Molly Tuttle's guitars and strings: the new Martin signatures, sourced
Molly Tuttle's rig, documented: her 2026 Martin D-18 and D-X2E signature dreadnoughts, the 2020 Preston Thompson signature, and the D'Addario phosphor bronze strings tied to her sound. With citations.
Solo · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Molly Tuttle's current signature guitars are the 2026 Martin D-18 Molly Tuttle and D-X2E Molly Tuttle, both modeled on her 1943 D-18 and factory-strung with Martin's Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium (.013-.056). Her earlier signature is a 2020 Preston Thompson dreadnought. A 2017 Premier Guitar interview documented her touring strings as D'Addario EXP17 coated phosphor bronze, the same .013-.056 gauge.
Who Molly Tuttle is
Molly Tuttle, born January 14, 1993, in Santa Clara, California, and raised in Palo Alto, is one of bluegrass's defining flatpickers. Her father, Jack Tuttle, a bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and instructor at Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, put a guitar in her hands at age eight and had her onstage with him by eleven. She joined the family band, the Tuttles, at fifteen alongside her brothers Sullivan and Michael and mandolinist AJ Lee, and recorded her first album, a set of father-daughter duets, at just thirteen.
After merit scholarships took her to Boston's Berklee College of Music, Tuttle joined the all-female bluegrass group the Goodbye Girls before moving to Nashville in 2015. In 2017 she became the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association's Guitar Player of the Year award, a category she has now been nominated for repeatedly. She signed to Compass Records that year, then moved to Nonesuch Records for 2022's Crooked Tree, recorded with her band Golden Highway. That album and its follow-up, 2023's City of Gold, each won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. Tuttle dissolved Golden Highway in May 2025 and toured behind a new album, So Long Little Miss Sunshine, released that August with a new band.
What she plays
Two Martin signature dreadnoughts she helped design, unveiled at the 2026 NAMM Show, both modeled on a 1943 D-18 she calls one of her favorite guitars. Before the Martin partnership, her documented main stage guitar was a 2020 Preston Thompson signature dreadnought.
The current rig, sourced
- USA signature
- Martin D-18 Molly Tuttle: solid mahogany back and sides, solid spruce top, rear-shifted scalloped bracing, moon phase fingerboard inlays. Factory-strung with Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium.
- Mexico-built signature
- Martin D-X2E Molly Tuttle: figured mahogany HPL back and sides, solid spruce top, built-in Martin E1 electronics. Factory-strung with Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Light.
- Prior signature
- Preston Thompson DMT-SMA (2020): sinker mahogany and Adirondack spruce dreadnought, one of 30 built, fern-leaf fingerboard inlays.
- Documented strings
- D'Addario EXP17 Coated Phosphor Bronze Medium (.013-.056), named in a 2017 Premier Guitar interview. Not reconfirmed since her Martin signatures arrived.
XT Phosphor Bronze Coated Medium (.013–.056)
Why this one: Same brand and gauge as Tuttle's documented 2017 D'Addario set, and coated like it was. D'Addario's own site confirms EXP17 is now sold as this SKU, XTAPB1356.
Why this fits
I've always dreamed of playing Martin guitars ever since I started playing the guitar. To see my name on this Martin guitar and to have had a hand in designing it, it was just a huge moment for me.
On the D-18 Molly Tuttle and D-X2E Molly Tuttle launch
The D-18 Molly Tuttle's rear-shifted scalloped bracing tames the low end and pushes clarity and note separation forward, exactly what a flatpicker running fast single-note runs across a full band needs to cut through without turning to mud. The 1 11/16 inch nut width and 1940s neck profile are both throwback specs, narrower than a modern standard Martin neck, which suits her fast fretting-hand position work in the lower positions.
Medium gauge (.013-.056) is the tension choice that supports that same attack: more low-end push and sustain than a Light set when a dreadnought is driven hard through a PA, at the cost of firmer fretting pressure. It's the same gauge Tuttle's own documented D'Addario set used back in 2017, so her Martin factory strings land on familiar tension even if the brand and coating differ.
The moon phase inlays that decorate both new Martins are a personal touch, not just aesthetics. As Tuttle put it in Martin's own launch materials:
I feel like the moon represents creativity, inspiration, your subconscious. Sometimes when I realize it's a new moon, I think that's a good time to plant the seeds of new ideas.
On the moon phase fingerboard inlays
Acoustic guitars
2026 · USA-built · Modeled on her 1943 D-18
Martin D-18 Molly Tuttle
Solid mahogany back and sides, solid spruce top with a vintage sunburst finish, rear-shifted GE-scalloped bracing, 1 11/16 inch nut, and moon phase mother-of-pearl fingerboard inlays. Ships pre-strung with Martin's Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium. Unveiled alongside the D-X2E at the 2026 NAMM Show.
2026 · Mexico-built · Onboard electronics
Martin D-X2E Molly Tuttle
Figured mahogany HPL (laminate) back and sides, solid spruce top, and a Martin E1 pickup and preamp system with an onboard tuner. The first X Series model with a 1940s-style neck shape and 1 11/16 inch nut. Ships pre-strung with Martin's Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Light.
Source: Martin Guitar, official press release, 2026-01-21.
2020 · Limited to 30 built · Her first signature
Preston Thompson DMT-SMA
Sinker mahogany back and sides, Adirondack spruce top, tobacco sunburst finish, with a fern-leaf fingerboard inlay pattern. Tuttle on the guitar: "The sinker mahogany back and sides give it a precise woody tone that I love for playing lead. It is so balanced up and down the neck and cuts through a band."
Documented 2017 · Not reconfirmed since
Huss & Dalton custom TD-R and custom OM
A rosewood TD-R dreadnought she favored with a full band, "because it definitely has the right sound and the right power for that context," and a mahogany OM for solo and duo shows. This was her touring pair as of a 2017 Premier Guitar interview, before her Preston Thompson and Martin signature guitars arrived.
Source: Premier Guitar, 2017-08-24.
| D-18 Molly Tuttle | D-X2E Molly Tuttle | |
|---|---|---|
| Built in | USA (Nazareth, PA) | Mexico |
| Back and sides | Solid mahogany | Figured mahogany HPL (laminate) |
| Top | Solid spruce, gloss finish | Solid spruce, satin finish |
| Electronics | None, acoustic only | Martin E1 with onboard tuner |
| Nut width | 1 11/16" | 1 11/16" |
| Recommended strings | Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium (.013–.056) | Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Light (.012–.054) |
| Price tier | $$$ | $$ |
Strings
Documented touring set, 2017
D'Addario EXP17 Coated Phosphor Bronze Medium (.013–.056)
Named directly in Premier Guitar's "Molly Tuttle's Gear" sidebar. Tuttle still appears on D'Addario's current artist roster page, but D'Addario has not published a newer statement about her personal gauge since this 2017 interview. D'Addario's own EXP-to-XT transition page does confirm the model itself moved forward: EXP17 is now sold as XTAPB1356 (XT Phosphor Bronze Medium), the same .013-.056 gauge with six-string coating instead of EXP's wound-strings-only treatment.
Factory-fit on the D-18, 2026
Martin Authentic Acoustic Lifespan 2.0 Phosphor Bronze Medium (.013–.056)
Martin's own product page lists this as the "Recommended Strings" pre-strung on the D-18 Molly Tuttle. This documents what ships on the guitar at the factory, not a separately confirmed personal choice off the signature model.
CYS now covers all three Medium .013-.056 phosphor bronze options tied to Tuttle's rig: the uncoated D'Addario EJ17, D'Addario's coated XTAPB1356 (the current-catalog name for the EXP17 set tied to her 2017 rig), and Martin's own MA550T Lifespan 2.0, the set that ships factory-stock on her D-18 signature.
| D'Addario EJ17 (reviewed) | D'Addario XT / ex-EXP17 (reviewed) | Martin MA550T Lifespan 2.0 PB Medium (reviewed) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gauge | .013–.056 Medium | .013–.056 Medium | .013–.056 Medium |
| Wrap alloy | Phosphor bronze | Phosphor bronze | 92/8 phosphor bronze |
| Coating | None | XT treated wrap wire, all 6 strings | Martin Lifespan 2.0 anti-corrosion treatment |
| On CYS today | Yes, reviewed | Yes, reviewed | Yes, reviewed |
Picks and capo
Documented 2017
Dunlop JD JazzTone 208
Listed in Premier Guitar's 2017 gear sidebar alongside her strings and capo. Not reconfirmed in a more recent interview, so treat this as her documented 2017 pick rather than a confirmed current one.
Documented 2017
Shubb FineTune capo
Same 2017 sidebar. Shubb's FineTune line uses a tension-adjustable screw so the capo doesn't pull the strings sharp, a common flatpicker complaint with spring capos.
If you want this rig
XT Phosphor Bronze Coated Medium (.013–.056)
Why this one: The direct current-catalog name for the coated D'Addario Medium set tied to Tuttle's documented 2017 rig; D'Addario's own site confirms EXP17 is now sold as XTAPB1356.
Prefer the brighter, cheaper uncoated version instead? D'Addario EJ17 Phosphor Bronze Medium is the same brand and gauge without the coating.
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