Originally Posted By: Indydriver
Originally Posted By: Alex_V
What genre(s) are you playing?
I consider myself a novice. I purchased a 1973 Yamaha FG200 new in college, learned basic chords, bar chords and experimented with some adhoc leads. Then, got busy with life and didn’t touch a guitar for years. Now I have time and have rediscovered my love for playing, and want to surpass my former level of ability. I primarily play by myself, for myself although I could see that changing with a certain level of accomplishment.
Now, I can afford a premium guitar. Martin is renown for making the best guitars in the world and by buying one of their standards, it will have decent resale value when the time comes. I have no experience playing Martins but when thinking about playing, I want the same anticipation and joy I receive every time I take my 480hp ‘14 Camaro SS Convertible out of the garage. I like playing the same music I did in college: Stills, Young, CSN, Eagles, Fogelberg-you get the idea.
Ah, cool. I've spent most of my time in Bluegrass but I've messed with some of the old rock and such. If I ever get back into it I'll probably trend more toward acoustic rock/contemporary folk. I had a friend (in his late 40's, maybe 50) the winter of 2010/11 when I lived in St. Louis that had an occasional gig at a neat little pizza place/bar playing oldies and rock, and whenever I'd show up to listen he'd insist I get up and play/sing PPL's "Amie" with them. I also touch on Eagles, Seger, Fogelberg, John Denver, etc. a lot when I piddle around.
If you aren't concerned about every penny of cost and it's on your bucket list, absolutely go for a Martin. IMHO to say "Martin is the best" is too much a blanket statement as I've played some pretty mediocre ones, but some of the best are Martins. I still suggest playing many, and find the one that jumps out at you.
Most of the studio recordings of my D35 lack the quality (and were all in my first 6 years of playing) to do it justice, but if you can overlook the lack of quality of the house sound, etc., my leads from :24 to 3:00 in this give some idea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCZhOCK-EY
Browse the related videos at your own risk.