MARTIN SPD-16R (SP D-16TR)

Overview

Brand name: 

Product: 

  • acoustic guitars

Series name: 

Dates of manufacture: 

1996 to 2000

Production of the SPD-16R (SP D-16TR) began in 1996 and ended in 2000

Specifications

Prices (5)

DatePriceConditionNameComments
2000$1199goodtim
2018$1100excellent1999 model SPD-16R
1997$1500.00new
2008£1000excellentCharly
2000$1300.00good

Reviews (2)

MARTIN SPD-16R (SP D-16TR) reviewed by Anonymous

5
Average: 5 (1 vote)
I've picked one of these up at Wildwood Guitars back in 1997 and have played it for 23 years now. I LOVE it. I have really bonded with this guitar. I think it has gotten better over the years but it's hard to tell because it has always sounded fantastic. It blows away almost every other guitar I encounter in jam circles with friends. It just sounds so much richer and deeper than any cheap guitar. The one exception has been when I've played in picking circles around Nashville where people have super high end guitars. Even then, it sounds respectable compared to custom shop martins. It is a boomy sound cannon. Very pronounced low end. The bass notes can be felt in your chest. But not in a thuddy way. In a good way. The top end is not bad but the guitar really shines as a low-end strummer with bass walks. It's very loud. Neck is thin, action great, build quality great. Stays in tune very well. Having had this since I was a teenager, I've had more people than I can count tell me "wow, that guitar sounds great!." People try to borrow it, trade for it, etc. My one complaint is that as I've gotten into trying to play more complicated lead stuff up the neck, bending a lot, the neck is a tad narrow. And I don't have big hands. It's a fast, comfortable neck but it is narrow. Sometimes I feel like my fingers are stepping on each other, especially when trying to do fast stuff down toward the nut. That, and at one point after about 18 or 19 years, the neck actually cracked around the first fret. Like a diagonal crack radiating 2/3 of the way through the neck, straight across. Like a cross-section, but at a slight angle. I am not sure when it happened or how, it might have gotten knocked over without me noticing (toddler in the house) or I might have let it dry out too much. I was heartbroken. Thought I'd lost a long-term companion. But I found a dude who glued it, did a really fine job. Now it plays great and not sure it even lost any tone. I'll still never give it up and it still blows away 95% of the other acoustics I hear. It's one heck of a sweet guitar, especially if you are gonna spend less than 2K.

MARTIN SPD-16R (SP D-16TR) reviewed by Rick Fort Lauderdale

5
Average: 5 (1 vote)
I have a 1997 Martin SPD-16TR. This is a great guitar with an excellent sound. The finish work is excellent. The SP is for Special Edition, the D for Dreadnaught, the T for Scalloped Braces and the R for Indian Rosewood Sides and Back. It is all solid woods, sitka spruce top with aging toner, indian rosewood back and sides, spanish cedar neck, striped ebony fretboard and bridge, abalone snowflake inlays on fretboard and bridge, abalone soundhole rosette, tortoise binding and pickguard, gold tuners, D-45 style backstripe, gloss finish. It has a paper label inside signed by C.F. Martin IV. This guitar is definitely on caliber with the finishes and sound of Martins higher end guitars. I was told that they stopped producing these guitars as the costs where very high in comparison to what they where selling them for. Remember this was the time that the 16 series was being reintroduced. A great deal for the money; I see them selling between $1,000 to $1,600.

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