To be fair, the ones I played were not set up for me. I like to down-tune and use open tunings and all the ones I played were not set up for that. The strings buzzed horribly and the 6th strings were so loose they slid off the fretboard just from a simple fretting (not even bending).
I don’t blame you for not wanting to give up a Martin. They are beautiful guitars.
A $2,000 used Guild D-55 (for my tastes) is equal to if not better than a $3-4,000 Martin. Ren Ferguson, previously with Gibson, is running the shop.
Don’t give up the Martin, but if you ever get the chance to try the D-55, I think you’ll be impressed.
Here’s a clip of someone playing one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kuScTu6vE0
Oooh....that was pretty. That guitar had an amazing sound. As a matter of fact, I DID have a Guild before I got my Martin, and I sold the Guild to BUY the Martin! However, it was a cheap guitar, and the Martin sounds WAY better than the Guild did. What can you expect from a guitar bought straight off the hook from Guitar Center? HAHAHA! It’s funny how that came about. A friend of ours that we had been jamming with off and on brought it over one night and let me play it ALL NIGHT. So, by the end of the evening, after he knew I’d fallen in love with it, he looks at me and says “Ya know, Shawna, I was thinking about selling that guitar’. WELL HELL!!! Can you say SOLD!? Still the best git-fiddle I’ve ever owned, I play it almost every day. I have pounded the absolute CRAP out of that thing, and it just gets better with age. You should see the scratches, dents and dings on it, but it always stays in tune, and just the TONE of it is SHAWEET! Just like all the old gun slingers say...you can take my guitar out of my cold, dead fingers, cause I ain’t gonna stop playing till the day I die!