to work on. Essentially loosening the neck throws everything out of alignment (DUH) and requires significant effort to fix it.
Two different techs told me they were able to fabricate their own shims and make the guitar play well but both said it was a significant investment of time and effort to do it. I also heard multiple times that the thin top on this guitar is very problematic in low humidity environments and they have major concerns about the long term viability of these tops. Since I live in a pretty arid environment that’s a big concern for me.
I’ll wrap this up with a couple of points. If Martin tweaked their quality control at the Mexican factory where these are built and made sure the guitars were going out with solid setups within the specs they claim, they’d likely have a winner on their hands. The guitar looks great, and sounded fantastic. It was just nowhere near where it needed to be to make playing it a reasonable experience.
In the end I returned the guitar. There was no way I was going to pay a luthier to fabricated a part just to make the guitar playable and spend the hours, time and money necessary to have a reasonable setup.
I absolutely adore Martins, and own a couple of their flagship models. This was the most disappointing experience I’ve ever had buying a guitar.
I still have hopes that they will turn this model around. Just shipping it with a set of the elevation plates would probably go a long way towards making people comfortable buying it, and for goodness sake put a decent setup on before it leaves the factory.

気に入った点
ヒールレスデザイン・・・ハイフレットの演奏性の高く快感です。今まで購入したエレキと比較できないほど良いと思います。★★★★★（自分が上手くなったと錯覚すらする。未体験の方は試奏することをオススメします。）
ボディデザイン・・・左右非対称なのですがよく纏められていると思います、カッタウェイのツノを切り落とすと言う思い切りの良さ、とっても好きです。★★★★★
個体差があるとは思いますが、届いて箱から出して即演奏可能だったところは感動ものでした。弦高の高さもちょうどよく６弦もビビることなくて大満足です。
生音を出して騒音問題にならない環境であるのであれば、このギターだけで他はいらないと思いました。
他のレビューにあったフレットの塗装が〜に杞憂しましたが、塗装などない一般的なフレットで安心しました。
ソフトシェルケースも上質でさすがマーチン
不満な点
チューナーの取り付いている位置は本当に見やすくて良いのですが感度がいまいちよくなくポリチューナーのお世話になっています。
指板やブリッジが乾燥気味でした。オイルを塗ってメンテナンスし愛着アップしました。

薄め幅広のネック、カッタウェイで探していてこのギターに行き着きました。他のショップの写真などを見ると指板のまだらが目立つ個体も多いようですが、それも個性かなと思ってAMAZONで購入。幸い目立つまだらはありませんでした。全く調整なしでエリクサーのカスタムライトゲージを張って弦高が６弦2mm、1弦1.5mmだったのは驚きです。ハイフレットは弾きやすいし、ビビりもなしです。D-28と比べるとズドンといった感じはありませんが、部屋で弾く分には十分な鳴りです。チューナー、ビックアップ内蔵でこの価格。しかもMartinを所有できるという喜びもあり、非常に満足です。

通販での購入は4度目ですがそれぞれ塗装もよかったのですが
今回のMartinはフレットの塗装がまばらではがれています、二度と通販では買いません。