Martin LXK2 Little Martin Koa Pattern HPL Top with Padded Gigbag

I've been playing steel string & nylon string guitar for over 18 years now and can honestly say that this little piece of work is so much fun to play and it has the bright, clean, even, crisp, clear, awesome tone, as it's bigger brothers five times the price !! Seriously couldn't be happier with the guitar. I played around for a few weeks at local shops and was skeptical about just buying one online but this little thing was built well and just sounds awesome !! It comes with a gig bag and it's so compact, you can just take it everywhere it's totally worth the 280 bucks !! It's a Martin, come on, virtually every other luthier tries to replicate them. It says it was made in Mexico and frankly who cares where it was made if it sounds good ?!? I give it five stars without question!

I was surprised by the sound of this instrument. Really nice! The spacing of the strings is somewhat close, but still good for people with average sized hands.

This is a fabulous little guitar. I bring it with me everywhere - pop it out of the case (it holds its tuning very well) and play it. Friends of mine try it, are impressed with how easily it plays and ask me who I had set it up, and I tell them that's how it came out of the box, because that is how it came out of the box: ready to go. It sounds great - a little small (of course), but it is very balanced and clear - really lovely tone. Well intonated, plays great all over the neck. And rugged - it's basically made out of Pergo flooring material and you can't scratch it. The only downside is it is a little bit head heavy - the head has nice, quality tuners and there is a lot of weight up there. This is a tiny downside, really. If you want a guitar that you can bring everywhere, that is a a delight to play, that seems to call you: "come play with me...." like a Siren, and that you'd have to run over with a car to break, then get this. And... it's a damn Martin for $300! What is there not to love?

Know what you're getting before you buy and you'll be happy. This is the kind of guitar Ed Sheeran built his career on as a busker. This is not the guitar he is currently using on tour, nor is it a good choice for recording. The version with electronics might be good for gigging, but the LXK2 does not have electronics so I can't comment further than that.This is a 3/4 size guitar. The scale is about 3" shorter than a regular guitar, which means you can tune up two notes (F#BEAC#F#) with regular strings without risk of snapping them. I've done this, and it was fun. I've also tuned down a couple notes (DGCFAD) and it didn't buzz or feel weird. For some reason, though, I have more issues when using a capo than I do on other guitars--retuning with the capo on is a must.The tuners are not too good. The ratio feels low, which isn't a probably for most of the strings but makes it hard to get the low E string dialed in. I'll probably swap them out for 18:1 Grovers.Projection is minimal, but that shouldn't be a surprise. This is a tiny guitar built to survive kids and/or road trips. For what it is, it sounds good and the volume across each string sounds even. The Martin strings it came with sounded awful and I immediately swapped them out for a set of D'Addario phosphor-bronze.Tone is balanced, but focused in the midrange. Fretboard feels perfect. Action was perfect out of the box. Finish looks nice--I'd describe it as semi-gloss (shinier than a matte finish, but not a glossy mirror). The materials are all laminated, and the "koa" is a photo finish but it looks nice and I don't see a seam or repeat in the pattern. Build quality is ROBUST and the finish will be hard to scratch. I've brought this a couple places and while the tuners aren't superb, it didn't seem to react to temperature changes like other guitars I've owned.This is a guitar I bought for the purpose of bringing to church for youth, and on youth group trips. I am totally comfortable letting the youth borrow it and carry it around without me sweating about it. So far, it's been well received, and it's worked well in our smallish worship circles. Very pleased with this, even with its flaws.

This little guitar feels surprisingly heavy to hold and has a really nice sound. It comes with Martin's lifespan strings, and I really don't think they do it justice at all. I immediately put on a set of Elixir phosphor bronze with the nanoweb coating and it was like I was playing a whole different instrument.This is now my husband's full-time, go-to guitar. He has smaller hands and finds it so much easier to play than our big old classical guitar. I'd recommend this to anyone who's on the petite side or has small hands.While it's small, this guitar feels solid and I won't worry at all when traveling with it. How nice to have a high-quality instrument that fits well in the car. A neighbor has the same one and says he put it in the overhead bin on airplanes, too.Overall, I highly recommend!