Martin Acoustic Guitars

Solid Spruce Top and Solid Mahogany Back and Sides!

Please see my Perfect 100% Positive Feedback and bid with confidence.  Please note, No Overseas Shipping.

I am also including a new set of Martin Strings as well.

I bought this wonderful guitar about a year ago and it is a great playing loud Bluegrass cannon!  Loud and gorgeous,  I waited a while to find the burst and isn’t it gorgeous!

Being on a budget, I chose to buy this guitar at a discount that I will pass on to you.  The issues were bridge was lifting a little (which I had professionally re-glued by my luthier) and finish cracks in the bottom bout that you can see pictured.  I figured would bang it up anyway.  The cracks are in the finish not in the wood.

Great neck, action and frets.  Npo issues other than what I have mentioned and pictured.  Expect other   minor marks from use but nothing bad or structural.

A great loud machine that will serve you well.  I have noted the issues so no returns.  My feedback speaks to my honesty.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

JOHNSON JD-26 DREADNOUGHT

From Johnson's Carolina series of traditional acoustic guitars. The JD-26 features solid mahogany back & sides with a solid Engelmann spruce top, scalloped braces, forward shifted X-brace, dovetail neck joint, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard & bridge, beveled tortoise pickguard, bone nut & saddle, ivoroid body binding, and nickel closed gear butterbean tuners.
JD26......list $600.00.....

 

Check Out This Review

Originally developed by C.F. Martin and Co. in the late 1920s, the dreadnought has become the most popular steel-string acoustic guitar on Earth. With its large, nearly rectangular body, a dread typically offers great volume and punch, making it a great choice for keeping up with other acoustic instruments, especially when it's played with a flatpick.

While the dreadnought has been copied ubiquitously at every price point, a welcome new trend toward affordable instruments with true vintage-style specs has emerged in recent years. The Johnson Carolina II series is one of the latest in this category, and I recently had the chance to put the new JD-26 through its paces.

Johnson is part of the Music Link family (which also includes AXL, Lucida, and Recording King guitars, as well as Palatino bowed instruments) and therefore has vast resources at its disposal. For the vintage-inspired Carolina line, the company hired Greg Rich, whose 30 years of experience in guitar design includes working at Saga Musical Instruments and the Gibson custom shop.

The Johnson Carolina JD-26 receives a rave review in the May 2006 issue of Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Writer Teja Gerken says, "Volume limitations didn't seem to be part of the Johnson's vocabulary, and even under the most brutish attack, the JD-26's tone remained focused, balanced, and most importantly, pleasant-sounding"

PREWAR SPECS AND CLEAN CRAFTSMANSHIP Built with all solid woods, the JD-26 has mahogany back and sides and a spruce top, which, combined with its other specs (including a dovetail neck joint and scalloped X-bracing), basically makes it a descendant of the legendary Martin D-18. While the JD-26's body binding and rosette are similar to the D-18's, its snowflake-shaped fretboard inlays are clearly patterned after those in the Martin rosewood D-28. The headstock inlay is where similarities to Martin dreadnoughts end: Carefully inlaid abalone and pearl sprout into a beautiful flower-and-vine motif. From there, though, it�s back to the tried-and-true: Vintage-style tuners with �butter-bean� knobs grace the back of the headstock, and a bone nut and compensated saddle round out the package.

The JD-26's craftsmanship was impressive, with precisely cut kerfing inside the body and well-fitting parts throughout. The neck relief in our review guitar was more pronounced between the fifth fret and the nut than throughout the rest of the neck, and I wasn�t able to adjust it to a more evenly distributed curve using the truss rod. While not terribly compromising, this condition would make it difficult to dial in very low action, resulting in harder playability than can usually be achieved through adjustment.

The mahogany back, sides, and neck have attractively striped grain patterns, and the Engelmann spruce top had very tight grains' all of which contribute to the JD-26's uptown cosmetics.

VINTAGE CONSTRUCTION PROVIDES AUTHENTIC FEEL With the JD-26 in hand, I immediately realized that the vintage style of construction carried over to the guitar�s playability. Players accustomed to modern, low-profile necks might cry out, "That's a Louisville Slugger!" But those frustrated by not being able to find true prewar-Martin feel in a new guitar will be delighted. With a deep profile that�s somewhere between half-round and V, the Johnson�s neck will likely feel ideal to players with large hands and those who reach around the bass side with their thumb. Our JD-26 came with medium-gauge Martin phosphor-bronze strings (with a .013 high E) and medium-high action, making it more suitable for a flatpicking workout than nimble fingerstyle explorations. Because of the neck-relief issue mentioned earlier, the guitar's action and resulting playability were uneven between the low and high positions, which could be an issue for busy lead pickers who may wish for greater ease up the neck.

BIG VOLUME, DELICIOUS TONES While playing the JD-26 may not be the most effortless experience, its luscious tones are bound to perk up even jaded vintage-guitar fans. I found it especially satisfying to play driving, bluegrass-style rhythms with first-position chords because it unleashed the booming, authoritative tones for which this style of dreadnought is famous. Volume limitations didn't seem to be part of the Johnson's vocabulary, and even under the most brutish attack'and using an ultra-stiff Wegen pick�the JD-26's tone remained focused, balanced, and, most importantly, pleasant-sounding. Flatpicking single-note lines, I felt that my attempts at Tony Rice's style leads were hampered slightly by the fat neck and varying action, but I was still able to coax out juicy trebles and a respectable amount of sustain.

With its preference for the louder end of the dynamic range, the JD-26 was not what I would call an ideal fingerstyle machine, but this is true for many dreadnoughts. However, with aggressive attack I could get convincing fingerstyle blues sounds with a great dynamic range and strong bass response, and I suspect that players who use fingerpicks will be able to push the Johnson into its dynamic comfort range.

 

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Overall Rating : 10

Now, I have only been playing guitar for a few years, banjo much longer. But, at this price, for the quality, this has to be a 10. This guitar is built like the old Martins, and it sounds and plays like it.

I would have liked to have neck binding on this guitar, but that is a trivial non meaning thing as far as playability and sound, which this guitar is all about.

If you want value for the buck this is an absurdly good deal. I just can not see these guitars selling for this price much longer, demand will have to push the prices up.

 

Overall Rating: 10

I've been playing 40 years ...I own my afore mentioned Ovation Glen Campbell custom stereo which is sulking in a corner at the moment but I love it to bits. An Antoria Jazzstar guitar, it's a great jazzbox and a shine 909... another 'how can they do it for this price guitar'. I've had every great and notso great guitar over the years.. now I don't give a fig for what's written on the headstock... it's the sound and playability that counts.