1958 Martin D-21 Dreadnought Guitar

This gem was brought-in for shop-friend Gary by a mutual friend of ours. It's a brutalized old D-21 (like a D-18... but with Brazilian rosewood back and sides in this case) and has a number of old repairs, the most questionable ones being a prior neck reset, a variety of old crack repairs (one to the heel), and a wonky, non-original bridge.

I was as minimal with the work as possible -- giving it a fresh neck reset, a hidden bolt inside the heel that reinforces the old heel repair, a level/dress of the frets, and a setup (including some funny reprofiling of the saddle -- it had a 9 1/2" radius for a board that measures 16" radius). It's now a good player but could use a refret to be at its best, for sure. When it arrived there was a ton of odd crustiness around the whole neck joint and board extension, too. Some still remains but I mostly got it cleaned-up.

Soundwise? Oh, lordie. This thing is loud and punchy with just the right amount of lower-mids bloom. It's a great grasser's D for someone who wants rosewood on the back and sides.