Martin D-18 Satin Acoustic Guitar - Satin Natural Reviews
The Martin D-18 Satin acoustic guitar will take you back to the days when acoustic guitars were king, and players depended upon rich tone and acoustic projection alone to convey their songs. Pick up Martin's absolutely amazing D-18 Satin, and you'll be captivated by its rich tonality, beautiful sonic detail, and vintage-tinged looks. The D-18 Satin gives you the classic Martin guitar experience with a dreadnought body, a 14-fret design, and beautiful tonality to match its looks. Its solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides provide the foundation for stunning sound, and the Martin D-18 Satin acoustic guitar will only sound better as it ages.
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Highest Rated Reviews
Martin D-18 satin
I recently went to Sweetwater, in Ft. Wayne IN, and purchased the D-18 satin. It is a nice guitar---light weight, low action, resonant, long sustain. Yes indeed...Five Stars.
My New Favorite Guitar
I've been playing for decades and have had some great guitars. I currently have several good acoustics that I like a lot, all of which sound good and are fun to play. However, this D-18 is on a whole other level. It has a sweet sound with great highs, lows, and mids that can't be beat. After playing one, I had to have it. After a month, and playing it a lot, I'm even happier I got it.
I'd usually get a setup on a new guitar, but everything one this one was perfect from the get go. Martin Pleks all their upper end guitars at the factory, so the frets are great. Neck relief was 0.10" - excellent. The action was 5/64" on the bass, and 4/64" on the treble - just where I like it. And, the intonation was perfect! Maybe I just got lucky with this one, but maybe this is normal. In any case, I was glad to save the setup fee.
I tried both the satin and gloss models - I couldn't hear a lot of difference in the sound between the two - both sounded great. I preferred the look of the satin natural finish which looks and feels similar to the finish on the D-18 Authentic (for nearly $ more). I'd read that the satin model essentially uses the same finish as the gloss model, but doesn't go through the time-consuming buffing stage to make it shine - which I assume accounts for the lower price.
Danny Is The Best!
I recently purchased a Martin D-18 from Sweetwater and had the great good fortune to have Danny Bennett has my sales rep. Initially I purchased a different guitar but changed my mind and wanted a D-18 instead. The first guitar had already shipped but Danny handled everything perfectly and I received my D-18 yesterday. Thank you, Danny and Sweetwater for making my experience a pleasant one. You guys rock!
Martin D-18 Satin is a great guitar
I bought the D-18 Satin last week (June 2023) from Brandon Eden at Sweetwater. 1st - Brandon is just an excellent sales engineer and great person overall. I had special shipping requirements about when I needed the guitar delivered and he handled it flawlessly! Thanks Brandon!
Now, on to the instrument with the satin finish. I own several guitars, all with nitro cellulose gloss finish, including other Martins. I was a little hesitant about this purchase until I went and played a variety of satin finish competitors around my area. No problem with tone, sustain, or finish etc. This guitar came to me with the Martin factory set-up but had been checked out by Sweetwater. Set-Up is just fine for multiple playing styles. What has amazed me the most is how the guitar has opened up in just a week of playing about an hour a day. I love the Satin finish and sound. This provides me a GREAT gigging instrument and a price point that makes sense. GREAT JOB BY MARTIN & SWEETWATER!
Another positive surprise is that the 18-Satins come with and upgraded D-18 hardshell case. It's a step up from what the photograph shows for this line. It is the same case that comes with the full gloss D-18. Pleasantly surprised.
