How Many Instruments Do You Own? The Guitars: Martin D-35

This post will be about the guitar I learned to play on: my Martin D-35 (the pictures are not of my own guitar, but of a D-35 from the same period taken from the Elderly site). I'm not sure of the history of this instrument before I purchased it; all I know is I bought it privately from someone who was not the original owner. It's an early to mid-'70's version (I've forgotten the exact year, after I post this I'll look up the serial # on Martin's site and post an update), with all the hallmarks of a Martin from this period; an overly-thick finish, heavily braced, non-adjustable T-rod neck reinforcement, a mahogany bridge plate to name a few. It even came with the peculiar to the '70's blue plastic case as pictured above. This particular guitar has a neck with a rather pronounced "C" shape, as if whoever was carving the neck decided to leave some extra wood on it rather than make it slimmer for easier playing - fingering barre chords are a particular problem on this instrument, even with my larger-than-average hands. Its tone is somewhat bass-heavy, (something I enjoyed when I bought it - this was my second guitar, and my first “real” all solid wood guitar, so I had nothing much to compare it to) and lacking in midrange and treble. It really only sounds good when played “open” or as close to the nut as possible – chords played between the 5th and 10th fret tend to sound more quiet and project less. Installing bone bridge pins a few years ago helped bring out some of the missing high end, as well as adding some definition to its overall sound; but still, it is what it is. I’m not interested in modifying this guitar to change its sound; I’d consider that invasive rather than an improvement. I’ve taken to stringing this one with Cleartone strings (in Bluegrass gauge, of course: #7423 - .012 .016 .025w .036 .046 .056) to have some brightness for as long as possible – this guitar sounds a bit dull with regular strings, but as soon as they get a bit old it sounds dead.

I guess it’s a bit obvious to say that this guitar doesn’t get used very much these days. I used it for many years when I was learning to play rhythm guitar for contra dances and also learning to flatpick. Now it mainly goes out if I’m going to a jam where I don’t know anyone + the name of the peghead of the instrument can serve as an introduction. I could write a whole rant on musicians who judge one another by the instrument they play rather than the music they play or how they play what they play, but I’ll leave that for another time. Suffice it to say that every so often it helps to have that Nazareth brand name on the guitar you’re playing, or some people just won’t take you seriously… Argh.