So I've had an E20D-TC for about a year now. Getting to know the guitar has been very interesting. Fit and finish and looks are outstanding on it, but the tone has always been a bit off in my mind. And by that I mean that it wasn't delivering in the power and clarity that I wanted out of the guitar.
So far two changes have helped dramatically IMO. The first one was moving from phosphor bronze strings to 80/20. To my ear, the 80/20s have helped with note separation and clarity when I strum.
A second change, and arguably even more dramatic, has been to move from light gauge strings to mediums. The medium 80/20s really move the top and the whole guitar now reverberates. The tone is much more assertive while still being clear. I've had guitars go somewhat dead on me with mediums (chocked the top) so I wasn't expecting this one to go in the other direction. But this one will be on mediums for the foreseeable future.
And finally, and the top of this post, is that I bought some unbleached bone pins from amazon. They are super affordable, so I wasn't going for top quality. I just wanted to compare them to the ebony pins and see if I notice any difference. I've switched from plastic pins to ebony before and with one guitar I noticed a big immediate difference. With the other, I didn't notice much at all, although I prefer the look so I left them on.
The E20D-TC had ebony pins on and they were in fine shape. But I noticed that most Martins have bone pins on their D28 / HD28 guitars so I wanted to see if it changed anything. Much to my surprise, the guitar improved noticeable to my ear. Now, part of that was that loosening and tightening the strings seems to liven them up. But even a week or two later, the guitar has improved sustain and sharpened up the tone, which is something I was looking for. So overall quite pleased with the change. And for about $10, it is a no brainer to try for me. Oh and the pins just dropped right in with no adjustment which is key.
I'd definitely recommend trying it out.
So far two changes have helped dramatically IMO. The first one was moving from phosphor bronze strings to 80/20. To my ear, the 80/20s have helped with note separation and clarity when I strum.
A second change, and arguably even more dramatic, has been to move from light gauge strings to mediums. The medium 80/20s really move the top and the whole guitar now reverberates. The tone is much more assertive while still being clear. I've had guitars go somewhat dead on me with mediums (chocked the top) so I wasn't expecting this one to go in the other direction. But this one will be on mediums for the foreseeable future.
And finally, and the top of this post, is that I bought some unbleached bone pins from amazon. They are super affordable, so I wasn't going for top quality. I just wanted to compare them to the ebony pins and see if I notice any difference. I've switched from plastic pins to ebony before and with one guitar I noticed a big immediate difference. With the other, I didn't notice much at all, although I prefer the look so I left them on.
The E20D-TC had ebony pins on and they were in fine shape. But I noticed that most Martins have bone pins on their D28 / HD28 guitars so I wanted to see if it changed anything. Much to my surprise, the guitar improved noticeable to my ear. Now, part of that was that loosening and tightening the strings seems to liven them up. But even a week or two later, the guitar has improved sustain and sharpened up the tone, which is something I was looking for. So overall quite pleased with the change. And for about $10, it is a no brainer to try for me. Oh and the pins just dropped right in with no adjustment which is key.
I'd definitely recommend trying it out.
2020 Eastman E10SS/V; 2020 Eastman E2D; 2020 Yamaha FS830; 2021 Farida OT-22W; 2022 Alvarez MD60BG; 2022 AC630 SB; 2023 Eastman AC622CE
