Martin SC-13E Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Love the full Martin sound. The playability up the neck is wonderful as well. The guitar's setup was great right out of the gate. The craftsmanship is evident in the finished product. Having an on-board tuner is nice. The location of the volume and tone controls will take some getting used to having played a Taylor for many years.

I was impressed with the quality and sound of this guitar. I have a Martin 000-28 custom and this sounds pretty much the same out of the box. Martins sound gets better the more you play them so I expect good things to come! The tuner is very well positioned and works well for me. The pickup controls are also in a good spot but will have a slight learning curve to get used to them. The 9volt battery is easy to replace and they say should last about a year. I wasn't sure I'd like the gig bag, but It seems well made and obviously not for touring but is very plush. Overall a great instrument and worthy of the Martin name! I could go on and on, but I need to play this thing!!

Exceptional tone Grover Tuners Like the volume tone tuner in soundhole compact size for a dreadnought reachable upper frets with the unique cutaway design fingerboard action is perfect for me a nice plush soft case backpackable

There were screw ups

The quality of this guitar is very impressive including the gig bag. Unplugged or amped up, the sound is Martin 100%. I have owned several Martins and loved them all but this one is quite special. Love the smaller size, so comfortable to play. So much fun to play. MIM????????? who cares! This is a quality guitar all the way. KOA fine laminate is just beautiful. Times have changed and Martin again is leading the way. Thanks Martin for this one. I love everything about it! Oh, the neck is fantastic all the way. Nothing like it!!

Really interesting guitar. Plays like a Taylor, sounds like a cross between a Martin D and Taylor 214. Really easy to pick up and play, sounds great plugged in, beautiful Koa sides and back. Would prefer made in US solid wood, but this is a wonderful guitar for the $! Would absolutely buy again, kudos Martin.

I researched this guitar for months before purchasing. It looked to be everything I personally needed in an acoustic electric. I am a HUGE Martin fan and trusted that this would be an an awesome purchase.Here's the deal. The neck design on this guitar is built to enable quick adjustments to action and intonation. And theoretically it should be extremely easy to do. BUT:The guitar arrived with terrible action. Not unplayable but clearly in need of a big change. I thought no problem, the design should make that a piece of cake.Martin states in the documentation that to change action you remove the built in the shim / elevation plates under the neck and swap for a different thickness to change the action. This just requires loosening to the two neck bolts on the back, loosen the neck and remove the shim. The shims are built with plastic clips that you just pinch and remove.The problem is that Martin does not provide those shims with the guitar. I attempted to find a place to order them. Nothing.I called every certified Martin repair shop in the state, and two other states and began to hear the same story over and over, "We can't get the shims". After multiple conversations I was told that Martin won't provide the shims to anyone at this time because they need everything they have for production. In other words they're too busy selling these guitars to provide the parts to actually make these guitars play as they advertise. Everything I read basically bragged about the low action, easy play, electric guitar feel of the neck.I also heard from multiple techs who worked on this model of guitar that the design was definitely not easy to work on. Essentially loosening the neck throws everything out of alignment (DUH) and requires significant effort to fix it.Two different techs told me they were able to fabricate their own shims and make the guitar play well but both said it was a significant investment of time and effort to do it. I also heard multiple times that the thin top on this guitar is very problematic in low humidity environments and they have major concerns about the long term viability of these tops. Since I live in a pretty arid environment that's a big concern for me.I'll wrap this up with a couple of points. If Martin tweaked their quality control at the Mexican factory where these are built and made sure the guitars were going out with solid setups within the specs they claim, they'd likely have a winner on their hands. The guitar looks great, and sounded fantastic. It was just nowhere near where it needed to be to make playing it a reasonable experience.In the end I returned the guitar. There was no way I was going to pay a luthier to fabricated a part just to make the guitar playable and spend the hours, time and money necessary to have a reasonable setup.I absolutely adore Martins, and own a couple of their flagship models. This was the most disappointing experience I've ever had buying a guitar.I still have hopes that they will turn this model around. Just shipping it with a set of the elevation plates would probably go a long way towards making people comfortable buying it, and for goodness sake put a decent setup on before it leaves the factory.

This is my first Martin certainly in this price range. It's got a great sound and is easily played. A quantum leap from guitars that are a third in price. Beautifully crafted and I highly recommend it.