Martin 000-28 (1938)

Phone calls that begin, "I'm interested in selling my grandfather's guitar," don't often end this well. Serial number 69767, which was stamped on March 15, 1938, and cleared final inspection on September 14 that year, comes to us from the grandson who made said phone call; and it's what every lover of 1930's Martins hopes to find at the other end of the rainbow. 100% original, down to the bridge pins, with no previous repair work done. The only bad thing we could note about the guitar when we received it? It was unplayable (and the strings were, quite possibly, original to the guitar).

The tragically unverifiable story about pedigree we received from the aforementioned grandson was that his grandfather, who owned clubs in Chicago, had received this guitar as repayment for a loan he'd made to a blues guitarist named Muddy Waters. You read that right! Sadly, there are no photos, letters of provenance, etc. But even if the tale is tall, this certainly looks like a guitar that belonged to a musician (the grandfather did not play, and put the guitar into storage after receiving it).

We had the neck reset and new frets installed by TJ Thompson. Playing a few notes on this guitar for the first time (the first notes that have likely been played on it in decades) was a wonderful experience. The thick, warm, powerful tone, and the full-feeling responsiveness of a well-played guitar, made us remember why we all became so enthralled with vintage Martin guitars. Rather than reading more prose, you can simply listen to Duke Levine play this guitar in the accompanying demo if you'd like to know what gets us going. This guitar is priced with a Calton case.