1995 Bailey-Martin MC-28

1995 MC-28 style (Martin) parts guitar built by Don Bailey

Assembled by former Vintage Fret Shop (Ashland, NH) employee Don Bailey, this is a very good quality acoustic/electric cutaway guitar with an "M" size rosewood body in style 28. Though the neck and body were not meant for one another in production at Martin, they were united with one another after purchase of the parts at Martin. The body was built at Martin in 1983, as shown by the fact that it bears the "1883-1983" 150th anniversary stamp on the back strip inside the body. The neck was made at Martin sometime prior to 1985, as it has a square tube neck reinforcement, which Martin used through '84 prior to switching to adjustable truss rods in '85. The body and neck were both sprayed with lacquer at the factory before being kicked from production to be sold through the Guitarmaker's Connection, Martin's clearinghouse for parts, where Bailey bought both. The body is the early Martin cutaway design with the oval soundhole, which is a deeper cutaway than later round hole versions and facilitated the used of a finger board with 22 frets instead of the usual 20 frets normally found on a Martin acoustic guitar. The neck does not have the traditional style 28 volute, and the nut width is 1 5/8" rather than the 1 11/16" that one would generally expect from a standard production neck, perhaps this is the reason it was not used at Martin and ended up for sale at GMC. The top has two repaired cracks at the edges of the fret board, there is no sinkage of the top at that area and no migration of the top at the soundhole. There is also one short hairline crack in the top at the lower bout, about 1 1/2" that is closed and tight. One back crack of about 6" looks as if it may have been repaired, it is tight, level and stable. One or two short/tight hairline sight checks. There is a hairline crack between the pin holes of the bridge that has been repaired in the past, looks like it might need attention again. Originally this body was meant to have onboard electronics with side mount controls up on the bass shoulder, the two small holes that were drilled in production to accommodate those controls have been plugged with rosewood. The neck is straight under tension and the frets are in good shape. The main issue with the guitar is that it needs a neck reset, as the action is high and there's no saddle left. Easy and straight-forward job for your luthier or the competent hobbyist. The guitar sounds excellent, tonally every bit as good as a Martin factory MC-28. The pickup works but there's a bit of low level hum with it that you'll likely want to address if you are going to plug in. Comes with a used Travelite case. DUE TO THE WORK THE GUITAR NEEDS IT IS OFFERED AS-IS WITH NO RETURN OPTION. PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION CAREFULLY AND ASK ALL QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU BUY. I have described the item as thoroughly as possible, and I guarantee that my description is accurate. However, I will accept a return ONLY under the condition that the item can be shown to be materially different than described and pictured in this listing. VFS #16204 $900