00:09Hey I'm Jamie with Guitarist and today we've got a really interesting guitar that could just
00:14represent the future of acoustic guitar making or at least a trend within it that we should
00:19probably pay attention to. What I have in my hands is the Martin GPE Inception Maple. So
00:26the clue is in the name has maple back and sides. Now outside of J200s maple isn't normally used
00:33for all that many acoustics partly because as Martin put it themselves it can sound a bit stiff
00:39it can have a nice immediate note that doesn't have a lot of depth of complexity to it. It is
00:47however quite widely available compared to tropical hardwoods so Martin have made the effort with this
00:52guitar the GPE Inception Maple to use it but also extend the tonal range to make this a true all
00:59rounder. So we're going to hear a bit more from it and then we'll get into the reasons why this
01:04works
01:04as a guitar where previous maple guitars perhaps haven't been such competent all-rounders.
01:09guitar plays softly
01:14guitar plays softly
01:15guitar plays softly
01:27guitar solo
01:56guitar solo
02:17guitar solo
02:27As you can hear, it's a beautiful sounding guitar. It is a premium instrument. It's about £4,300 in the
02:32UK, but there's an awful lot going on under the hood to make that maple sound absolutely stunning in this
02:38context.
02:39Now, this isn't the first in the Inception series. The first one was the GPCE, which was a cutaway model,
02:46which was launched in 2024.
02:50This obviously differs by being a non-cutaway model, so it's slightly more traditional. The looks are still quite contemporary,
02:55but many of the same features that were in the launch cutaway model, the GPCE, are also present on this.
03:02So let's take a little walk through them.
03:06So one of the things that Martin tried to do with this guitar was to open up the sound of
03:10maple and make it a little bit more warmer and give it a little bit more depth.
03:13And the first thing that they've done is use black walnut, which again is quite a sustainable northern hemisphere wood
03:21for some elements in this guitar.
03:23And the theory being that it softens some of the attack and brightness of maple.
03:27So I'm just going to turn the guitar over carefully here because where it's been used most, obviously, is in
03:35this beautiful curved wedge shaped fillet of wood that's been put in to this figured maple back.
03:43It's a little bit somewhat resembles a D35 back, although that's a different construction and a different wood.
03:50But that kind of kind of look to it looks really great.
03:54And again, this is the sort of first tool that Martin have used to sort of round out the sound
03:59of maple here.
04:00But let it be said, the maple they have used here is a lovely, stunningly figured wood, and it looks
04:08good with the amber fade finish they've used here as well.
04:11Some of the things that make this guitar sound so interesting and so good are actually beneath the surface.
04:17So we're going to have to sort of explain those.
04:20The first is skeletonised bracing.
04:22Now, bracing are the sort of struts of wood that support the top.
04:26Obviously, the top is being pulled by several tens of pounds of force by a set of strings, so it
04:31needs some reinforcement.
04:33And over the years, this reinforcement has been done by kind of struts of spruce, which are kind of solid
04:41bars, which have been scalloped away at the ends to produce the best tone.
04:45And they're generally in an X-braced pattern, which Martin devised in the 19th century.
04:50These ones, however, have honeycomb apertures in them.
04:54This is hence the skeletonised name.
04:56So the idea of this seems to be to lighten up the braces while keeping the same structural strengths that
05:04they would have if they were completely solid.
05:05And the idea behind that is to make the top more responsive.
05:09So maple is quite dense.
05:11They want to bring out some more complexity in the tone with this guitar.
05:15So the spruce top has been given skeletonised braces to just let it vibrate a bit more freely.
05:22There's also something you genuinely can't see, which I think are tone channels, which are like a kind of narrow
05:28sort of groove, which has been cut around the most resonant areas of the top to let them, a bit
05:35like a speaker cone, let them resonate a bit more freely as well.
05:38So this is all aimed at freeing up that top a bit to let it do its thing a bit
05:43more and sort of produce a richer tone in general, while retaining the structural strength and stability that you'll need
05:50for a guitar that you'll own for a lifetime, hopefully.
05:52As mentioned, we've got an ebony fretboard, 25.4 inch scale length.
05:58So just for reference, for those of you coming from electric guitars, a Fender scale length is 25.5 inches.
06:04It's a sort of nice, chimey, springy kind of feel to it, a slightly higher tension than shorter scale length
06:12guitars for a given gauge of string.
06:18And those are the sort of main things.
06:19There's an LR Bags Anthem pickup in it, a very high-end pickup that combines a microphone with an under
06:25-saddle element
06:27to produce a sort of hybrid sound, so it's the best-of-both-worlds type sound.
06:33So there's no flies on it from that point of view as well.
06:35And meanwhile, we've got these nice, quite contemporary inlays here, which I think are quite tasteful.
06:42And that's the deal, really.
06:43So who is the buyer for this guitar?
06:45Well, we've found that this guitar rewards really confident, kind of positive playing.
06:51So it's really nice for fingerstyle.
06:53If you're a confident fingerstyle player, it has a 44.4mm nut width, which is quite generous,
07:00allows you plenty of room to move about.
07:02Again, with that slinky GE-modified low-oval neck, that's very nice.
07:08One thing that a few commentators on YouTube have pointed out, Martin have actually launched this guitar
07:13with Phosphor-Bronze strings on it.
07:14The original one came out with Martin's proprietary Luxe-Kovar strings on it,
07:20which are a different metal alloy, which have a kind of unique sound.
07:25And it's not a bad sound.
07:26It's actually pretty cool.
07:27But most people are familiar with Phosphor-Bronze.
07:31So I think quite wisely, they've reverted back to the sort of standard benchmark.
07:34And I think that helps people calibrate their ears to what this guitar can do.
07:38It has a very clear voice.
07:40It has quite a sort of lively, sustaining sound as well.
07:44It's really kind of something that would be nice to play kind of Celtic fingerstyle on.
07:48It strums beautifully.
07:49It doesn't collapse when you hit the notes hard.
07:52It's basically quite a sort of bold-sounding but not harsh-sounding guitar.
07:56And it does have a bit more of that depth that has been lacking in some maple-body guitars in
08:02the past.
08:02So, mission accomplished for Martin?
08:04Yes, I would say so.
08:06It's really quite an interesting guitar with a contemporary voice.
08:09If that's for you, then you might well get really smitten with this guitar.
08:14Vintage purists, you know, need not apply, but that's okay.
08:18Martin will be making D28s as long as the sun still shines.
08:21And I think if you're on the lookout for something a bit different, do give one of these a try.
08:28Because even though it's a premium price tag instrument, it's got a lot of unique things to offer
08:34that are really engaging and immersively interesting for fingerstyle guitarists, for strummers and so on.
08:42So, give one a try next time you see it.
08:44And if you've enjoyed this video, hit the like and subscribe buttons and we'll see you next time.
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