Martin 000-17 Standard Series Auditorium Mahogany Acoustic Guitar

The Martin 000-17 Standard Series Auditorium is built from solid mahogany right through — top, back and sides — and wrapped in a satin Dark Mahogany finish that reads as working instrument rather than showpiece. Most guitars this size put spruce on the front; using mahogany instead changes what comes off the strings in a way you hear on the first chord. It is a focused, midrange-forward, unusually articulate Auditorium, and it arrives in a hardshell case, Pleked and strung ready to play.

Solid mahogany, top to back

An all-mahogany top is the whole story here. Mahogany is stiffer and less overtone-rich than spruce, so notes come out drier and tighter, with the midrange pushed forward and far less shimmer ringing around the fundamental. Chords stay separated instead of blooming into each other, which is exactly why fingerstyle players and engineers keep reaching for all-mahogany guitars — they sit in a mix without needing a hand from an equaliser. Inside, GE-scalloped X bracing in 1/4" spruce keeps the top light enough to move under a soft touch.

The 000-14 fret Auditorium body

The 000 is the size a lot of players land on after years with a dreadnought. It is narrower at the waist and shallower against the ribs, so an hour on the couch does not turn into a wrestle, and the balance across the strings is even rather than bass-heavy. You trade a slice of raw low-end volume for control and clarity, and on a mahogany-topped guitar that trade lines up perfectly.

Short 24.9" scale, wide 1 3/4" nut

The 24.9" scale length holds slightly less tension at pitch than a long-scale Martin, which softens the fight in barre chords and full-step bends and makes the guitar feel welcoming straight away. Sitting in front of that is a 1 3/4" bone nut with 2 5/32" spacing at the bridge, so there is genuine room between the strings for a thumb and three fingers to work independently. That combination — relaxed tension, generous spacing — is why this shape suits fingerstyle so well.

Neck profile, ebony board and a dovetail joint

The neck is a GE Modified Low Oval carved with Martin's High-Performance Taper, a shape with enough depth to fill the hand while staying shallow enough for long chord passages. It is a select hardwood neck finished in Dark Mahogany to match the body, joined to it with a traditional glued dovetail rather than bolts. The fingerboard and bridge are ebony, the board measures 2 1/8" across at the twelfth fret, and there are twenty frets with the neck meeting the body at the fourteenth. Abalone GE Diamond and Square Short inlays mark the positions, and white side dots along the edge of the board keep you oriented on a dark stage.

Bone at the nut, bone at the saddle

Martin fits a bone nut, a compensated bone saddle dropped into the ebony belly bridge, and bone bridge pins. Bone is harder and denser than moulded plastic, so it transfers string energy into the top with less loss and holds a filed slot cleanly over years of restrings. The saddle carries a 16" radius that matches the fingerboard, and because it is a drop-in saddle any future action adjustment is straightforward work for a tech.

Pleked, so the frets are already right

Every one of these passes through a PLEK machine before it leaves the factory. The machine measures the fingerboard and each individual fret under simulated string tension, then levels and dresses the frets to that measurement — the same job a very good technician does by hand, done to tighter tolerances. In practice it means the action can sit low without buzzing, fretted notes ring true rather than choking out, and the guitar plays properly from the case instead of after a visit to a workshop.

Hardshell case and Lifespan 2.0 strings

It ships in a Martin hardshell case — laminated wood shell, plated hardware, plush lining — which is the protection you want for a solid-wood instrument crossing the country by freight and for the years of gigs afterwards. The guitar comes strung with Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze in Light gauge, a treated set that keeps its brightness well past where an untreated string has gone dull. Left-handed builds of this model are available from Martin if that is what you need.

Set up in-store by Guitar World Australia's techs before it ships to you, so it plays perfectly the moment it arrives.