This is my Martin HD-28V, my first "nice" (read: expensive) guitar and the archetypal rosewood, dreadnaught guitar. I purchased this new in very early January 2003 from Elderly Instruments in Lansing, Michigan. It was about two months after I joined the UMGF and I'd had a crash-course in Martin guitar nomenclature, features and specifications. I'd also discovered GAS, "Guitar Acquisition Syndrome."

This is a dreadnaught-sized model generally patterned after Martin's storied pre-WW II rosewood large-bodied instruments. It features a solid sitka spruce top over a body of solid East Indian Rosewood (rather than the now-endangered and ghastly-expensive Brazilian Rosewood used at the time). The top features bracing that is both scalloped (think of the profile of a suspension bridge) but that is also "forward-shifted" closer to the soundhole as compared to a standard D-28 or HD-28 models. It has a genuine black ebony bridge and fingerboard. The body is bound with grained ivoroid and the top purfling is bold herringbone, as shown in the pictures above. The fingerboard is inlaid with Style 28 abalone diamonds and sqaures fretmarkers instead of the common dots used these days. The rosette is alternating black and white rings in the classic Style 28 pattern. The tuners are open-gear vintage-styled machines with large chrome butterbean knobs. It is a breathtakingly beautiful guitar in the classic Martin sense. No "bling bling" but lots of gorgeous solid woods inlaid in tasteful, understated patterns used by Martin (and its many imitators) for decades.

Soundwise, this guitar is loud, resonant and powerful. Even though it's the same size and body configuration as my D-15, the combination of spruce over rosewood provides a much more powerful, focused sound. The spruce top is much more resistant to over-driving than is the mahogany top of my D-15. That is to say, you can play it louder and more aggressively without the notes muddying up into one another and becoming indistinct. The rosewood provides lots of rich, echoey harmonics and overtones as compared to a mahogany body, making this guitar wonderful for loud solo strumming. I prefer medium phosphor-bronze strings on mine, especially D'Addario EJ17s.