It’s an interesting mix of feelings when listing a guitar like this. It is the nicest pre-war Martin I’ve had in 22 years of buying and selling and only the 2nd pre-40’s 000–28 I’ve ever had anything to do with. To say only that it is an absolute joy to play and listen to the sound it can produce is an understatement.

Nut Width: 1.78

Neck Depths: 1st - .86”, 10th - 1.05”

Date stamp: March 4th, 1935

Cleared final inspection: October 31st, 1935

This is the 14th of 49 total 000-28’s made that year.

Incredible condition for its age, but not without some maintenance during its 91 years and counting. I haven’t detected any cracks anywhere on the guitar. The top has a very light and very ancient layer of overspray on top of the original finish. I do not believe the back and sides are oversprayed at all. The neck has overspray on top of the original finish*. The original bridge was sanded down, so a proper replacement from TJ Thompson is currently installed. The neck has been professionally reset and refretted. Everything else is original, including the tuners. There are no extra holes anywhere. The interior of the guitar is incredibly clean, nearly spotless. It begs the question of “why the overspray?”, but to me it’s kind of endearing — someone prior to 1980 obviously thought highly of their nice Martin and wanted to keep it as clean as possible, I guess (or maybe someone “more qualified” took it upon themselves to freshen up the ol’ Martin for the then-owner). Whatever playwear was there was slight. Again, it is in incredible condition. It’s hard to believe in less than a decade this guitar will be 100 years old.

II got on a plane, flew to California, and drove out to Bakersfield to get this one from a gentleman who owned it since 1980 and not only didn’t play it much, but didn’t do any of the aforementioned things to it. He knew it was a nice guitar even then and just held on to it. 30’s spruce top Martin acoustics are rare for two reasons: they didn’t make that many and nobody wants to sell theirs, especially the rosewood ones. This is no exception. I had to eat pickled beef tongue to get this guitar. I don’t know what it might sound like in your hands, but I know what it sounds like in mine, and it won’t hurt my feelings or effect me adversely in any way whatsoever if nobody buys this guitar from me, because the only thing that will happen is I’ll continue to own an exceptional and rare ‘35 000-28 to keep playing and using on recordings and the like. That being said — I would absolutely love to sell this guitar to someone who shares the same feelings about old acoustic guitars as I do and could do something great with it. Martin guitars of this era simply aren’t going to get easier to find as time goes on.

I can imagine the people who are truly interested in a purchasing a guitar like this may want to know particulars, which I am happy to provide upon request, including internal shots. We can talk about all sorts of things you might want to talk about, if you’d like.

US shipping only. Includes Calton Case pictured.

*It’s important to remind my fellow vintage guitar enthusiasts that overspray and refinishing are not the same thing. Refinishing 99% of the time involves sanding. If this Martin here had actually been refinished, it would be obvious in numerous places, most especially the profile of the neck and, of equal importance, the thickness of the top. You’d also see the binding and rosette definition blown out. The texture of the herringbone strip on the back would also not be discernible (or as noticeably different) from the texture of the finish on the wood itself. Let’s also remember these instruments are made out of wood, some of which are approaching a centennial birthday (like this one).