Girls: Do you ever get sick of men who go to sensitivity training, read Iron John, and ask you "if you'd feel comfortable with it" before they kiss you? Guys: Do you ever get sick of pitchers who can't go more than six innings and hitters who want to rush the mound any time someone throws inside?

Where the hell have all the cowboys gone?

I admit I've been beguiled by delicate and liquid sounding guitars lately. Even my boldest guitar, a Santa Cruz OM, isn't that ballsy. I'm mostly a fingerpicker, and fingerpicking calls for delicacy. But the truth is: SOMETIMES A MAN NEEDS A MARTIN DREADNOUGHT.

When you see those commercials on TV with manly men doing manly construction work 600 feet above the ground, and there's this earthy acoustic guitar thing happening in the background, that's a Martin dreadnought.

Martin dreadnoughts do bass and lower midrange like no other acoustic guitars. Even Santa Cruz dreadnoughts, modeled after older Martins, don't have quite the cajones of a Martin.

Two Martin dreadnoughts that are sure to give you that big bold Martin satisfaction are the Martin HD-28 and HD-28V. Both are rosewood guitars with scalloped bracing (like pre-war Martins), and a nice full sound. The HD-28V has additional "vintage" appointments like a v-shaped neck and a slightly different (forward shifted, toward the sound hole) bracing pattern, the latter of which adds still more fullness to the sound.

The basic D-18, one of Martin's standard dreadnoughts, is made of mahogany, not rosewood, and it does NOT have scalloped bracing. The sound of mahogany is more direct and midrangy than the sound of rosewood. The sound of a good modern D-18 is tight and straightforward, but it doesn't have the projection, resonance or sustain of an HD-28 or HD-28V. And some contemporary D-18s just go thud.

The D-18V, the guitar reviewed here, is another animal entirely. Modeled after Martin's pre-war D-18s, the D-18V DOES have scalloped bracing, which improves responsiveness and projection, and forward-shifted top braces, improving bass response. The D-18V also has a high quality ebony fingerboard, while the regular D-18 has a rosewood fingerboard. The v-shaped neck of the D-18V is another "vintage" characteristic that distinguishes this guitar from the regular martin D-18.

In many other ways, this guitar looks like a D-18. The appointments are conservative (minimal inlay or purfling; generally dark and understated appearance), and the rosette and fingerboard inlays are in the older 18 style. The tuners are in the smaller "butter bean" style, as with most of Martin's vintage-style guitars. I like the way this guitar looks.

The retail price of this guitar is about $2700, but you should be able to get one for under $2000.

So how does it play and sound?

The best samples of this guitar really kick butt. The sound has the resonance and bass of a rosewood guitar, but it's more balanced and midrangy, like a mahogany guitar should be. You can bluegrass this thing and sound like Doc Watson (Santa Cruz's Vintage Artist model, also based on the pre-war D-18, is a Doc Watson favorite), and you can fingerpick it, and sound bold and sensitive at the same time. A Taylor dreadnought will sound polite (or maybe just a bit girly) next to one of these.

How is the playability? Really good, I've found. The v-shaped neck is smooth and cool and easy to move around, as is the ebony fingerboard. The fingerboard is 1 11/16" wide at the nut, as is standard for Martin dreadnoughts. On most samples I've played, the intonation was really good, though I've encountered one or two that were a bit squirrelly up the neck.

But it's the sound of a good Martin D-18V that really sets it apart. The bottom E- and A-strings are full and resonant without being boomy. And the midrange is woody and real sounding. On a recent rainy day, I stopped at Fifth String in Berkeley and played one of the better samples I've come across. I couldn't put the thing down. The words that kept going through my head were, "This thing sounds like a Martin dreadnought is supposed to sound." Chords were well-integrated (though not quite as well-integrated with some of the smoothest Taylors and Larrivees I've played) and bluegrass leads sounded great, with wonderful projection and resonance. Everything I played sounded full and manly.

The Martin D-18V is more of a flatpicking guitar than a fingerpicking guitar. Some delicacy is sacrificed for the woody boldness. But I still enjoyed fingerpicking the D-18V. Children's Dance, by Alex DeGrassi, played in drop-D tuning, sounded really different than I'm used to, but really good.

If you're primarily a flatpicker, and you're thinking of snapping up a rosewood Martin HD-28 or HD-28V, I recommend you give one of these a try as well. The character is slightly different, but the characteristic manly Martin dreadnought bass and resonance is there in a big way. If you're primarily a fingerpicker, this guitar might be too bassy and full for you (as might the HD-28s), or it might work. If you want that authentic, woody Martin sound, but want a bit less bass, check out the Martin OM-28V and the (even smaller and more fingerpicking-oriented) 00-18V.

Happy Picking!



Recommended: Yes