A pop idol’s signature edition shines a light on an underrated and intriguing Martin body style.
Easy playability. Great harmonic balance between high and low strings. High-quality build. Crafted from sustainable woods.
Electronics don’t entirely capture guitar’s balance.
$799
Martin 000JR-10E Shawn Mendes
martinguitar.com
There’s not a lot of reason for Martin to mess with new body styles. Just about every standard shape in their line—from the 0, 00, 000, up through their dreadnoughts—are inarguably stone-cold classics and foundational works from which much of the rest of the acoustic-guitar industry takes their inspiration and cues.
The release of the $799, Mexico-made 000JR-10E Shawn Mendes, however, turns a spotlight on a Martin body style that, to date, could qualify as underappreciated. It also finds the company toying with construction based completely on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-rated sustainable tonewoods and, in turn, addressing the reality of shrinking and endangered traditional tonewood supplies that faces the whole guitar industry. The results of this effort are a comfortable, affordable, high-quality, and inviting flattop that says a lot about where the industry can still go in terms of design and materials.
A Body in Between
If you don’t play a lot of different acoustic guitars, you could conceivably pick up the Mendes (which is based on the existing standard 000JR-10) and notice little more than the fact that it’s smaller than a dreadnought and bigger than a parlor guitar. If you’ve got a little more experience with the breadth of acoustic body shapes and neck sizes out there, though, you’ll notice that the Mendes is indeed a unique and unusual amalgam of design elements.
“Junior” designation aside, Martin’s decision to call the Mendes and its 000JR-10 and 000JR-10E stablemates “000s” is a curious one. The Mendes is actually closest in dimensions to a 00, though the body is shorter and the profile is a bit more pinched at the waist than on that venerable Martin shape. The neck, too, may feel unusual to a seasoned acoustic player. It’s built around a short 24" scale, where most Martins are a 24.9" or 25.4" scale. The short scale feels even more unique for the presence of the 000JR-10E’s most 000-like element, a 1 3/4" nut width.
Combined with the relatively substantial neck profile, the wider nut width makes the Mendes feel very easy to play.
Together, the Mendes’ most vital dimensions and design elements add up to an interesting whole. It’s small enough to feel a little like an instrument from the larger “travel” guitar category populated by guitars like Taylor’s GS Mini. But few guitars in that loose categorization feature a neck as expansive feeling as that on the Mendes, which benefits immensely from the wider nut width. Combined with the relatively substantial neck profile, the wider nut width makes the Mendes feel very easy to play. The wider spacing facilitates alternate thumb picking, while the shorter scale makes extended chords easier. For players used to classic formulas, the mix could feel strange. For less biased players and many novice players who aren’t attuned to such nuances, the blend could be ideal.
Construction quality, by the way, is excellent. The woods used here are all FSC certified, right down to the bracing—which means they are sourced from responsibly managed forests. But they will be familiar tonewoods to Martin enthusiasts and acoustic players in general. The back and sides are layered sapele, while the top is Sitka spruce. The grain on the latter is rather plain, but the top is no less lovely for it, and an informal tap test reveals it to be a very resonant, lively section of lumber. The 2-piece neck is made from sipo, an African hardwood quite like mahogany. The fretboard, meanwhile, is surprisingly made from ebony. Responsible sourcing of the ebony on the fretboard means that the wood used here isn’t the uniform, ultra-dark type you see on top-shelf acoustics. But the grain variation is lovely and works well with the Mendes-specific design touches like the signature at the third fret and diamond-pattern, mother-of-pearl inlay. Inside and out, fit and finish are perfect. And we can’t say that about every $800 flattop we see.
Easy Equilibrium
Like most small-body guitars, the Mendes won’t bowl you over with low end. But the projection from the 000JR body is still impressive. You hear very, very little of the messy, compressed, blur you typically hear from guitars of this size when you strum vigorously. In fact, the guitar feels very punchy and exceptionally balanced across the whole frequency spectrum when you hit it hard.
That balance is just as evident in fingerstyle situations. The first and second strings ring with a particularly sweet and crystalline clarity that chimes beautifully against the round, concise resonance of the third and fourth strings. And again, while the low end won’t dislodge any pictures from the wall, the output from lower strings creates a very cohesive and rich, if compact, harmonic whole.
The Verdict
While there aren’t a ton of structural details to differentiate the Shawn Mendes signature edition from its less expensive 000JR-10 and 000JR-10E stablemates, the little differences add up to an interesting guitar. The honey-hued finish on the top and the inlay both add an upmarket aura to the instrument. And construction from 100 percent FSC tonewoods is no small or inconsequential distinction. We love to see guitar companies follow this path and execute the instruments made with these woods with such care. Materials and ethics aside, however, it’s cool to see this signature release shine a light on a Martin model family that, to this point, may have received less than its due respect. Like the 000JR-10 and 000JR-10E, it’s an exceptionally comfortable and sweetly ringing instrument that fits many styles.
Martin 000JR-10E Shawn Mendes Demo | First Look
Martin 000JR-10E Shawn Mendes Signature Acoustic-electric Guitar
- Shawn Mendes signature embellished with swallow design that recalls his hand tattoo symbolizing home as a place filled with family, friends, and loved ones
- Spruce top and sapele back and sides offer strong, bright fundamentals with balanced tone
- Scaled-down Auditorium body shape sits easily in the hands of any player
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“Sometimes, I’d like very much for my guitar to sound exactly like a supa cobra.”
Luthier Creston Lea tells us about his favorite dirt pedal—an Athens, Georgia-made stomp that lets his guitar be a hero.
Let’s face it: Nobody can tell what overdrive pedal you’re using. Whether you’re in a carpeted suburban basement accompanying the hired clown at your nephew’s fifth birthday party or standing on the spot-lit monitor at Wembley, not one person knows whether the pedal at your feet cost $17 or $700, has true bypass, or has an internal DIP switch. Nobody leaning against the barn-dance corncrib or staunching a nosebleed up in the stadium’s cheap seats is thinking, “Heavens yes!! THAT is the sound of a silicone diode!”
So, why buy another overdrive pedal? Or six more? Are they different? (I’m asking myself.) Of course they’re different. (I’m telling myself.) A Turbo Rat is not aKlon. ATube Screamer is not a DS-1. Or is it? I can’t keep track. Why? Because it’s fun to see what the talented manufacturers of the world have to offer. And because any reader who picks up a guitar magazine for any reason other than to swat a fly is curious about what’s new and what other players are using to good effect. You can blow your savings on a guitar—I’d be happy to build you one—or an amp (or vacation or college or discount merlot or a regrettable whole-back tattoo), or you can spend $100 to $300 to satisfy your curiosity. Will anybody in the audience notice? Unlikely. Will you feel better for five minutes or the rest of your life? Maybe. Seems worth rolling the dice from time to time. Nobody gets hurt. And sometimes you’ll find a pedal that pulls something good out of your playing simply by responding to the way you play … which makes you play in new ways, etc., etc., in an infinite loop of delight. Or at least infinite till the next pedal comes along. It feels good. In a troubled and imperfect world, is it so wrong to feel good?
I bought my first overdrive pedal, a well-usedMXR Distortion+, for $25 in 1991. Surely, I could have stopped there. But many others have come and gone in the years since. Have I bought a pedal, sold it, bought it again, sold it again? More than once.
I’ve mostly, finally outgrown the desire for new pedals, but I’m not immune to the occasional itch. Sometimes a trusted brand introduces something I just haveto hear for myself. That’s particularly true in the case of smaller-scale builders whose ears I’ve learned to trust. I’m going to like everythingChris Benson of Benson Amps or Brian Mena of Menatone ever makes, for example, so why not hear it all? Sometimes it’s alluring copywriting that makes me reach for my wallet. Sometimes they just look cool.
Maybe in my case, I just can’t resist a name like Supa Cobra. Sometimes, I’d like very much for my guitar to sound exactly like a supa cobra. When Greer Amps first introduced their Supa Cobra six years ago—described as delivering “chewy medium gain overdrive to awesome crunchy grind!”—I was immediately intrigued.
Oh, how I love the Supa Cobra—a woefully underappreciated pedal now only available from Greer by special request. I’m sure there are smart players who have discovered the joys of its lower-gain settings, but for me it’s perfect for punching through sonic mud and letting my guitar be heard. It lets my guitar be a hero.
I like it best with its 3-way clipping switch set to the middle position, which, according to Greer, bypasses the other modes’ clipping diodes and lets the op amp’s natural drive come through. I can’t say I know exactly what that means, but I know it’s loud and clear and compressed in just the right way to let sustained notes really sing out in a natural, power amp-y manner.
The Supa Cobra’s greatest feature may be the body control that dials in low-end presence without adding any murk. At higher body settings, the notes push on my chest in a way that I find thrilling. I like it around 60 percent with the gain knob turned nearly full up. Perhaps excessive, but life is short. When it’s time to sound big, it’s the biggest-sounding pedal I’ve found. Lots of overtones, but not at the expense of clarity. It’s quick to jump into harmonic feedback at the gain-y settings I like best, but in a beautifully controlled way.
As a matter of fact, I think people do notice what overdrive pedal I’m using. Not that they know it’s a Supa Cobra, but it makes my guitar leap out in a way that so many other pedals have not. To borrow a word from Greer’s Lightspeed Organic Overdrive (also fantastic), it sounds organic. Or, very much unlike a wasp in a tuna can. I think it sounds like music. Loud music.A dual-channel tube preamp and overdrive pedal inspired by the Top Boost channel of vintage VOX amps.
ROY is designed to deliver sweet, ringing cleans and the "shattered" upper-mid breakup tones without sounding harsh or brittle. It is built around a 12AX7 tube that operates internally at 260VDC, providing natural tube compression and a slightly "spongy" amp-like response.
ROY features two identical channels, each with separate gain and volume controls. This design allows you to switch from clean to overdrive with the press of a footswitch while maintaining control over the volume level. It's like having two separate preamps dialed in for clean and overdrive tones.
Much like the old amplifier, ROY includes a classic dual-band tone stack. This unique EQ features interactive Treble and Bass controls that inversely affect the Mids. Both channels share the EQ section.
Another notable feature of this circuit is the Tone Cut control: a master treble roll-off after the EQ. You can shape your tone using the EQ and then adjust the Tone Cut to reduce harshness in the top end while keeping your core sound.
ROY works well with other pedals and can serve as a clean tube platform at the end of your signal chain. It’s a simple and effective way to add a vintage British voice to any amp or direct rig setup.
ROY offers external channel switching and the option to turn the pedal on/off via a 3.5mm jack. The preamp comes with a wall-mount power supply and a country-specific plug.
Street price is 299 USD. It is available at select retailers and can also be purchased directly from the Tubesteader online store at www.tubesteader.com.
This hollowbody has been with Jack since the '90s purring and howling onstage for hundreds of shows.
Our columnist’s Greco 912, now out of his hands, but fondly remembered.
A flea-market find gave our Wizard of Odd years of squealing, garage-rock bliss in his university days.
Recently, I was touring college campuses with my daughter because she’s about to take the next step in her journey. Looking back, I’ve been writing this column for close to 10 years! When I started, my kids were both small, and now they’re all in high school, with my oldest about to move out. I’m pretty sure she’s going to choose the same university that I attended, which is really funny because she’s so much like me that the decision would be totally on point.
The campus looks way nicer than it did back in the ’90s, but there are similarities, like bars, shops, and record stores. Man, our visit took me back to when I was there, which was the last time I was active in bands. Many crash-and-burn groups came and went, and it was then that I started to collect cheap guitars, mainly because it was all I could afford at the time, and there were a lot of guitars to find.
In that era, I was using an old Harmony H420 amp (made by Valco), a Univox Super Fuzz, and whatever guitar I was digging at the time. I was so proud to pull out oddball guitars during shows and just have this totally trashy sound. Squealing and squeaking and noisy as heck, my style was reminiscent of Davie Allan, Ron Asheton, and Chuck Berry. Of course, I was way worse than all of them, but I did have a frenetic energy and I covered up my lack of skill with feedback. During the ’90s, there was a great punk revival, and I loved bands like the Mummies, Teengenerate, the Makers, the New Bomb Turks, and a bunch of others. Bands were embracing lo-fi, and I was planted firmly in that vein. Plus, the guitars I liked to use already sounded lo-fi.
“This was about the trashiest-sounding guitar, but in a good way!”
For a short spell I was using this Greco guitar and, man, this was about the trashiest-sounding guitar, but in a good way! See, Fujigen pickups (like the ones here) have this echoey voice that I describe as an “empty beer can” sound. My Super Fuzz would just destroy these pickups, and I wish I had some recordings from that era, because it was a real scene! I believe this Greco was a flea-market find but it was much later that I found out it was called a Greco Model 912. This was actually a copy of a German-made Framus guitar, but with a lot more glitz and a crazier headstock. Four pickup selector switches, volume/tone knobs, and a rhythm/lead switch rounded out the electronics. Again, these pickups are instant spaghetti-Western movie tone. Airy and bright, the bridge area is like instant, gnarly surf music. Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine has a similar guitar and John Barrett of Bass Drum of Death was also fond of these pickups. Interestingly enough, these particular Grecos were made in small numbers, ranging between 500 to 600 in total (including all pickup combinations).
The Greco brand was initially owned by the U.S.-based Goya Corporation, but in the late 1960s, Fujigen bought the brand name (for $1,000) and produced a few truly gonzo guitars, including this Model 912. Originally called the GE-4, the four-pickup version sold for $99.50 in 1967. My particular 912 was sold at Sid Kleiner Guitar Studios in Califon, New Jersey (which I learned thanks to the attached store sticker on the headstock).
Aside from the chrome coolness and the four pickups, this model featured a cute little flip-up bridge mute that was all the rage at the time. The body also had some tasteful German carvings around the edges, and as I write this, I am missing this guitar tremendously! But not even close to the way I’m going to miss my girl in a few months. At least I know that she can shop at the same record stores!