1956 Martin D-28

Peghead Nation Flatpicking Guitar instructor Scott Nygaard demos his Martin D-28.

I’ve had this Martin D-28 for almost 30 years. I got it from guitarist John Miller, when we were both living in Seattle. John had been scouring the want ads for old guitars, and found a couple of old dreadnoughts, including this one and an early-’40s D-28. Not being a dreadnought player, he agreed to sell this guitar to me, and I’ve been playing it regularly ever since, although I don’t always like to entrust the airlines with it, so I’ve often traveled with other guitars. I used it on all of my albums, as well as recordings I was sideman on, like Jerry Douglas’s Slide Rule, Tim O’Brien’s Red on Blonde, Chris Thile’s Leading Off, Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, John Reischman’s North of the Border, and the Grammy-winning tribute to Bill Monroe, True Life Blues.

It has standard D-28 specs: Brazilian rosewood back and sides, 1 11/16 nut width, etc. I’ve used a number of pickup systems in it over the years, starting with a Fishman undersaddle pickup that I had installed in 1989, and it currently has an L.R. Baggs Lyric internal microphone.

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