1976 Martin 000-28 Flattop Guitar

This was one of those fly-by-night repairs. Initially the owner wanted to get the frets leveled and dressed before a gig the next day, but I told him the bad news -- it badly needed a neck reset, said fretwork, and a new saddle. This was about 4:30 in the afternoon.

Suffice to say, I got it done before he picked it up the next day. He was lucky that I was pushing a bit of an all-nighter that evening, anyway. I've been trying to push as many extra hours as I can, lately, to pull through a summer backlog. So, I reset the neck in the evening and 15 hours later finished the setup-side work.

My initial reaction after string-up was, "ah, this is okay." I tend to feel that way about '70s Martins until I get the instrument into a more reflective room. When I brought it into the shop, I could hear its voice bouncing off the walls and I said to myself, "there it is!" I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems to me a lot of '70s Martins are directional like that -- they don't bleed as nicely sideways to the player's ear. My friend Tim's D-28 is like that and a number of other D-18s and D-28s I've handled lately work the same way -- they sound great out-front but a little anemic from behind.

Anyhow, post-repairs it plays on-the-dot and should be good to go (with minor action adjustments) for a long, long time, now.

Per normal '70s 28-style specs, it has Indian rosewood back/sides, multi-ply white/black binding, a black pickguard, spruce top, and ebony fretboard and bridge.

How about that Matt Umanov label, eh?