Martin has launched the Junior Series, an all-new range of acoustic guitars aimed at the player who might want a compact travel-friendly six-string but might otherwise baulk at the thought of having a smaller scale instrument.
These are definitely not toys. All have a 24.9” scale length. The bodies retain the familiar shape, e.g. the Junior Series D Jr E is recognisably a dreadnought in silhouette, bearing the archetypical Martin guitar profile, but its body is smaller, shrunken, more easily carried around in a the padded gig bag that’s included in the list price.
These are also all stage-ready guitars, with the “E” in each model’s designation a sign that they all ship with Martin’s E-1 onboard electric guitar pickup system with an onboard guitar tuner.
We’ve got some specs that are shared across the board, with Performing Artist Profile necks with High-performance Tapers, Sloped Modern Belly Junior bridges. Necks join the body at the 14th fret, and the FSC certified Richlite fingerboards have rolled edges and faux abalone dot inlays.
Under the hood you have scalloped X-pattern bracing. Satin natural finishes are as standard and, we’re saving the best for last here, these all have all-solid wood builds, and there’s quite a bit of choice on the menu – there’s even a faux relic’d model inspired by the vintage rarities in the Martin Museum.
Let’s start with that. It’s called the StreetLegend, it has the D Jr E body shape, a distressed Burst finish, and is all solid sapele. The aesthetic is kind of pre-war, like this has been been carried from state to state by some up-and-coming folk artist in the ‘60s.
Martin has given this one some nickel open-gear tuners with ‘butterbean’ buttons. There’s some Brazilian rosewood HPL on the headstock facing.
If you like the idea of an all-sapele acoustic – and if we’re subscribing to the conventional wisdom that sapele has a mahogany-esque tone profile, then that idea might be a warmer, more rounded sound – then you have options.
The D Jr E StreetMaster is a similar proposition to the StreetLegend albeit with no relic on the finish. The dark StreetMaster Burst is pristine, and we have satin chrome closed-gear tuners.
This is also available as a more compact 000 model, and as a cutaway model in the shape of the the 000C Jr E StreetMaster, again, with resplendent with that dark burst, and if you want the cutaway but with the more traditional spruce/sapele pairing, then there’s the 000C Junior E. Clean, classic.
Besides the StreetLegend’s relic job, there’s not that much aesthetic largesse here. Single Ring Faux Abalone rosettes keeps things minimal.
Finally, there’s the 000C Jr E Bass, which has the spruce top, sapele back and sides, and this is the odd one out in a sense as it the 24.9” scale is short for a bass. But then, these are travel guitars. You want to travel light.
The Junior Series is out now, priced from $699. See Martin for more details.
