Martin 28 Series Pricing Question

[CSG]

OK, here are three photos taken with my cell. You can clearly see the seam in the headstock but the two neck pictures are more difficult to spot it. In the close-up picture of the neck, you can see the seam almost in the form of runout. But you tell me, mahogany, Spanish cedar, or??

2013 Martin HD-28V:

Originally Posted by CSG

Todd, honestly, I don't recall. I think the guy said the build sheet showed select hardwood and I asked if that meant Spanish cedar and he said probably. I do recall he said it was not mahogany otherwise it would have been specified as such. Maybe I'll give Martin another call tomorrow as it's been almost three years since I got the HD-28V although it's a 2013 production based on the serial number.

That’s a standard/safe answer, but an incorrect or at least incomplete one. Select hardwood is a catchall which includes mahogany. For example, the GE’s were specified with Select Hardwood, but I’ve never seen one that wasn’t mahogany and Martin’s policy was to use mahogany on those models when they were in production.

Looking at photos of yours, I’d say it’s mahogany.

[djg]

Parts, labor, and . . .

I don't know about the grading of the woods, although that could be a factor. With expensive tone woods, I'd think that smaller bodied guitars might offer some materials savings, to the extent that smaller pieces of (expensive) high grade woods can be used (I suppose it's something of a factor even with less expensive tone woods -- they are not free, after all, and the larger production builders go through quite a bit of the stuff). Still, I don't know the extent to which this is a factor in a production guitar, and it wouldn't seem to explain the HD vs. HD-V difference in any case.

Aging toner and scalloped braces seem extra steps -- and extra skilled labor -- with Martin's cost built into their pricing structure and then marked up again at retail -- and even more, if only apparently, in the MSRP.

It might also be that there are certain inefficiencies in producing smaller runs of guitars -- the popularity of something like an HD-28V might wax and wane a bit, but even when there's adequate demand to keep it in the regular (non-custom) line-up, they might make rather fewer of them. I don't know Martin's cost structure at all, but it makes sense that this could be some element of a cost difference, both from a manufacturing standpoint and from an administrative one. There might even be a sort of metering aspect to it.

It could also be that there's an element of price discrimination going on -- or really, price discrimination combined with -- and facilitated by -- product differentiation. A little bit of qualitative variation allows them to hit some different price points, with the prices being more different than the underlying costs might suggest. I suspect that there's a fair bit of combined price discrimination/product differentiation across the line although I'm in no position to identify the particulars.

[CSG]

Thanks, Todd. I have a lot of mahogany furniture and a couple other guitars with mahogany necks or bodies and always thought this HD-28V's neck looked like mahogany. I went through a lot of discussions on UMG where Spanish cedar was talked about and it didn't look all that similar in the photos I could find. Guess there is no way to know what I have for sure but I think I'll choose to believe it's mahogany.

[CSG]

Finally called Martin customer service again about this and am now convinced I was wrong to think it was not mahogany. They confirmed what Todd said that the two-piece necks were almost certainly mahogany, especially on an HD-28V. Surprisingly, I notice the guitar sounds a little better today. Maybe it was the string change I did last night...

[jrs146]

Originally Posted by CSG

Finally called Martin customer service again about this and am now convinced I was wrong to think it was not mahogany. They confirmed what Todd said that the two-piece necks were almost certainly mahogany, especially on an HD-28V. Surprisingly, I notice the guitar sounds a little better today. Maybe it was the string change I did last night...

Had you not first brought up that it was a 2-piece neck I never would have noticed.

[CSG]

I'd never given much thought to a two-piece vs. one piece neck as my understanding has always been the a well made two piece neck is probably more stable. I'd only been a little disappointed thinking that the wood might not have been mahogany but something else. It just seemed like guitars of this caliber should have mahogany necks.

In real life, it's pretty tough to see the seam on the neck itself. The headstock is pretty obvious.

In any event, it's a great guitar. I picked it over another one which sounded just as good but I liked the top on this one better. I couldn't tell you what the neck was on the other.