Martin Special 35 Style Bearclaw Engelmann Spruce Top Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar Natural

First off, given the pandemic, I bought both this and an 000-28EC to compare. I babied and played them both for nearly 30 days before I ended up returning this (in mint condition) and keeping the EC. Tough decision, but it was mostly due to the neck and ergonomics of the EC that fit my shoulder better. But there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about this fantastic dread. The Engelmann spruce has an awesome bearclaw to it, and has a 3D effect/depth to it that is hard to describe and even harder to capture in photos, but you can really appreciate it in person. It makes the guitar unique and I really liked it. Apparently Bearclaw Engelmann is also quite rare. The tone out of this thing was amazing, very loud and shimmery with lots of overtones, maybe a little brighter than other HD-35s I played. Very bass-heavy, and held up to heavy strumming without issue. Fingerpicking was also nice, but EC was better for that. The upgrades to this are the bearclaw top and polished head plate with the fancy Martin script, which does help set it apart, but for the price, I wish it had wood binding or at least grained ivoroid. Ultimately, I couldn't bond with the size, MLO neck, or the plastic binding. But if these are non-issues for you, this is a very choice guitar. I will say that the Custom Shop did a great job with symmetry of the bearclaw top, and they picked out some real nice pieces of rosewood for the back and sides as well. Action was good from the factory. For this price, I wish it came with a better case than the green felt thermoplastic, which had a tendency to tip over or try to close onto the guitar. If you're in the market for a one-of-a-kind HD-35, give this model some serious consideration. Absolutely fantastic instrument.

A fine example of a Martin dreadnaught guitar

This guitar looks and sounds amazing. The action comes a bit high as all Martin dreadnoughts do. If you like that, you're good to go. If like a lot of people you want a lower action, have a luthier carve a new saddle for you like I did and keep the old saddle just in case as a backup. With the new saddle this guitar plays perfectly. I'll most likely use the lower saddle for fingerpicking and the old saddle if I'm strumming loud chords. Didn't need to adjust anything else but the saddle. The neck and nut were perfectly in spec already. I had my luthier file down some sharp corners on the fingerboard side of the nut and now it's even more comfortable to play. One thing that I've always found disappointing about Martin guitars is the plastic bridge pins. So I went ahead and ordered a set of liquid metal pins made by Martin. I really like the look of the new pans and I do think they add volume and a bit of sustain. I've tried some different strings on this guitar with differing results. Not sure exactly which strings that came with but those sounded only OK. They were kind of old though. I put a set of light gauge elixir nanoweb 8020 bronze and those sounded better but I wasn't satisfied until I tried some Tony Rice signature medium gauge strings and that was the sound I've been looking for. they really allow the guitar to sing and have a very woody and warm tone. whatever type of string you use I would definitely recommend medium 13 to 56 gauge for maximum tone. Don't go any heavier than that. Over all I am very pleased with this instrument, especially with the modifications I mentioned above.