Martin Guitars LX1 inclusive Gigbag

it arrived yesterday to romania, from music store germany (thanks for handling it with so much care!) and i laid my hands for the first time on this loveable tiny beauty. it looks amazing and feels amazing, in every aspect. excellent playability all thourghout the neck, right out of the box...

i wanted a travel buddy — small, sturdy, light and playable... and here she is. there are a lot reviews on the net, i will let here my own subjective opinion, after one day of having it (shipped from music store, germany).
- i'm a tall guy (6 feet 3 / 190 cm), but the smallness of martin lx1 is not a hindrance in playing. my wife is a mongolian petite, so perhaps I'm used with handling small beauties 🙂
- i have big hands, but not thick fingers. if i stretch my fingers i can cover this guitar's neck from the net to the 10th fret (from pinky to thumb stretched out) — so you can have a clue; however, i feel comfortable playing all over the neck, even past the 14th fret. so no problem with that... and the transition back and forth to my normal-sized acoustic fender pm1 or to my electric squier affinity tele feels smooth, adjusting in no time.
- the guitar is neck heavy, but it doesn't bother me at all; you see, it sits comfortably in my lap.
- well, of course, the sound is not of a normal-sized guitar — one has to live with that. it is somehow a boxy sound, but martin has a lot of character, so i'm quite pleased with the sound. the guitar seems to suit better for fingerpicking or strumming with bare fingers; when i use my pick it's too noisy, especially the d string is sooo loud, taking over the other strings. in know, it's a new guitar, freshly out of its box, so perhaps it needs time to shape its sound. if this will not happen (due to hpl back and sides) i will still be pleased, the sound is good enough and i can work my way around.
- the machine heads are of excellent quality (like every aspect of this guitar, actually): i tuned the guitar yesterday, after taking it out of the box, then forgot about it...

summing up:

craftmanship — state of the art
sound — boxy, you may like it or not (martin has character, a distinct voice, above all)
optic — beautiful as it gets, simply perfect
price/performance — well, i would have loved to pay less... in the states, it was 399 USD until recently, now it's more expensive and perhaps the price will rise as well in the current covid situation; so buy know, don't postpone if you consider having one.