Martin Guitar Retro MM-12 Light

I was looking forward to testing these strings. Normally I like strings with a warm, "vintage" style tone so I had high hopes for these Martin Retro Monels.

Unfortunately I didn't like them very much. I was expecting them to have a warmer, mellower tone.

At first they were extremely bright. Not in the same way as a bright set of phosphor bronze or 80/20 strings. It was more like a fizzy thing in the high frequencies that somehow seemed disconnected from the rest of the tonal spectrum. This nasty fizz disappeared after a couple of hours of playing but the tone was still far too metallic sounding for my taste. Once the strings was broken in it wasn't a particularly bright tone but more like a "tin can", honky kind of tone. Not my cup of tea. I gave them a week of regular playing before I gave up and installed other strings instead.

To be fair they were at least different from any other strings I've tried but sadly they weren't for me.

These are up to this point the best strings that I have used....because I prefer a warmer sound instead of phosphor bronze or 80/20's.
I use a Lakewood D14CP which has a Spruce top with mahagony back and sides. The warmth and clarity that comes out of this guitar is just divine. They do not need days to be broke in either, they sound great right away.
Sound: Warm,organic,woody,mellow and clarity...without sounding overly bright. These are like I said just excellent. I also use these on my Lakewood M14 edition 2020 ...all mahagony which sounds lovely. These are also very pleasant to play through a amp, a well balanced tone.

If you more for strumming than these are for you, if you like to fingerpick than these are for you also.

Integrity: these strings are not prone too wear and moisture like other strings, they last quite a long time.

These are THE strings that Tony Rice used for many years and he and C.F.Martin went and made the effort to bring these back into production, and for that I am very grateful.

Playability: they are uncoated but I can honestly not come up with any complaints that they are not easy on the fingers.Compared to Elixir Nanoweb they feel different.

I would recommend these strings over all others because they are my favorite. If someone can show me a better sounding string than maybe i will consider changing, but until that moment comes........I will only use Monels. Here are some other strings I've tried but still have kept going back to the Monels. Elixir Phosphor Bronze, d'addario E16 and the new Nickel Bronze.The Nickel Bronze are on my all Mahagony guitar...they have also a very nice tone in my opinion...warm like the Monels...but a little more clarity and brightness. Some of the other standard strings from Martin are ok.
Give them a try!!!

These feel great under the fingers. The tone is balanced. I'm not into bright sounding guitars or strings and I'm definitely against any sort of coating on a string. I put these on my drednaught, grand auditorium, OM, and 00015. They seem to sound uniform throughout their lifespan, unlike the phosphor bronze and 80/20 that go dull after a few days. Mind you it's a darker string, and better balanced. I've been using them since they came out in 2014