C. F. Martin D-28 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1969)
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C. F. Martin D-28 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1969), made in Nazareth, PA, serial # 247011, natural lacquer finish, Brazilian rosewood back and sides, spruce top; mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard, molded plastic hard shell case.
This D-28 was until recently a personal guitar of noted luthier Peter "MAX" Baranet, famous for hits superb near-perfect re-creations of historic Gibson solid body instruments. While MAX was not known for building versions of the Martin classics, he obviously appreciated a good one! It appears that he did some light work on this D-28, but nothing too serious. He passed away earlier this year, so this guitar is now ready for a new home.
The Martin D-28 Dreadnought remains one of the most iconic flat top guitars. This one was built in 1969, when Martin had experienced years of tremendous growth. The company responded by ramping up production as much as possible, including moving into a huge new factory in 1964. Still Martins were essentially hand-built instruments by modern standards, and indisputable the finest flat-tops available.
1969 was another famously transitional year at Martin. This D-28 squeaked in under the wire to have been built with Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides; Martin began substituting Indian rosewood not long after in the 254-255XXX serial number range according to company records. There is some fairly lively figure to the rosewood used here, which would have been from the last of Martin's stash at the time. This is most noticeable on the sides around the neck block. The spruce top has some noticeably striped grain as well.
The guitar has typical period features including a nicely ambered natural lacquer finished spruce top with 6-ply celluloid binding around, a short-saddle ebony bridge, black pickguard and multi-ply soundhole rings. The mahogany neck has an ebony fretboard with mother of pearl dot markers graduating in size. The rounded-corner headstock (typical of this era, when Martin's templates were heavily worn) carries original PAT. PEND. Grover Rotomatic tuning machines.
This is a fine sounding and playing D-28 from the tail end of the Brazilian rosewood era, an excellent gigging example of this always sought-after guitar with a very cool provenance.
Overall length is 41 in. (104.1 cm.), 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 5 in. (12.7 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 25 1/2 in. (648 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This guitar has all of the perks that one would expect from a 60s D-28, without quite the sticker price of one from a just few years earlier. The body is entirely crack free, The finish shows a few noticeable dings, scrapes and nicks mostly on the top. Most of the neck and body appear to have had the finish either polished out or VERY lightly sprayed over (perhaps by MAX himself, though this is not possible to verify). We can say for sure just the back of the headstock has been professionally re-done with a different style of finish, and there looks to be a TINY sealed split along the bass side of the diamond. One has to look pretty hard to notice it.
The short-saddle ebony bridge appears to be a correct style repro, with some finish disturbance along the bottom edge where the old one was removed. The pickguard is also a later replacement, as are most from this period as the original acetate 'guards tend to shrivel to a potato chip like shape. Internally, all of the original braces and bridgeplate remain in unaltered condition. The neck has been cleanly reset, and the fingerboard refretted. Besides a few cosmetic imperfections this Martin is a fine playing and lovely sounding D-28. Overall Excellent - Condition.
This D-28 was until recently a personal guitar of noted luthier Peter "MAX" Baranet, famous for hits superb near-perfect re-creations of historic Gibson solid body instruments. While MAX was not known for building versions of the Martin classics, he obviously appreciated a good one! It appears that he did some light work on this D-28, but nothing too serious. He passed away earlier this year, so this guitar is now ready for a new home.
The Martin D-28 Dreadnought remains one of the most iconic flat top guitars. This one was built in 1969, when Martin had experienced years of tremendous growth. The company responded by ramping up production as much as possible, including moving into a huge new factory in 1964. Still Martins were essentially hand-built instruments by modern standards, and indisputable the finest flat-tops available.
1969 was another famously transitional year at Martin. This D-28 squeaked in under the wire to have been built with Brazilian rosewood for the back and sides; Martin began substituting Indian rosewood not long after in the 254-255XXX serial number range according to company records. There is some fairly lively figure to the rosewood used here, which would have been from the last of Martin's stash at the time. This is most noticeable on the sides around the neck block. The spruce top has some noticeably striped grain as well.
The guitar has typical period features including a nicely ambered natural lacquer finished spruce top with 6-ply celluloid binding around, a short-saddle ebony bridge, black pickguard and multi-ply soundhole rings. The mahogany neck has an ebony fretboard with mother of pearl dot markers graduating in size. The rounded-corner headstock (typical of this era, when Martin's templates were heavily worn) carries original PAT. PEND. Grover Rotomatic tuning machines.
This is a fine sounding and playing D-28 from the tail end of the Brazilian rosewood era, an excellent gigging example of this always sought-after guitar with a very cool provenance.
Overall length is 41 in. (104.1 cm.), 15 3/4 in. (40 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 5 in. (12.7 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 25 1/2 in. (648 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This guitar has all of the perks that one would expect from a 60s D-28, without quite the sticker price of one from a just few years earlier. The body is entirely crack free, The finish shows a few noticeable dings, scrapes and nicks mostly on the top. Most of the neck and body appear to have had the finish either polished out or VERY lightly sprayed over (perhaps by MAX himself, though this is not possible to verify). We can say for sure just the back of the headstock has been professionally re-done with a different style of finish, and there looks to be a TINY sealed split along the bass side of the diamond. One has to look pretty hard to notice it.
The short-saddle ebony bridge appears to be a correct style repro, with some finish disturbance along the bottom edge where the old one was removed. The pickguard is also a later replacement, as are most from this period as the original acetate 'guards tend to shrivel to a potato chip like shape. Internally, all of the original braces and bridgeplate remain in unaltered condition. The neck has been cleanly reset, and the fingerboard refretted. Besides a few cosmetic imperfections this Martin is a fine playing and lovely sounding D-28. Overall Excellent - Condition.