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4 days ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers |Greg Olwell |Michael Simmons |Adam Perlmutter
Jason Isbell owns some prized vintage guitars, such as a 1934 Martin 000-28 that he calls the best acoustic guitar he’s ever played. But when it came to recording his solo acoustic album Foxes in the Snow, he turned to this smaller and plainer Martin 0-17, a recent acquisition from Retrofret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn, New York. Listed at $30, the 0-17 was nearly the bottom of the line in Martin’s 1940 catalog—only the 0-15, a very similar model with a less glossy finish, was cheaper, at $25.
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1 month ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Teja Gerken |Doug Young |Greg Olwell |Greg Ruby
Amplifying an acoustic guitar can be a daunting task, often complicated by the very qualities that make a guitar sound great acoustically. After tackling this challenge for 50 years with a popular line of acoustic pickups, L.R. Baggs has taken a different approach: designing a guitar from the ground up for amplified performance.
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1 month ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Teja Gerken |Buck Curran |Greg Olwell
This article was first published in the December 2008 issue of Acoustic Guitar. Luthier Bob Benedetto has established himself as one of the premier archtop makers in the business, and in 2008, he’s celebrating 40 years of building guitars. He spent his teen years playing guitar in various Italian-American dance bands around New Jersey but ultimately followed a fascination with his chosen instrument’s construction.
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2 months ago | 
acousticguitar.com | Adam Perlmutter |Greg Olwell |Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
Many songwriters believe guitars contain songs, and their job is to retrieve them. If that’s the case, this 2007 Takamine GS330S is packed full—as evidenced by the signatures of 92 artists who’ve found songs inside. This dreadnought, a now-discontinued model with a solid cedar top, is the original Acoustic Guitar Project guitar.
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Jan 10, 2025 | 
acousticguitar.com | Michael Wright |Steve James |Greg Olwell |Michael Simmons
When singer-songwriter Dom Flemons saw this Clef Club guitar banjo at RetroFret in Brooklyn a few years ago, he knew he had to have it. Flemons had long been inspired by Papa Charlie Jackson, a versatile musician from the 1920s who played a Gibson guitar banjo with an oversized 14-inch head. (Most banjos these days have 11- or 12-inch heads.) With its 16-inch head, this Clef Club is even larger, and it has all the punch and power you could want.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Mamie Minch |Greg Olwell |Kate Koenig |Martin Keith
I have a guitar with a particularly light-colored rosewood fretboard. I love the way it looks when I apply lemon oil, but that only lasts a day or so. I have some wipe-on poly I’ve been itching to rub in to see if I can get a beautiful depth to that board. Would this damage the guitar? Alternatively, is there an oil that would shine it up and last a good deal longer? —Will SutterIn general, I advise against using anything beyond the usual fretboard oils.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Adam Perlmutter |Greg Olwell |Michael Simmons
In 1931 Epiphone introduced the Deluxe, the first direct competitor to Gibson’s L-5, which had become the acoustic archtop of choice for rhythm guitarists at the dawn of the swing era. In a cheeky move, Epiphone designed the Deluxe with a 16-3/8-inch lower bout, slightly larger than the 16-inch L-5. This started a call-and-response competition between the two companies.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Kate Koenig |Andrew DuBrock |Greg Olwell |Adam Perlmutter
As a guitarist who only plays while seated, I’ve long made do with whatever chair is at hand—typically my trusty Herman Miller Aeron, which, while ergonomic for office work, is less than ideal for guitar playing. Recently, however, I had the chance to try the GM25 Guitar Master Stool by Nakupenda (from $349 direct), and it’s clear what I’ve been missing.
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Oct 6, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | E.E. Bradman |Greg Olwell |Mark Kemp
Country entertainer Conway Twitty was renowned for his voice, his hair, and songs like “It’s Only Make Believe,” but he also had excellent taste in acoustic guitars. One instrument that found its way to auction after his 1993 death was this 1931 Martin OM-18, recently spotted at RetroFret Vintage Guitars in Brooklyn, New York. In its day, this instrument was cutting edge.
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Aug 25, 2024 | 
acousticguitar.com | Mamie Minch |Greg Olwell |Adam Perlmutter |Michael Simmons
The orchestra model is perhaps the most important guitar style C.F. Martin & Co. made in the 20th century. It was the company’s first six-string, 14-fret flattop guitar and it created the template for what we now think of as the modern steel-string guitar. After the dreadnought, the OM is probably the most popular 14-fret flattop guitar out there. The first OMs were built by Martin in 1929, and today, almost every modern guitar builder inspired by the venerable company builds an OM of some kind.
