{"id":131878,"date":"2022-07-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=131878"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:09:18","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T03:09:18","slug":"great-acoustics-george-gruhns-exceptionally-rare-1933-martin-12-fret-d-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-george-gruhns-exceptionally-rare-1933-martin-12-fret-d-28\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: George Gruhn\u2019s Exceptionally Rare 1933 Martin 12-Fret D-28"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been in the business of buying and selling some of the finest fretted instruments ever made for over five decades. During that time, I\u2019ve played more than my fair share of stellar guitars. My latest acquisition\u2014a 1933 Martin 12-fret, slot-head D-28\u2014is my favorite flattop steel-string guitar. It came to me from a family whose father purchased it new in that year from the Wurlitzer Music Company in Chicago.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"George<\/a>
George Gruhn playing the 1933 Martin 12-Fret D-28. Photo: Gary Scott\/Gruhn Guitars<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 12-fret D-28 is an extremely rare guitar. C. F. Martin & Co. introduced this dreadnought model in 1931, when the company made just one, followed by four in 1932 and 12 in 1933. Fewer than ten of the 17 have survived in good condition. By contrast, there are at least 650 well-documented Stradivari violins in existence today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This example is in remarkably good condition for its age, and I\u2019d be hard-pressed to think of any steel-string guitar I\u2019ve ever played that sounded quite as good. As expected with a 12-fret neck and extended-length body, this guitar doesn\u2019t have quite the punch and boom of the 14-fret dreadnoughts, but is smoother and mellower, with greater sustain. Whether for solo or ensemble work, it\u2019s hard for me to imagine a better-sounding or more versatile instrument. It is very inspiring to play, and I\u2019m certainly extremely pleased to have it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I intend for this 12-fret D-28 to be in my office for years to come\u2014I don\u2019t want it to live out the rest of its life in a glass display case. Those who want to see it are welcome to come by the shop and get a chance to hear what it can do. I want the guitar to be used on recordings by players who are better than I am. It deserves to go down in history as one of the greats, and I\u2019ll do what I can to facilitate that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\"magazine<\/a>\n

This article originally appeared in the July\/August 2022<\/a> issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This 1933 Martin 12-fret, slot-head D-28 is George Gruhn’s favorite flattop steel-string guitar. Here’s why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":131858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"This 1933 Martin 12-fret, slot-head D-28 guitar is George Gruhn's favorite flattop steel-string guitar. Here's why.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1146],"tags":[524,1390,110],"ppma_author":[1749],"class_list":["post-131878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vintage-and-collectible-guitars","tag-great-acoustics","tag-july-august-2022","tag-martin"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/IMG_1845.jpg?fit=750%2C563&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1749,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"george-gruhn","display_name":"George Gruhn","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/George_Gruhn.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/George_Gruhn.jpg"},"user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131878"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136613,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131878\/revisions\/136613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131878"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=131878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}