Formica Martin Festival friend -

Subject: Formica Martin Festival friend -
From: GUEST,Backpacker
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 05:54 AM

Well I is amazed........

Just bought a Martin LXME "formica" travel guitar - have a Taylor (nice) - but Why does this Virtually no wood guitar sound so much better - so much like a Full size guitar - soooooo   Martin????

Then put it through the PA - WOW - rich and sweet all from a small "Toy Guitar" -

well I'm sure some of you will Hate this guitar ("It's NOT real 'cause it's not Wood") but if you give it a fair crack of the whip (maybe they wouldn't have made guitars from wood if they'd had this technology when they were first built?) - You'll be surprised

Mine will be touring the festivals with me this year and will be seen both on and off stage...

and all for the price of 25 sets of strings!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Formica Martin Festival friend -
From: GUEST,Tree son
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 02:32 PM

wood is wood and will-out

Subject: RE: Formica Martin Festival friend -
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 03:36 PM

wood is wood and will-out

I tend to think that the best acoustic guitars will alway be wood.

But good tonewoods are getting rarer and rarer - thus more and more expensive - all the time. The great majority of all "wood" guitars are actually laminates - glorified plywood - on the back and sides at least. And a lot of them are pretty damn good instruments. And a fine wood guitar is fragile.

If I want to take a guitar to a folk or bluegrass festival, and wander around in the dark with it slung over my shoulder, looking for an interesting jam, getting rained on a drop or two, tripping over tent pegs or maybe just over my own besotted feet, bumping into people who may have drunk enough that one good bump makes them lose it all; then I would be seriously interested in an instrument that gives up only a little of fineness of tone (that I couldn't hear anyway in that environment), in exchange for lower price and greater durability.

I'm very interested in the Rainsong and CA guitars, but their prices are right up there with the good wood ones. I've played the wood-topped Martin formica instruments, the -X1 models, and to me their tone is good enough for about 85% of the playing I do in real life.

Unfortunately, they haven't come out with any with a proper (1 3/4" or wider at nut) neck yet. When they do, I may well dive for it.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Formica Martin Festival friend -
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 03:42 PM

My best friend is selling his 710 Taylor and is considering buying this baby (largely on my recomendation and largely because I don't have the money to buy it or it would already be MINE!).

It has a micarta fretboard which is a little off-putting considering the price tag. One would expect ebony for the bucks but it certainly wouldn't keep me from buying the guitar if I liked everything else about it.

I recall Gibson's experiments with plastic bridges back in the 60's. Just about every one of those guitars has been retrofitted with a rosewood or ebony bridge. I only hope Martin has done the research and that the plastics they are using are at least as durable as the wood they are replacing. If not, they do still give a lifetime warranty on their guitars and I'm sure they know how to replace a fretboard.

Bruce

Subject: RE: Formica Martin Festival friend -
From: GUEST,Moo
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 05:07 PM

Well, wait until your Formica guitar takes a good bang and cracks. That said - why do Ovation guitars sound (and play) so good? I've played a thin bowl Ovation Legend for years - it might not hold up in a recording studio, but for for playing gigs, it sounds every bit as good as any "all wood" guitar, and it's almost bulletproof.

The fact of the matter is that sides and backs don't make very much difference b/c they're muted by the player's body anyway.

Subject: RE: Formica Martin Festival friend -
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:14 PM

The small body washing up bowls have absolutely no acoustic presence.

Suzuki made a giant one, really deep body, that was OK acoustically - but big bowl back in front of a folkie with a big bowl front results in long reach to strings!