Martin S-O review
Here's my review:
Martin Soprano S-O
Summary
Features 8
Sound 10
Action, Fit, & Finish 7
Reliability/Durability 4
Customer Support 0
Overall Rating 7
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Features:
All mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, steel frets, Peg friction tuners, plastic saddle and nut, Martin strings. There are no fret inlays, which I prefer.
Sound:
With the Martin strings it comes with, it's a bit quiet for my taste. Replacing the strings with Aquila Nylgut makes an enormous improvement in volume and tone. That said, with the original strings on it, the modern Martin S-O is much louder than comparable mahogany bodies sopranos, probably due to its very thin body wood. With the Aquila strings, my Martin makes a bright "crunch" when strumming. It's a thinner sound than the mellower Flea soprano, making it perfect for Bluegrass, Folk and Pop.
Action, Fit & Finish:
The action is high on the higher frets on the Martin. No buzzing, no clumpy "thump" sound to any of the frets. The finish is beautiful. I like looking at the wood grain on the body – it displays depth to the wood grain.
Reliability/Durability:
This is a fragile instrument, partly due to the inner framework of the body. The supports on the inside don't fully span the width of the body. Because of this, my uke experienced a split where the bracing ends. The repair fixed the problem, but I was out $60 because of it. It still sounds great though.
Customer Support:
I have no experience with this aspect of the Martin, except for the individual dealer.
Overall rating:
I give it a seven. It would be higher if the body braces were better and if it were about $90 dollars less. They charge $300 for it and I think they're trading on their name. But the new Martin S-Os are sounding good. I've played some that were made in the early '90's or '80's and they had a thinner sound to them. But mine dates from around 1997 and I'm very happy with it. I've also played some new S-Os in shops and their great sound continues. I had a luthier add inlay dots on the top of the neck, making mine a unique Martin S-O!