Actually, seeing all the spelling errors in my earlier "guest" post, I should have kept my head down.

Martin is not a charitable foundation dedicated to upholding the ideals of people who might buy one or instruments in a lifetime from them... and maybe another one or two used for which they receive not a penny.

And if you were ("you" being the critics) them, you would not keep the factory open for long if you tried to satisfy everyone.

My DXM shrugs off real-time use. I don't have to treat it like the crown jewels. It is well-made, the neck is as accurate as any of my guitars and more so than some. The action out of the box is fast and easy. The volume production was good enough for acoustic jams. I added a Mini-Western pick-up and had not the sligthest trepidation to boring out the base-plug and running the cables through the instrument. The pick-up works fine. If anyone quibbles that it's not the "best" possible choice, they can send me better ones.