Commander Bond; Do You Want Me To Use The DX-1K? OK, But Only If You Know The Chords To Goldfinger!! (Martin Guitars DX-1K)

Member Name: Caveat-Emptor

Product:	Martin Guitars DX-1K
Date:	29/08/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Best Sounding Guitar At This Price Maybe -'Wow' Factor Of Being Part Of The Legendary 'Martin' Brand

Disadvantages: Very Basic To Look At, Competitors Make 'Fancier' Guitars For The Money With More 'Bells & Whistles'

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My review of the Martin DX-1K Guitar
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Introduction
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Martin are just about the most well known and oldest of the major guitar makers... though they have stiff competition from the likes of Gibson, Taylor and more recently the Japanese Takemine range. Still Martin and Co. are really the grand daddy of them all...

In my time I've played many Martin guitars, owned some of them, and even set them up and/or sold them when I used work in guitar shops... There's been a bit of a surge of interest in Martin guitars of late, fuelled largely by the high profile 2009 Glastonbury appearance (or should that re-appearance) of late 60's/early 70's acoustic legends; Crosby, Stills and Nash.


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Just Who & What Is It For? It's For £400 Of Course -Lol!
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Few but the keenest of acoustic guitar enthusiasts want to part with the sort of sums of money that a top of the range Martin demands (easily into 2 or 3 thousand pounds and above!) and this is where the DX-1K Martin comes in...

With its low (for Martin) price tag of sub £400 (at the time of writing this; and if you're lucky -lol!) the DX-1K is a veritable bargain. £400 for a Martin is, believe it or not, pretty cheap (though granted it's still a lot of money and would buy you 4 or 5 of some other, perfectly playable acoustic guitars by Asian other manufacturers).

I think Martin are actually aiming for the market of players who watch their musical heroes playing a Martin and want to own one two, albeit far down the scale... So it's about the brand name -certainly, but does the guitar really have something to offer the serious acoustic enthusiastic on a budget, who wants a great instrument?


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What's It Like; Basically?
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There's no getting around how basic this guitar looks... There's no binding on the body, no fancy inlays for fret markers, there wasn't even a second strap button on the one I played to fit your strap on to!!

(Though it is possible to buy a metal strap button for a pound or two and fit it; but not many people will be to pleased about needing to make a screw hole in their new £400 guitar just so they can fit a strap -also the metal button won't match the other one already on the guitar).
To be honest it looks ok but dead boring... But looks aren't everything, what about how it's built;

Now here the Martin Scores highly (in some places at least) - the top is (top = the bit with the sound hole that is responsible for most of a guitars vibration and hence volume/tonal quality) made of solid Sitka Spruce, and does resonate wonderfully.


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Brace Yourself We're Coming Apart!! (It's The Dylithium Crystals Captain!)
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Inside the guitar, just under the Sitka Spruce 'top' is Martin's 'A' frame X-1 bracing (this is what the 'X-1' means in DX-1K guitar it's name)... The bracing is also made from Sitka Spruce -a nice touch to see they haven't skimped on the 'out of sight out of mind' wood.

Bracing is more important to a guitar's sound than many guitarists first thing. There's the eternal battle of good versus evil (ok that's a bit overdramatic I'll try again ;-)... I mean the eternal battle of the acoustic guitar maker to make a guitar strong enough to survive regular year in year out use, while at the same time trying to use as little bracing/glue/wood etc as possible to make the guitar vibrate as freely as possible...

It's no exaggeration to say that the very finest acoustic guitars on the planet are just on the cusp; and a gnat's kneecap away from braking to pieces -lol!


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The DX-1K; A Replacement Anderson Shelter?
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It's a fine balancing act -but cheaper guitars stray far from the 'use less bracing and get a spectacular sound' side and stray heavily towards the 'could withstand a small thermonuclear blast, let's built it like a tank' side.

The DX-1K it must be said is not anywhere close to being an equal balance between bracing and sound either (though for this money it would be totally unrealistic to expect such things), but it does stray towards the sounding good end of things to a great degree... but I cover the sound in more detail later.

The back and sides of the DX-1K are well put together, but very unremarkable... The fretboard looks like rosewood to me (though some people have assured me that it's something a little more exotic... but I know rosewood -and rosewood is what it is -lol!!

(Incidentally Rosewood is a brilliant fretboard wood as it's so hardwearing -so don't think I'm complaining -lol!).

The chrome machine heads (tuning pegs and gears for tuning the strings) are well geared and reassuringly stiff (the way I like them), and the bridge and saddle look well put together.


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What's It Like To Play? ...And Can I Shampoo It With 'Head & Shoulders'?
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At the end of the day what really matters is how the Martin DX-1K sounds and plays when compared to rival manufacturers guitars in the £400 price bracket...

To play it feels just like any number of other guitars available at this price... it's no better or worse, no more or less comfortable. But where the DX-1K excels is in its lively 'springly' sound... I doubt you'll find a guitar with quite the aural presence of this budget Martin for anything like the same price.

Don't get me wrong the DX-1K isn't head and shoulders above the competition; but it is maybe just the crown of the head and top bit of your ears (sorry the more reviews I do the dafter I get :-) above the rest in terms of sound quality, focus and projection...


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My Verdict; Good For Me Or Jealousy?
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The trouble a lot of guitars in the DX-1K's price range aren't very far behind - Brands like Takamine and Yamaha have a lot to offer for your £400 - and they also usually come with extras like active pick ups fitted (active = preamp powered by a battery with controls similar to a graphic EQ - with Hi, Mid, and Low frequency cut/boost sliders), and better looking finishes, plus other nice cosmetic touches like binding, fret inlays and even gold plated machine heads in some cases.

Granted the Martin DX-1K definitely has the edge (just) on sound... but the competition certainly offers a lot of guitar for your money. So I suspect many players will be tempted away by the 'bright shiny things' offered by other manufacturers, for myself and those Crosby, Stills and Nash fans (remember them from earlier -bet you thought I'd forgotten and was just rambling -lol!) I just about convince myself that the Martin is probably the best option, as it just sounds better... but I think any purchaser will still be jealous of all the features you can get on other guitars for the same money -lol!



Hope you found my review interesting, and thank you so much for taking the time to read it!!

Best wishes,
Caveat-Emptor

Summary: A Genuine Martin For Those On A Budget, But You May Be Tempted By Other Guitars At The Same Price!