Martin LX1 Little Martin - Natural

Picking for 60 years. Old hands challenged by full sized guitars. This one is just right. Classic workmanship. Has good tone. Narrow fingerboard is perfect for me. The measurements given in the ad are wrong, and match my regular sized guitar. It is 34.5"L, not 38.5. Body is 3.5" deep, not 6.25. Width at the lower bout is 12.5", not 18.5. I read the ad yesterday and thought I would have to send it back. It really is a baby. YEAH!

It’s smaller than the Taylor GS Mini. I think the Taylor is better for picking and the Martin is better for strumming.

I love this guitar. I bought it so I could have the ability to take a guitar with me when I travel. I was concerned about a smaller guitar sounding tinny. Not so! This small guitar sounds really beautiful and full.

This guitar is pretty much perfect if you’re playing it with a strap. The body itself is very light while the headstock is extremely heavy (compared to the body) therefore playing it without a strap causes your left arm to get tired quicker due to the fact that you’re constantly holding the neck up while you’re playing. I found that simply using a strap relieves the pressure off your left forearm and allows for the playing of the guitar to be more enjoyable. Overall, I am very happy with my purchase.

Perfect for adults with small / smaller hands

The action and intonation is incredible. It is my favorite 🎸.

Love the guitar

Pros: - Extremely comfortable to play - Easy to re-sale - Hard plastic side HPL means it can probably be dropped and treated roughly, perfect for travel in other words Cons: - It is a bit cheap feeling. The neck is especially bad. It is laminated plywood, and thus very heavy - The guitar is unbalanced because of the heavy neck - Strumming or finger picking it too hard gives it a boxy sound - the top is solid wood, and 3/4 HPL. I wonder if the top will separate from the sides in a few years? - A hard case would have been nice at this price point I also own a Yamaha Red Label FSX5. That guitar is double the price, but it is more than 2x as good in pretty much every way except portability. I sometimes do not want a fancy guitar. I can fall asleep on the couch with this guitar, and if my fat cat sleeps on it... no worries. If I drop it, who cares? It is a tough little guitar that plays pretty well. It would be perfect for a child, but as a full grown man, it is still fun to play.

I liked this guitar but ordered it by mistake and had to change it for the same model with electical accessory. The company was good to return my full refund although I had to pay shipping to return it. It was my mistake though by ordering the wrong one.

I bought this because I wanted a really nice 3/4 sized guitar that is primarily used for my son's (9yo) learning platform but also something I can play on travels (camp/road trips) so that doesn't sound like cardboard cheap toy-like guitars. I wanted to spend around 500cad. This is a fairly premium price and so you should expect a great sound. This price range falls around similar to baby taylors which are pretty popular. I Also have reference to a 3/4 size parlor songbird mini guitar made by simon patrick luthier, the popular yamaha apxt2, and the popular gretsch Jim dandy 3/4 parlor. I played them side by side at a local shop. I think the guitar tone is completely subjective so I have done a quick and dirty video to share about the sound. Very sorry about the recording.... Just used my Samsung note 10 mic... And I'm just an average player. What I can say is there's a mid boxy boom sound that doesn't register on the phone mic recording. Sorry guys... If I get a better phone external mic I will update it. Things I love about this guitar: 1. Gorgeous guitar. The spruce top and mohagany HPL back sides. The pattern on this neck is absolutely stunning. See picture of neck. 2. Frets are smooth. Closed tuning machines and this guitar stays in tune for a long time. Love that it comes preinstalled with guitar strap button on both sides by factory. 3. Sound is a slightly boxier and bright sound than the baby taylor. All up to the sound you prefer . Definitely a great martin sound that carrys to even this small guitar. See video. 4. Superb travel case. Very padded and we'll made custom fit for this size . Hand carry handle and backpack padded straps. The case itself is worth $50+ imo Things that you need to be aware of: 1. Well setup from factory with zero buzz but I think for a beginner child, the action is a bit high. It needs adjustment. I think I will get a different set of strings and maybe shave the saddle bone a bit to lower some action. For a 9yo who doesn't have a hard strum, it's definitely higher than I prefer for him but this is fixable. 2. Looks like it comes with set of phos-bronze martin strings , med gauge. But to be honest I don't like these strings. The strings have a rather rough feel especially when moving around the neck...Again, easy fix. Just change them. I actually like elixir nanoweb on this guitar.... Light gauge... But this is your own preference 3. Beginners tend to like the fret dots. But notice here in the picture there are no reference dots on the fret surface? They're only found on the neck top. Even then, the 5th fret doesn't have double dots. The double dots are on the 12th only. In summary I'm going to be perfectly honest here. Of all the guitars I tried this lx1 falls in the middle. This comes from a perspective where I'm buying this smaller scale guitar for a child learning, plus the dual usage for me to bring along in a travel situation. So i wanted something fairly premium. 1. Simon patrick songbird mini parlor sounded the best to me. I love the mid tone bright guitar feel. The smaller parlor body was a better fit for kids learning and I needed zero adjustment out of the box. Perfect low action for kids. 2. I think the baby taylor bt1/bt2 is second. It has a crisper sound than the martin lx1. The sound is amazing but for me it's kind of a generic taylor sound that doesn't excite me personally. Nevertheless I think for about the same money, these bt1/bt2 guitars all-round nicer guitars than the martin. I do think this is subjective. 3. Martin lx1 , because of the things I listed above , for a beginner I think you might be better off with something else.... Example, the two I listed above. But if you really like the boxy sound, then I think you'll really enjoy this guitar . It's really close to the taylor... I would almost call it a tie and you go for the one you prefer in terms of sound. .... 4. Gretsch is a far 4th place for me. It isnt as expensive as the above three but it's a so/so sound and very well made ... We are starting to hit the cardboard sound territory with this guitar 5. Yamaha apxt2 is a far 5th. I just don't love the sound of this guitar acoustically so I couldn't buy it. But it is the cheapest of the bunch but hey, that might be just what you want .... Something that plays meh and has a pickup? Maybe you want this ... But for me I prefer a guitar that sounds good without plugging it in . A few others I wanted to try but simply wasn't available I'm canada where I am? Orangewood dana mini which is really well priced, and the newer journey guitar minis that have detachable necks.... Oh well maybe by the time you read this review they're more readily available in canada. In the end I bought the martin lx1 and later on i actually went and got the simon patrick mini parlor!!! They're very different sounding guitars. And.... I just had to have both hahahah. Hope this helps y'all!