January 17, 2025

Category: Acoustic Guitars

Reviews, essays, and articles relating to acoustic guitars, and related accessories.

Acoustic Guitars / Review

Martin D-28 Authentic 1941 Review

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We get to the heart of the heart of Martin’s Authentic Series with our D-28 Authentic 1941 Review

As our D-28 Authentic 1941 review shows, “this isn’t just a good vintage D-28 reissue; it’s a great guitar.”

Tone, dynamics and playability matter most to me when judging a guitar. This guitar gets top marks in all three areas. When it comes to tone, it had me at the first strum, because of its ringing purity, impressive depth, effortless volume, and its expansive, open, room filling presence.

If I didn’t already have a 1966 D-28 that was converted to pre-war specs, I would have bought one of these guitars the day I played the prototype at the Martin factory.

The Martin D-28 is the most copied guitar in history. Martin alone has no fewer than 10 different versions of the D-28 available in their current catalog, with varying prices and levels of vintage appointments.

Many luthiers, from small workshops to major manufacturers have come out with their own take on the D-28, and many have tried to put in the specs they think matter most when trying to capture some of that legendary vibe, sound and feel that made pre-war Martins so famous. Well, this is Martin’s own attempt to make a D-28 as close to how they made them back in the day, as realistically possible. And they have done a pretty amazing job, especially considering the relatively low price tag.

Yes, Brazilian rosewood would have been very nice to have for the back and sides. But it simply would have put these guitars out of sight. The D-28 1941 Authentic is not a collectable museum piece to be set in a closet to protect the investment required to own one. It is an exquisite, yet practical musical instrument that can and shall be played, recorded and enjoyed.

Read the Full D-28 Authentic 1941 Review Here

D-28 Authentic 1941 review

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM 2013 / Review

Martin Grand J12-16GTE from Summer NAMM gets our exclusive reivew

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Martin Month continues at One Man’s Guitar with our review of the Martin Grand J12-16GTE

A Grand Jumbo 12-string with a Gloss Top and on-board Electronic amplification.

Made from solid mahogany and Sitka spruce, using the largest ever made by Martin. At this price point, the new Grand J12-16GTE offers more tone per dollar than any other 12-string currently available from Martin.

“There are all the bright and clear chimes one could desire coming off the trebles and harmony strings. And there is a nice definition in the bass, without all the smoke clouds that can gather under the low end of a rosewood guitar with a large bottom end.”

Read the Full Grand J12-16GTE Review

Martin Grand J-12GTE

 

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM 2013 / Review

CEO-7 – Martin’s slope shoulder 00 for the ages

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The CEO-7 is Martin’s successful take on the prewar Gibson L-00, which remains more Martin than anything else. It is a slope-shoulder 00 for the ages.

“When it came down to it, the whole time I was playing the guitar I kept feeling like the CEO-7 is the Golden Era Series reissue of a pre-war Martin that never existed. One might say it seems like it came from an alternate universe where Martin had been copying Gibson designs from the 1930s, rather than the other way around. But just as Gibson’s square-shoulder dreadnoughts like the Dove, Hummingbird and Gospel sound little like a Martin D-18, the CEO-7 may have a certain trebley ring thing that reminds me of an L-00, but it also has a resonance and sustain unlike any Gibson I ever heard.”

Read the Full Review of the CEO-7

Martin CEO-7

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM 2013

Gibson 1934 Original Jumbo – Summer NAMM

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Gibson 1934 Original Jumbo recreates the historic first Jumbo

Gibson adds to the growing number of “as close as we can make em to how they made em back then” guitars with a replica of their first round-shoulder Jumbo model, which debuted in 1934. And now it has been resurrected as the 1934 Original Jumbo, which debuted at Summer NAMM.

The model is based on a rare first-year Jumbo, serial number 507A, residing in the impressive collection of Gary Burnette of Bee 3 Vintage Guitars, in Asheville, North Carolina.

The advertising copy of the day said the original Jumbo model had “a heavy, booming tone…a bass that will amaze you and a clear, brilliant treble in perfect balance.” So, what about the 2013 version?

Burnette has yet to see an example of the new replica, but he did tell One Man’s Guitar that Gibson had shown great enthusiasm and care in their efforts to create an instrument as close to the genuine article as possible.

The Gibson press release said they were successful in reproducing the sweet mids and “deep inviting sound” heard from the vantage namesake of this new model. We look forward to a test drive sometime in the future.

Specs include mahogany back and sides with dark toner; an Adirondack spruce top, sanded thinner than modern Gibsons, rosewood for the fingerboard and straight bridge, a large V neck and period-correct string spacing, long saddle, and a dark sunburst with a small center pool of autumnal color, from harvest gold to twilight orange, to burnt umber fading into charcoal, glowing like a warm spotlight, centered between the bridge and sound hole and barely reaching across the traditional, tiger-stripe pick guard.

The edition is limited to 100 instruments. Call your dealer immediately, if you want one.

But it is our hope this may lead to a general release Jumbo that benefits from the modern trend to make guitars the old fashioned way.

 

Gibson 1934 Original Jumbo

 

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM 2013

Yamaha CGX102 – Summer NAMM 2013

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The U.S. debut of the Yamaha CGX102 nylon string acoustic-electric guitar with advanced electronics and a modest price.

Inspired by the historic classical guitars, the CGX102 offers cutting edge technology with its new System68N preamp, which features Yamaha’s contact pickup along with on-board tone controls and a precision tuner, offering “natural tonal reproduction.”

Priced well under $500, the CGX102 comes with a solid spruce top, and a body made from nato. Also known as “eastern mahogany,” nato, or nyatoh as it is spelled in Southeast Asia, resembles cherry in looks, more than it does mahogany, but it is a suitable replacement for mahogany on lower-priced guitars, especially when matched to a solid top and played through electronic amplification.

CGX102

Acoustic Guitars

Martin D-28 Authentic 1931 – Exclusive Review

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An exquisite recreation of the very first Martin D-28

Recently purchased from movie star Richard Gere, for the Martin Museum

The Ur D-28 was copied in minute detail to create its doppelganger, the D-28 Authentic 1931

D-28 Authentic 1931

“The D-28 Authentic 1931 is big guitar that has a big voice, yet it is agile and graceful and truly a thing of beauty. It has a lot of air and open space inside that expansive tone bubble that effortlessly glows out around the guitarist as a strummed chord is left to swell and waver. The trebles are fat but pure, the bass is robust and warm as a bearskin coat, and the mid-range stays up front in a way 14-fret dreads never quite manage…

Lighter than one might guess a rosewood guitar can be, it produces an enormous amount of rich, yet open tone with little effort, but loves to be strummed hard as well. Having played the “Gere guitar” on different occasions, I can say the prototype of the D-28A 1931 actually has more horsepower under the hood. And it has perfect intonation up the neck, something pre-war Martins never quite achieve.”

Our second in a series of reviews on the new Martin Authentics features a very special guitar indeed. More reviews will follow after the Holiday Weekend. Happy 4th of July everybody! We are pleased to kick off our holiday festivities with this in depth look at the recreation of one of the most historic guitars made by one of America’s oldest family businesses.

Read the Full Review of the D-28 Authentic 1931

Acoustic Guitars / Review

Martin OM-18 Authentic 1933 – Exclusive Review

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This new OM-18 A 1933 is the first OM made with Martin’s Authentic Series specs and hide glue. And boy, is it a doozy!

Martin OM-18 Authentic 1933

I played the prototype at the factory in January, when it was about as new as new can be. With mahogany for the back and sides, the OM-18 Authentic 1933 sounded clear and full at the same time.

This weekend I played an example of the production run and it was even better. It is like taking a time machine back to 1933 and getting your hands on a brand new OM-18, made the year C.F. Martin and Co. were celebrating their 100th anniversary and were busy setting the gold standard that all acoustic guitars have been compared to ever since.

Read the Full Review of the OM-18 Authentic

Watch the Companion Video

Acoustic Guitars / Review

Martin Authentic Series – Exclusive Reviews

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Martin OM-18 Authentic 1933

New vintage models like right out of a time machine, the Martin Authentic Series offers affordable replicas of their most legendary pre-war guitars.

While we have been slow to update the site after our successful review of the new Schoenberg Quartet, we have been busy as bees preparing for a whole slew of new reviews. July is shaping up as Martin Month, as One Man’s Guitar delves deep into the Authentic mystique, with reviews of all the new Authentics, in many respects more authentic than ever.

“Between 1930 and 1944, C.F. Martin & Co. set the gold standard for steel-string acoustic guitars. Today, Martin offers a new a growing number of models virtually identical to those priceless vintage instruments…

As economic realities changed after World War II, along with tastes in popular music, so did Martin’s designs and core product line. While their contemporary instruments remained popular with professional musicians and amateur enthusiasts alike, the lightly-built and ultra-responsive instruments from Martin’s “golden era” remained highly coveted, even after prices for a pre-war dreadnought, 000 or OM reached into the tens of thousands of dollars. As C.F. Martin IV was fond of saying, “Our number one competition for a new Martin is a used Martin.”

… in January 2013, Martin introduced a collection of guitars as part of the Authentic series. Made entirely in the Custom Shop, the new Authentics have proven to be among the most accurate reproductions of pre-war Martins available today, and certainly among the most affordable available anywhere.”

Read the full article and the reviews of individual models

 

Acoustic Guitars / Review

Schoenberg Quartet – Our Exclusive Review

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The Schoenberg Quartet Stephen Bruton model combines the expanded tonal range of a large guitar with the response and dynamics of a small guitar, thanks to its 12-fret 0000 design.

“A mightily successful combination of traditional and contemporary design and construction, the Schoenberg Quartet wide-top, 12-fret cutaway guitar is light of weight but large in voice. With impressive projection and effortless volume, it has the woody, full-bodied lows of a cello, trebles that sustain like of a well-played violin and some of the most richly complex chords this side of a baby grand piano.”

Guitarist Eric Schoenberg designed the guitar based on the concept originally suggested by his friend, the late Austin session man and touring sideman, Stephen Bruton. The guitar is named the Stephen Bruton model in his honor. It is available exclusively through Schoenberg’s shop in Tiburon, California, north of San Francisco.

California luthier Randall Kramer was engaged to built the entire line of Quartets. This particular example is made with Brazilian rosewood back and sides and an Adirondack spruce top. It also includes several custom-ordered features. It is the result of pre-war guitar traditions, cutting edge luthiery technology, and the scientific method of Chladni plate resonant frequency tuning, which inspired Benjamin Franklin to invent the harmonium, and was used by nineteenth-century violin makers.

The Schoenberg Standard and Schoenberg Soloist now have a big brother for those seeking a bigger, fuller voice with all the comfort of a classic fingerstyle lap-piano.

“This guitar is so finely tuned in terms of dynamics and response that it is basically effortless to play, in any tuning. There is a gorgeous complexity to the harmonics, but an unperturbed clarity to the fundamentals, and an organic sensibility to the sustain and decay of each, which makes it a delight to play.”

Read the Full Review of the Schoenberg Quartet

The Schoenberg Quartet

Acoustic Guitars / Reader Questions

Bone Saddles n Gloss Tops – from the Mail Bag

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A Bone Saddle and a Gloss Top add a lot to the Martin D1GT.

Gary K. writes:

I recently bought a D-1GT and I really love it. Currently upgrading to bone from the factory plastic hardware. I have a question regarding Martin naming convention. I know that the “D” stands for dreadnought and “OM” orchestral model. What do the last part of the model name (the “GT”) stand for?

Spoon replies:

Hi Gary, thanks for your question and congratulations on the guitar.

“GT”

The GT stands for Gloss Top. The D-1 and some other models came with a satin finish on the top. The GT version includes the upgrade of a high-gloss finish on the top, which is resistant to dings and pick wear, and gives the guitar a look similar to more expensive models. Your D-1GT is among the best values Martin has ever offered.

Upgrading from plastic hardware

A bone saddle can provide greater definition, sustain and purer fundamental notes off the strings of an acoustic guitar, well worth the effort and expense.

When one upgrades to a new bone saddle they may find that things sound a bit shrill. But that only lasts a short while. After the guitar is played for several days that will burn off, leaving a clear, transparent ring.

The nut material at the top of the fingerboard matters as well, but not nearly as much as the saddle.

Other material used for saddles and nuts include tusks or jaw bones from various animals, as well as fossilized ivory – which is actually only partially mineralized.

Fossilized walrus ivory and fossilized mammoth ivory are most common. Of the two, I prefer the mammoth. Both add some warmth and roundness to the tone of a guitar, which can be a welcome addition to a guitar with a brand new Adirondack spruce top, since Adirondack is usually pretty tight and brittle sounding for the first year or two. But in exchange, the guitar will lose some high end sparkle. So it can be a tradeoff. FMI seems to take away less of that Adi chime than the Walrus variety.

Overall, I find plain old bone, usually from a cow shin, is virtually identical in tone to the elephant ivory commonly used on guitars in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Many also change to bridge pins made of bone, or other natural materials. While bridge pins are not nearly as important as the saddle in terms of sound production and tone, they do make a difference. But Martins have shipped with pins made of one sort of plastic or another since the 1920s and many people are happy with their guitars, without the need to switch out the pins.

– TSP

bone saddle
Bone Saddle

We’d like to know YOUR opinion on bone saddles!

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If you have your own question to ask Spoon, please drop us a line at

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