Martin D15Mahogany Bracing Pattern??

[Darryl Young]

Most changes are warranty issued changes. After all they didn't go to the adjustable truss rod till the late 80's.

My guess is Martin would still be making the old, difficult to play necks if Tayler hadn't come along and rained on their parade. Suddenly, all that talk of their "superior design/materials" went away and magically they had a nice playing neck with an adjustable truss rod <smile>. The guitar player in my old bluegrass group played a Martin D-35 before the adjustable truss rod. Eventually, his neck moved and the action went crazy high and he had to return it to Martin for repair. They took forever but did a good job and it played better after they reworked it than it did new. Neither new or repaired was the action and playability as good as on the Taylor he bought to play while the Martin was out for repair. However, the sound of the Taylor couldn't touch the old D-35..........

[tippie53]

actually many people love the old necks , It is all subjective on some of this . The non adjustable rods are actually a great design for making a neck stiff and that aids in reducing dampening . The trade off is how difficult it is to learn how to compression fret.
I own a few old martins and they do have a very unique sound . I love the old guitars and actually have carved a good little niche business remaking the old designs. Still there are many great modern instruments out there . In a way it is like picking a favorite ice cream , some days chocolate is better than strawberry.

[Dan Bombliss]

That's easy, John. Vanilla. Easiest to customize ;)

-Dan

[Ben-Had]

John, does Martin offer repair courses and if so, who do you contact to inquire?

[tippie53]

they only offer them to the authorized repair center people now. I was one of the last that had that opportunity . I was there for 2 weeks and learned a lot from people like
Milt Hess
David Strunk
David Musselwhite
Clarance Van Horn
Things have changed since then
Last year they had the first repair summit , where we learned many new things and then got to hang out with some very cool repair guys , and got to share info.

[deadedith]

What type of finish is used on these guitars?

[tippie53]

they use Nitro Cellulose Lacquer , there is an additive that is used to make it "Satin".

[Dan Bombliss]

I know there is a flattening agent for every lacquer, but my question is what part of the guitar makes that god awful smell. It seems to me that the D15m in particular (Not the inside, the inside smells delicious) smells awful, like a pungent finish. Lacquer is a bit of a sweet smell (I don't huff it regularly) but apparently their lacquer just smells terrible?

-Dan

[tippie53]

that may actually be the case