I'd been going to my local guitar shops a drooling over 000's for a few months. I just prefer the feel of smaller body guitars. When I saw these go on sale, though I said I never would, I ordered a guitar by mail. When it arrived it was broken. I believe one of the top braces was loose. The top bowed heavily on the bass side near the bridge. I called MF and they swapped it for another. The second one I took to my local luthier and asked for an inspection and opinion. Upon his pronouncement of a clean bill of health and general approval, I had him take the saddle down a bit, adjust the truss rod, and replace the strings. This guitar is fast becoming my preferred toy. Its sounding better as the last few months have gone by and I really look forward to its tone maturing and it aging well. I have some nice guitars (more expensive) and I've never bothered writing a review of one. This one, if you know what you're getting into (neck shape, nut width, etc.), is a lot of bang for your buck. A couple of specifics: a few reviews complain about the tuning machines. I've have had no problems with these. So far, this thing hold a tune quite respectably. the bridge pins are plastic. I'll probably replace them with ebony pins. The spruce top is not AAA; don't expect that. Its decent but evidence of knots very near the cut are present. The grain could be tighter and straighter, but all in all, no complaints here

So I received my Silver Creek T-170, unpacked and was quite surprised at the overall fit and finish. I’ve read many, many mixed reviews with complaints of poor setups, flaws in finishes, missing components…so I was quite anxious as to what I would find when I crack open the box. I looked hard over every inch of this guitar, and I could not find a single quality related flaw. As most all others described, the fret board was dry as a bone, the strings were flaky with corrosion and the frets were oxidized. Once pulling the strings, I took some 000 steel wool to the frets, applied a liberal dose of fret board doctor lemon oil, let it soak it up, polished it off and restrung with a slick set of Elixers. Many people complained of setup; action too high, fret buzz, intonation off and what not, I guess I lucked out. Everything checked out perfectly. I had no need for even the slightest adjustment and I was quite happy with playability. The only area of concern I have that I intend on changing out is the Tuning Machines. They are stable, hold tune just fine, but some are really lose and others are really, really tight to turn. I’ll pick up a set of Grover (Waverly style) open back Tuners and be happy.

I am tickled to death with the sound. Typical OM sound, and it is a joy to fingerpick on. I love the 1 ¾ nut spacing, it always amazes me how just a 1/16 of an inch can make so much difference at the nut, but it does. I played with a buddy that has the same basic guitar from Collings, and the sounds were very close with one another. Another buddy I played with has a Martin OM-21 and sure enough, very close in sounds.

Overall, I can’t say enough about this guitar. Simply one of the best bargains I’ve found.

The Silver Creek T-170 is a major guitar. The woods are really impressive, the tone was wonderful from the start, and the guitar has loosened up noticeably in just two weeks of playing, giving more fullness, volume and warmth. It is NOT exclusively a fingerstyle guitar. Besides playing some fingerstyle solo stuff, I use mine to accompany my voice, most often playing with a flatpick. The small size makes it just great for kicking back at home. You could say it has "couch-ability." The great clarity and note separation of this guitar are unforgiving of sloppy technique. Clean up your playing and it's sure to be fine for recording. The perfect owners of this guitar are those who understand what can and cannot be easily improved on an acoustic guitar (see frets.com for a whole world of how-to instruction). Criticizing it because of lousy setup out of the box is unfair. If you can't set it up yourself, have a luthier do it; only then can you really exploit what this instrument can do. The action on mine, for example, was very high. When I lowered the saddle sufficiently to about average action, I found that the nut slots were cut too low, causing buzzing at the 1st fret. To get clear tones, I had to shim under the nut by .008" (two plies of thin steel scissored from a double-edged razor blade). Altho the shim is 99% invisible, later on I'll make and groove a new nut. One slight neck tweak with the included wrench set the neck relief to where I like it. Now the guitar plays great, and intonation is very good. The neck-to-body angle is about perfect, allowing a high saddle and plenty of room for adjustment later on, thus postponing need for the dreaded neck reset. Now I'm hooked on this thing. I bought my little Silver Creek used but unplayed, so I have no idea whether this finish flaw is typical, but the generally gorgeous look of the back and sides is spoiled a bit by reddish splotches under the finish. Not glaring, but they are there. Maybe the wood filler used before the rosewood was finished wasn't polished off well enough. Nice touches include fine inletting work at the nut and generally fine workmanship everywhere (except finishing, as noted). Some have criticized the Kluson-style tuners, which are similar to those used by Martin in the 50s and early 60s before the blobby-knobby Grover Rotomatics were adopted. What's the problem? These tuners turn smoothly and they look almost identical to those on my Gibson J-50 and my Santa Cruz OM, and if you need new ones for some reason, Gotoh (for one) makes them. I've taken measurements with a dial caliper, and the Gotohs are almost certainly a drop-in fit. And I'll note that while the Silver Creek's body is definitely 000-sized, it is both shallower (less than 4" deep at the endpin) and narrower in the waist than Martin's 000, both of which would tend to reduce bass response. You might even argue that the T-170 sounds more like the even-smaller 00-size than a 000-size guitar, although the short scale and resulting lower string tension is responsible for some of that. Could I redesign this guitar, I'd model it on Martin's larger M-size (aka 0000) guitar body, which, while still being comfy for almost everyone to hold, would preserve everthing that's tonally yummy here while adding some bass and more power overall. You make one, Silver Creek, and I'll buy it. It'd be the perfect singer-songer and studio-player guitar.

Quibbles? To save time, the bridge was glued on before the top was finished, leaving the bridge shiny. The bridge pins and end pin (the color of skim milk)don't belong on a guitar of this quality, altho that's a $5 fix. The binding is nicely done but it'd be classier in ivoroid (a grained faux ivory) or even simply ivory color. And whoever chose banana yellow for the top should sit in a dark corner for a while and think about what he's done (tho on the plus side, that yellow finish was probably applied to the whole guitar, and the result is beautifully dark rosewood and an exact color match of the neck's mahogany to the body -- very nice). The fingerboard was the driest I've ever seen on a new guitar, but careful and sparing application of boiled linseed oil (like 2 drops on a little cloth pad) darkened the wood to where it looks almost like ebony -- very much worth doing. Oh... and I sure wish the exquisitely done inlay on the headstock were a little more, uh, gender neutral. This floral bouquet thing looks like some of my grandma's jewelry. The name Silver Creek suggests cool Appalachian valleys (or maybe a housing development). If we have to have bling, how about an eagle, a cougar, a bear? And am I alone in wanting more visible side markers on the neck? These barely show in low light.

The "worst" thing about the T-170 is that its American designers chose to model it on Martin's Eric Clapton model, which, while being a desirable (and expensive!) instrument, incorporates some extreme dimensions. In its effort to be Clapton-ish the T-170's neck width is a wide 1.770" and the string spacing at the bridge is way-y to one end of the scale, so wide it's almost like a classical guitar. Hardest to live with is the V-shaped neck. Sure it's vintage, but there are good reasons why this shape was left in the dust of the 1930s. It's a chunk. I can hardly wrap my thumb around it to get a clear tone out of the F and F# on the bass string, a common fingerstyle technique. Martin makes about two hundred models (it seems like) these days, but if you, Silver Creek, are going to offer just one small guitar, why choose dimensions that smaller players will struggle with? Younger players, and virtually all women, would be better served with moderate nut width and bridge string spacing -- more like Martin's OM (but not OM-V) guitars. These have plenty of finger room but still will please almost everybody. As for neck shape, you can hardly beat Martin's "low oval" design or anything on a Taylor. In short, I love the T-170's vintage look, but adopting more modern ergonomics would facilitate modern technique AND would let more people get in on what is truly a great-sounding small guitar. Considering the solid-wood construction and great fit and good finish, this U.S.-designed, Chinese-made instrument is an astonishing bargain.

This guitar plays and sounds almost as good as a much higher priced similar models. I had to tighten the truss rod and lower the ssddle a shade and presto. This may be the biggest bang for the buck one could ever get. The sound, even right out of the box was sweet and pure. Of course, part of it is me as I have been playing many years and know my way around a guitar. Buy yourself one of theses before the price goes way up to where it belongs.

This is my second Silver Creek guitar. Bought the D-170 back when it was the Stupid Deal of the Day and it's become my favorite guitar amongst a collection that includes several much more expensive models. So when the T-170 popped up as a SDOTD, I didn't hesitate. First one that came through had some issues, but MF cheerfully exchanged it and the next one I got was a keeper. I've tried OOO's by the big boys and while it's certainly not on a caliber with the high end Martins, it definitely blows away the lower end models. As others have attested to (and please make note of the number of good reviews from luthiers) these guitars are an amazing bargain. They definitely all need a setup, but then again most guitars do to get them to the point of your personal preference. My luthier's comment today when I went in to pick mine up after a simple setup "you've got another beauty there!". The mild V neck does take a little adjusting to, but I've actually grown to like them on this and my D-170. The sound is definitely restrained in comparison to the D-170, as one might expect. But it's a nice, chunky solid tone. You really can't go wrong with these guitars at these prices.