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2015 Martin 000-28K Authentic 1921
Looking inside this guitar with a mirror is much like looking inside a Martin guitar built 90 years ago. Except the wood looks new, there are no dust-balls, and there aren’t loose braces! Guitars from the 1920s were built lightly; that's a big part of why they sound the way they do. But manufacturers long ago abandoned building such light guitars for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with tone. That said, this Authentic is built as lightly as the Koa Style 28s that were built back in the 1920s. The bridgeplate is tiny and amazingly thin, the braces are low and scalloped as they were in the early ‘20s, the top and back thicknesses are accurately thin, and every detail about the guitar looks incredible.
The guitar's tone is about as close to 'vintage' as we've ever experienced in a modern guitar. The mids are open and breathy, bass is developed and articulated well, trebles are thick and juicy, and the Koa imparts a fabulous 'snap' to the tone. It's got that piano-like resonance we often attach to those very lightly built guitars of the late 1920s. Beyond that it's surprisingly loud without the brashness that many loud guitars can have.
000 sized 12 fret body with long-scale neck. Figured koa with style 28 trimmings: herringbone top trim, zigzag back strip, grained ivoroid bindings. Small teardrop shaped pickguard (under finish), pyramid bridge with accurate 'red eye' pins. VTS torrefied Adirondack spruce braces. Mahogany neck without truss rod, ebony fingerboard with T-frets. 1-7/8 nut width, 25.4" scale. Barrel neck carve with fairly rounded feel and a 1st fret thickness of .856”, 16" fingerboard radius, bone nut and saddle. Vintage low-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish.
The guitar is in near-perfect condition but for reglued binding at both waists, front and back. Set up in shop with 12-53 strings and fingerstyle action.
The instrument comes with a Harptone-style deluxe hardshell case, and Martin Authentic serial numbered hang-tag.
