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Description

They don’t make 'em like this anymore. Up until the early 1980s, before the advent of computer-numeric-controlled (CNC) equipment, Martin was still using the same method, and essentially the same machinery, for making their rough-cut neck blanks that they had been using for about a hundred years; I’ve got similar unfinished examples from them going back to about 1920. This is a never-used, Martin D-28 neck blank (and so marked) which I got from them back in the late 1960s, maybe the 1970s, for a project the nature of which has long been lost to the shifting sands of time, and who could remember all this stuff anyway? It recently turned up here, along with a whole lot of other stuff that’s been buried for decades, and it’s time for it to be put to good use. It is a gorgeous piece of quarter-sawn genuine mahogany of a grade seldom seen today, cut for their then-new hollow square non-adjustable truss rod, which was all they needed back when the quality of the wood they had was this great. Peghead shape all cut, with East Indian rosewood veneer; 25.4” scale length, and enough extra meat there to allow for as much as an OM-width nut. Bear in mind that back in those days, all of the final neck shaping was done entirely by hand, with drawknives(!), rasps, and files; I watched them do it many times there, and was incredulous that they were still using what were basically 200-year-old kinds of hand tools, all day long. Martin hasn’t made anything like this in about 35 years, and certainly won’t sell first-quality stuff like this to the public anymore. Perfect for a professional or budding young guitar maker, or for all I know, add this to your collection of rare and unusual Martin ephemera that no one else has. $200

Matt Umanov Guitars

Matt Umanov Guitars

~1970
Martin
Excellent
25 Years
Matt Umanov Guitars
Matt Umanov
(212) 675-2157
New York, NY
10:15 AM
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