From Martin and Co.
The Custom 000-MMV Auditorium Acoustic Guitar is a smaller version of the famous Custom MMV Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar. Like its sibling, the Custom 000-MMV features all-solid wood construction. It is made exactly like its big brother, using a solid sitka spruce top, solid East Indian rosewood back and sides, and the nitrocellulose lacquer finish.
The only departure is the body size. The Custom 000-MMV comes in an auditorium body shape, with a tighter waist and lower bout, and a narrower body. Sonically, the guitar has a very balanced sound that will react perfectly to the fingers or guitar pick. Notes are extremely even across the entire acoustic spectrum. What is more, the Martin Simple Dovetail neck joint adds a tremendous amount of sustain to the tone; making it the ideal guitar to be heard accompanying your voice, playing with a band, at a coffee house, or in the track of your favorite recording. The Custom 000-MMV Auditorium Acoustic Guitar is a perfect addition to any guitar collection.
The Custom 000-MMV Auditorium Acoustic Guitar comes complete with a 330 hardshell case.
History of the Custom MMV Model
The MMV is a Martin custom Dreadnought guitar that was created in 2005. Simply put, MMV is Roman Numerals for the number 2005, the year in which the guitar was created. From its conception, the Custom MMV Dreadnought Acoustic was designed to be a Nazareth-made, all-solid wood instrument, that was priced significantly under what you could find off of the Martin standard pricelist. Martin wanted to offer the musician a chance to purchase a solid wood Martin guitar at a price that wouldn’t break the bank. They also wanted to come up with a sound that was slightly different from the more traditional Martin dreadnought guitars.
To begin with, they selected a nice piece of Sitka spruce as the tone engine for the guitar. Sitka was chosen because of its ability to capture the player’s performance by accurately reproducing all the color and nuances in every note. The top was braced with one of Martin’s patented X-Bracing patterns. The company departed, slightly, from Martin’s standard “X” pattern to “roll off” just the right amount of bass. The bass on the Custom MMV is perfectly blended to match the volume on the mids and treble frequencies, giving you an instrument that is both balanced and expressive.
To add the right amount of color, they fashioned the back and sides from solid East Indian Rosewood. Using East Indian rosewood warmed up the sound of the top, much like that of a speaker cabinet. The combination of a Sitka spruce top and East Indian back and sides produces a guitar that is rich in color, yet extremely dynamic and expressive.
The neck joint of the guitar uses Martin’s Simple Dovetail. This is a glued neck-to-body joint that allows the guitar body and neck to resonate as one instrument. Much like the world’s finest string instruments, such as the Stradivarius and German double bases, you won’t find any bolts in this instrument. Its tight, wood-to-wood contact produces an incredible amount of sustain and tone.
