Description
VG++ condition / # 123542
1-11/16″ Nut / Quartersawn Brazilian R.W.
A real working musician’s guitar
Some Overspray / Excellent Spruce Top
This 1952 Martin D-28 is an incredible sounding dreadnought in very good playing shape. It has normal player wear all around the instrument… but this player wear and corresponding dings and scratches are all from honest use. I mean, all these nicks and wear are from actually wearing and picking this guitar, or possibly from walking from green room to stage with this guitar. Nothing is from neglect or miss-use. Rounded “V” profile Mahogany neck, and quartersawn Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. We are not exactly sure of the species of the Spruce top, although it almost certainly is either Red Spruce(Picea rubrens), or Engelmann Spruce(Picea engelmanni). This is the type of top that a 35-year music store owner like me would pick first for a handmade guitar built for me. It has loads of character in the grain.
The top shows a shading difference on upper bout of the bass side – most probably from a secondary pickguard installed on that side for a time. There are spots of thumbpicking wear, flatpicking wear, fingerpicking wear, etc.
The Rosewood peghead overlay features the “Martin & Co. EST. 1833” decal at the top. Original Nickel Kluson Waffleback tuners. Appears to be the original Ivory Nut. The Ebony fingerboard has pearl dot inlays, and ivoroid side dot position markers. The frets have a fair amount of wear. These frets show playing wear and are possibly the original frets! The rounded “V” profile Mahogany neck has had a significant amount of finish worn off the back of neck from playing. This wear through the finish on the neck, exposing the smoother bare wood, makes for a nice feel when transitioning chords. Ivoroid heelcap.
The Spruce top shows most of the “wear and tear” on this D-28. The top, sides, back and the neck all show a refreshingly wonderful absence of cracks. One area on the bass side of the lower bout looks to have been cracked and repaired, and there is one area toward the treble side of the lower bout, near the butt, that looks to have taken a bump from a microphone, etc. There is moderate wear around the rest of the top. Ebony bridge with Bone bridge pins and saddle. Original tortoise plastic pickguard. Body bindings are ivoroid outer bindings with black accent purfling lines. One of the main talking points of this instrument is the quartersawn Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. Though there is a good amount of wear, the back and sides do not appear to have had any major damage.
Again, this 1952 Martin D-28 is a fully developed, powerful instrument with great tone. It does have a lot of player wear and some overspray, but that also means you can get this stage ready Brazilian Rosewood dreadnought for thousands less than it would be in perfect shape. Some of you will realize that IF this guitar had never been oversprayed, the price would certainly be several thousand higher…
There are NO Cracks in the Brazilian Rosewood and only one small top crack from a bump… No pickguard crack, no center seam crack, etc.
Comes with the original hard-shell case.
*More photos coming soon- feel free to call to get some detailed pictures in the meantime.
