The Martin Backpacker guitar is a small travel guitar by the C. F. Martin company, known for it's incredible portability and distinctive body shape. Apart from the left handed variants, these Backpackers come in four basic variations: steel-string, nylon-string, and acoustic/electric versions of the aforementioned two. All have a 24" scale, 15 frets, and the signature body with a solid spruce top, as well as mahogany back and sides.
The choice between nylon strings or steel is simply personal taste and playing style. A guitarist trained in classical music would obviously prefer the nylon-string backpacker, and will have a nice travel guitar that can be easily transported on a plane trip for business or pleasure, as well as hiking and camping excursions. It will however, have the typical classical guitar g-string issue.
The best thing to remember about this Backpacker is to keep expectations reasonable: it’s not going to sound like a pristine Gibson, Taylor, or Martin dreadnought. This is a travel instrument that sounds like the role it’s built to fill. That being said, however, this instrument does have quite a nice and unique tone, except on the E string, which, due to the body size, doesn’t have a lot of bass to it at all.
Mostly the sound is very responsive and warm, particularly when played in fingerpicking styles. The flat pickers often find that thinner and more metallic sounds will be produced by heavy picking, although in general this guitar sounds as if it’s a blend of open-back banjo and acoustic guitar tones. Try out Martin Silk & Steel strings to bring out the best in this guitar’s tone.
One consequence of the Backpacker’s build is that the guitar tends to tilt towards the headstock, which, due to the small body of a Backpacker, makes it sort of top-heavy. Some people have recommended moving the guitar strap up to the tuners or behind the nut to rectify this problem, but most playability issues get resolved when people stand up and play anyway. Most players aren’t comfortable with balancing this guitar on their knee like a banjo, although this style works just fine.
If you’ve decided to buy the acoustic-electric version of either the nylon or steel stringed Martin Backpacker, you’ll quickly discover that the pickups really help bring out the warm sound of the instrument. You might want to consider the instrument as a college student or traveling coffeehouse player who needs a backup instrument, since the guitar will have trouble projecting, even in small areas, without some amplification.
The guitar is manufactured in Mexico, but the quality is still fair even with the more common problems people tend to have with this guitar. The frequent nut defect, which angles the strings so that they sometimes have to be wound the opposite way, can be fixed by a local dealer. Some have also had to cut down the nut and the saddle in order to have the guitar play reasonably well.
Overall, the Martin Backpacker guitar is going to be subject to the same rule of thumb for all acoustics, which is the extreme variance in sound that can be achieved from guitar to guitar of the same model. Trying acoustic guitars in person is generally the way to go, especially for mass-produced instruments like this one, where you can discover the best-playing one of all those for sale.
The Martin Backpacker guitar is a petite travel guitar by the C. F. Martin company, known for its incredible portability and unique body shape. We have got the best inside scoop on the Martin Backpacker Guitar .
