Martin D28 "buyers choice"

[oncogene1]

Has anyone played or have any experience with a standard x braced martin with adi top and Guatemalan rosewood back and sides?Could you comment of the tone and overall impressions? It is only offered from one of the large online dealers.

Interesting because most of the custom shop stuff come out with the golden era type bracing and this one is standard.

Thanks

Phil

[WindChaser]

Hi Phil,

I have a standard x bracing d28 (12 fret) adi over Guatemalan. Honestly, I'm waiting for more people to try or purchase the Guatemalan b/s guitars to talk about it. I feel that these guitars will surprise a lot of people.

To answer your question, the tone is crisp, woody, and bell-like probably due to the adi top. The Guatemalan rosewood gives the guitar a lot of lush and full sustain, deep bass, and the B and E strings especially sparkle. For chords like A and B where you play at the 5th and 7th fret, letting the B and E strings play open sound incredible.

some side note: the guitar smells good and is on the relatively heavier side than the average guitar.

Buying it before trying it is a bit dangerous, but your seller may allow you to return if you don't like it. Before I bought mine, I had the chance to try a 14 fret d28 adi over Guatemalan and a hd28v (adi top). The Guatemalans sounded much better to me than the hd28v. However, the two Guatemalans sounded very similar except the 12 fret was more full, lush, and open sounding... I'm sure it was mainly due to the 12 fret body. What I'm saying is, the two Martin Guatemalans were very consistent in my case; I hope it is for you as well.

Good luck and let us know what you feel/decide!

Aaron

[WindChaser]

Regarding the golden era bracing vs standard, the ge is supposed to be more responsive in theory; however, in my experience I feel that it is more cosmetic than sonic. A ge vs a standard will sound different, but it may be due to the different woods, how it was built, etc. Or it may be from the ge vs standard. It would be very difficult to come to a sound conclusion. In the end, you just have to choose what sounds best to you.

[tomiv9]

Is it standard X non-scalloped (like current D-28) or Standard X Scalloped (like HD-28)? That is an important factor.

[WindChaser]

That is a good point. I was assuming we were talking about the standard x scalloped.