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Instrument Review
Martin
DC16RGTE Premium Acoustic Electric Guitar
Martin DC16RGTE Premium Features:
| • Top - Solid Sitka Spruce Top • Back and Sides- Solid East Indian Rosewood Back and Sides • Neck - Solid Spanish Cedar with Semi Gloss/ Dark Mahogany Stain/ Dark Filler • Polished Gloss Top with Semi Gloss Back and Sides • Fishman® Prefix Premium Stereo Onboard Blender • Bold Herringbone Rosette • Cutaway Dreadnought body • D1 Hybrid Bracing • Solid East Indian Rosewood Headstock with Raised Gold Foil Martin Logo • White Bound 25.4” scale Black Micarta® Fingerboard • Neck width 1 11/16" wide @ Nut, 2 1/8" wide @ 12th fret • 20 Frets • 16’’ Radius/Compensated/White Micarta® Saddle • White with Black Dots Bridge Pins • Chrome Tuners with Small Knobs Martin Light Phosphor Bronze Strings * List Price - $2099.00 (Includes Martin Hard Shell Case)
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Many guitarists who play acoustics on stage with a band prefer a dreadnought. That’s pretty obvious just by going to concerts and watching them on television. I’ve spent hours watching CMT, VH1, and MTV just to look at what people are playing for an acoustic; and it’s usually a dreadnought. Have you ever wondered why dreads are so popular? I must say that I have a preference for large acoustic guitars. When I’m at the local music stores in the acoustic rooms, the guitars with jumbo bodies and dreadnought bodies just seem to call out to me. The sheer volume and resounding bass are attractive characteristics to have especially when playing un-amplified.
A really cheap badly laminated dreadnought is still gonna sound cheap, even if it IS big. There is no substitute for quality construction and materials. A discerning listener can hear the cheapness in a $75.00 acoustic, and hear the quality in a $2500.00 acoustic. Size and quality does matter when it comes to bottom end and projection. These are areas where large bodied acoustics with solid wood construction shine, and the market is full of choices. Every manufacturer from those who market to beginners, to those who seek to sell higher priced professional grade instruments, seems to have dreadnoughts in their lineup. It used to be that if you were looking for an all solid wood construction acoustic under $1800.00 street price, then you were limited to a few manufacturers. Now you can choose from models by Breedlove, Martin, Taylor, Guild, Gibson, Fender, Larrivee, Yamaha, Tacoma, and many more.
The Martin DC16RGTE Premium is a guitar firmly entrenched in the battle for your acoustic guitar budget dollars. It is priced competitively with Taylor’s similar model; so for people narrowing their choices down, it may just get down to preference over standard electronics, fretboard feel, available finishes, or even brand loyalty. Is there such a thing anymore as brand loyalty? Some people say “There are Martin players, and there are Taylor players, and never the twain shall meet,” but I don’t believe that. Many players I know appreciate a quality instrument no matter who manufactures it. Martin definitely has a reputation for building quality instruments, with a great dealer network. The DC16RGTE Premium builds upon that good reputation. I purchased it online through Elderly Instruments at www.elderly.com.
Construction
A guitar that has a list price of $2099.00 had better be built well, and be built clean. This Martin does not disappoint. When I received it, I anxiously opened the box up. O.K.....I ripped the box open, and found a nice black hard shell case with a Martin badge riveted on the side. I opened the case to find a spruce topped beauty, resting on a bed of plush green lining. I inspect every guitar I get, and I tell you that this guitar was clean enough to eat off of both inside and out! The glue points were perfect. The fretwork was some of the nicest I've ever felt on any guitar at any price. The binding was smooth, and all the woods and materials used for building this instrument looked very tight and well put together.
This guitar comes with a gloss top, and semi gloss back and sides. It costs several hundred dollars more to get one with an all gloss body. The back and sides are very satin looking and plain with no inlays, and I guess that's fine; but I found myself wishing for an all gloss body just for more protection. This is a beautiful instrument though, and the two finishes make a nice design contrast which is very attractive to my eye. In the end the extra money for the gloss finish wasn't worth it to me, so I saved the money. But if I just had a bunch of extra cash, I'd pop for the full gloss body just to protect the instrument more.
The fretboard is a material called Micarta. It's black looking like ebony, and felt good. I played the DC16RGTE Premium side by side with an ebony fretboard guitar for comparison; and I found that I preferred the ebony to the Micarta®. This like so many things with guitars, is a personal preference area. Some people like rosewood fretboards better than anything else. I'd say try one at a big dealer who has a lot of stock, and compare like I did. I ended up getting used to the Micarta® and never looked back.
Playability
In as arrived condition, the DC16RGTE Premium was beautiful yes, but the action was set at the top of Martin's specs. It was way higher than what I usually set my guitars at. After 15 minutes of playing, my fingers were dented and in pain. A stark contrast to the Carvin C850 which I played right out of the box for two hours without pain. The Martin is a better sounding guitar though, and I knew that after some careful attention to setup, the guitar would play well. I adjusted the truss rod a tiny bit, filed the saddle down for what seemed like hours, threw some new strings on, and wham bam I had the Martin playing low and fast and easy. If you've never done this type of thing to a guitar before, you may wanna search the web for instructions on doing it, or pay a luthier to do the setup work for you. A great website for do-it-yourself setup is www.frets.com. After setting the Martin up, it played as good as any other acoustic I've tried. Taylors and Carvins seem to be setup from the factory with low action. It would have been nice if the DC16RGTE Premium came with lower action, but I can see Martin's viewpoint in this, because some players like the action to be higher, and it all depends on playing style. You don't have to buy anything to lower the action, but to raise it, you may have to buy another saddle and start from scratch.
Sound Unplugged
Martin dreadnoughts are well known for having a big, bold, and powerful sound. This guitar's unplugged sound is terrific for a brand new instrument. It sang to me on the first strum. I've read some reviews where they compared this model to an aged D28 and it was close, but not quite as good. Well I wouldn't expect even a brand new D28 to sound as good as an aged one! As it ages, it's gonna get better and that is exciting, because it was so good from the start. I compared it to Taylor's 710ce, which is a guitar made with similar woods, but with a gloss finish and their Expression system. Despite the fact that the Martin lists at over $1100.00 less, it sounded louder and better to my ear than the 710ce unplugged. By better I mean that the bass response was deeper and stronger. The trebles weren't as annoyingly pronounced on the Martin. The Taylor seemed to be too bright and less big sounding. If I'm gonna spend my hard earned cash on a high quality dreadnought, I want it to sound big and rooted in bass. That sort of sound is especially useful when recording, and when playing acoustically in a small group praise and worship setting.
I did prefer the ebony fretboard on the Taylor, and the shape of the neck fit my hands better, Someday we'll get one at H.O.W.I. to review. I guess If I could have the Martin sound, with a Taylor neck and fretboard, that would be perfect for me. I would like to get one to keep for a while and play in various settings for a long term comparison. It would be a great shootout!
Sound Plugged In
The Martin DC16RGTE Premium comes with the Fishman Premium Blender system. My impression of this system is mixed but very positive.
For recording, I think I have found a system that works great for me, and eliminates hours and hours of mic placement and experimentation. It literally took me about 15 minutes to come up with a very good mic'd acoustic sound going directly into my mixer and digital recorder. This Premium Blend system from Fishman gives you excellent control and sound. On the panel mounted on the top side of the guitar, you have a phase switch, notch filter, volume control, bass, contour, and treble controls. There is a frequency slider that changes the sound of the condenser mic, which is mounted on an adjustable boom inside the guitar. A "blend" slider allows you to mix the signals between the under saddle pickup, and the condenser microphone. Way Cool for recording. There is a small switch on the battery compartment (flips up for quick changes), which allows you to switch the guitar to stereo mode. This is great for recording, because then with a stereo 1/4" cable, the under saddle pickup sound is sent to one channel, and the condenser mic signal is sent to another channel, and you can mix the two together to get an excellent acoustic recording.
Another big bonus here is that
the Fishman Premium Blend system has a chromatic tuner built right into it. We
had seen this before on an Alvarez AD60SCBK, and were skeptical at first; but
ended up finding it convenient and useful. The tuner on the Martin was welcome
after playing several acoustic guitars for a few months without a built in
tuner. In small group settings it is just so convenient not to have to drag a
tuner out, or plug into a pedal to tune. For plugged in stuff, when the tuner
button is pressed the sound is cutoff, and you can tune without the crowd be
ing
annoyed by your noise. I know pedals do this also, and I have some that do, but
it's still easier with the tuner on the guitar. Way to go Fishman!
The only real gripe I have is that the condenser mic is prone to feedback when playing with a monitor or vocal microphone near the guitar. The only way I found to get around it, was to just keep the condenser mic turned down quite a bit. You can still get some of the mic mixed in with the under saddle pickup. The notch filter is excellent at finding the annoying frequency and knocking it out, but I think that effects the tone somewhat. There are trade-offs in life that we must deal with I guess. In the right setting though, (if it's a bare bones band, or the monitor is kept low, and the vocal mic is kept pointing up away from the guitar), then you can turn the guitar's mic up and get the full acoustic mic'd guitar sound.
The sound without the microphone mixed in is also very good. I found that I could mix out a lot of the quacky piezo sound by keeping the mids very low, the bass boosted a little, and the treble boosted a little. With a very little bit of chorus and reverb added for effect, the guitar sings with or without the mic.
Conclusion
The Martin DC16RGTE Premium pretty much blew me away after it was setup to my liking. I do a lot of recording...A lot of acoustic guitar recording. The fact that I could find a recorded sound I was happy with so fast made me give Martin/Fishman much respect for their creation. The great sound is a combination of solid design, construction and materials, and great electronics. If this were a pros and cons review, the pros side would be full and the cons side would have a only a few remarks. Namely, the condenser feedback issue, the semi gloss back and sides, and the annoyingly high setup from the factory. But this is a great sounding and playing guitar no doubt. It was a pleasure to play in praise and worship settings with a band. The big dreadnought Martin sound of this guitar inspired me, and the DC16RGTE Premium made me sound like a better player than I am. It was nice to have a guitar that would do that for me. I need all the help I can get! My opinion of this guitar? Expensive for the average musician on a budget, but worth every penny.
by William Charles
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