All user reviews of 2/5 for the Martin & Co DM

When I purchased the guitar over the Internet, I broke the cardinal rule of guitar buying: play it before you buy it. But all the reviews, including those I found at the Music Gear Review site, said it had a great sound and great playability. And since I live overseas, I didn't have the opportunity to do a lot of comparative in-store shopping. So I plunked down my $550 and several days later it showed up in the mail.

It looks and smells nice,and the included hardshell case is a real bonus. The first and second strings have a nice ringing tone. It stays in tune for long periods of time.

Maybe I just got a lemon, but contrary to all the reviews I read, this guitar is not easy to play nor, except for the first and second strings, does it sound all that great. The action is too high for easy playability, and even when I bear down hard, the third and fourth strings sound deadened, i.e., you get more of a "plunk" than any real sustain, from the third fret all the way up to the twelfth. The fifth string just sounds out of tune sometimes, even when it's properly tuned. Believe it or not, it got considerably easier to play and sounded better when I left the strings on way beyond their normal time. I've since played a much cheaper Takamine and a slightly more expensive Guild, and both sounded great and were much easier to play. When I get back to the States, I'll take it to a luthier for adjustments. Not that I'm thrilled about having to spend a lot of extra money on a guitar that, by all accounts, should have been ready to play, but, hey, them's the breaks.

It appears to be solidly built.

It's not the worst guitar I've ever played, but I think you could spend less money and do better, or spend a little more money and do much better. Please don't make my mistake and just order a guitar over the Internet. Play before you buy.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com