favorite brand of guitars

[Pviljoen]

PRS started being 100% CNC since 1995. Pre 1994 PRS guitars are now the only ones considered worth a collector's time of day, and in the opinion of just about every PRS junky, they sound better. Precision isn't exactly the entire goal here. Handmade guitars means everything is picked and done according to experience. CNC machines often don't sand according to grain, sometimes scrape shotty binding etc... because they can only sense as much as humans allow them to.

I'd FAR rather have a person make me a guitar than 100% Precise thing with no feelings. Hate to sound corny, but the Gibson Les Pauls of the 50s and the early PRS guitars were made with a passion and love for guitar making. A machine can't feel a love for what they are doing.

Martin has long ago lost its position as being the most sought after instrument in the acoustic dept. The only reason people still use Gibson/Fender/Martin/Taylor etc... is because they write fat endorsement deals. The boutique people nowadays clean them OUT, which is why Ghostbuilding is so huge now.

[Miz]

But Martin's are hand sanded, and hand finished.  The sides, back, tops and necks etc.. are CNC cut, but the guitars are assembled and finished by luthiers.

The side's are bent by hand...and the binding and stuff like that is done by hand too...

I agree with you, I'd rather have a guitar made by hand if it is made by a highly skilled luthier, because they can tonally match the woods, like the early PRS's, and they can tailor build the guitar depending on the properties of the wood etc...

Martin is not like Fender and Gibson. Martin is still a guitar maker.  It's not a business.  Martin is owned by C.F. Martin IV.  Fender is not owned by Leo Fender and Gibson is not owned by Orville Gibson or any of his relations.

People who endorse Fender, Gibson and Taylor, do so because they're payed too and then get their own luthiers to build them a guitar.

People who play Martin's don't do it for the money...they do it becuase they are incredible guitars.

Go look at the signature guitars Martin make.  Those people are real guitarists.  They're not getting guitars ghostbuilt...they're players who bought Martin's in the 50's and stuck with them, because they're the best acoustic guitars.

Martin are still making top quality guitars, but because they haven't been played and aged, they're not as good as the older ones.  Also, because people bitched about how their soundboard rises, they changed the bracing pattern a few years ago...which wasn't good for the tone...but now they're using the original bracing pattern again...which was by the way copied by every single acoustic guitar maker since.

Yeah, there are boutique makers building guitars, and a lot of people choose them over Martin, but that has a lot to do with versatility.  I mean, you can go to a small output, high end builder and basically get anything you want...whereas thats not something you can do at the custom shop of a well known barnd...unless you have a lot of cash.


But the main point I made in my first post was that they inveneted the dreadnought, and the X bracing pattern, and Martin is basically the daddy of acoustic guitars...and like I said...they never sold out.

[kockstar99]

I have a Squire Strat.. Its a decent guitar...I dont really like it alot tho..

Id love to own the Epiphone Les Paul, I love to play the display models at the stores.....

[BabyJenks]

My first guitar was a squire.  Now i have a Martin acoustic.

[Pretty_D]

Gibson- les paul.
Ibanez...great sound