After lengthy deliberation - and fundraising through the sale of a long-unused electric guitar - I have purchased a Martin LXM Tres. Here it is in all its glory. The store had two in inventory (sadly Martin has discontinued this model so these might be the last two they'll ever have in the shop) and I played both and chose the one that had a slightly better setup and tone. The one I passed on was somewhat tinny and brittle-sounding, whereas the one I took home has a sweetly thin, reedy voice. The top is solid Adirondack HPL, while the back and sides are CITES-certified old growth Honduran mahoganolium. The neck is Stratabond, and even though they don't refer to it as figured, there's some really nice curl in mine if you look at it in the right light and squint really, really, really hard, until you start to get dizzy and light-headed. The fingerboard and bridge are both solid East Indian rosewood (honestly). Mine had been on the showroom floor for a while, so it was pretty dusty and hadn't been cleaned recently. When I got it home I immediately got some Formula 409 and a soft cloth and polished it up. Wow - it's amazing how much the simulated wood grain popped once the dust was gone. And I LOVE the herringbone rosette decal - very classy but still understated. This thing's got some powerful midrange already - can't imagine what it's going to sound like once it opens up...
Here's a shot of the new Tres with its step-siblings:
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