Martin Custom Shop HD-28 w/rosewood neck

[Wade Hampton]

Something I enjoy seeing when I check my email on Monday mornings is the latest list of used and vintage instruments from Elderly Instruments. There was a somewhat unusual one in today's newsletter: a 2016 Martin Custom Shop HD-28 with a neck made of rosewood rather than the usual mahogany or "select hardwood":

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https://www.elderly.com/products/mar...m_source=zaius

I have owned one guitar that had a rosewood neck as well as rosewood back and sides, an archtop guitar built by luthier Mark Stanley as his personal instrument. Mark had had that guitar with him when I first met him in 1982; when we met again some 15 years later he was no longer playing it and I was able to talk him into selling it to me for a reasonable price.

That rosewood Stanley archtop had the most sustain of any archtop I've ever played, and a great deal of that sustain was provided by the rosewood neck, according to him and to several other guitar builders that I asked. It made a remarkable difference.

Unsurprisingly, it was also just about the most neck-heavy guitar I've ever played, right up there with the Mossman Winter Wheat 12 string I owned for a while, which had 12 full-sized Grover Rotomatic tuners with their stock metal buttons on it.

Anyway, this Martin Elderly has is an interesting instrument. I'd love to be able to sit down and play it, because I'm certain the neck does have an impact on the guitar's sound and sustain characteristics.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Earl49]

Intriguing. I've read about a few rosewood necked guitars from boutique builders, but don't recall ever playing one.

[Wade Hampton]

Well, you really feel the weight of the neck when you do play one, that's inescapable.


whm

[jklotz]

Interesting. I've seen rosewood necks on electrics before, but never an acoustic. Since rw doesn't require a finish, I'll bet it feels good.

[tippy5]

I have owned 5 rosewood neck electrics. They didn't have neck dive but against a 4lb acoustic that isn't a comparable.

I love the feel of bare IR necks. I still have two electric IR neck guit fiddles.A Warmoth neck 1" V on a strat and a PRS.
They have a slightly darker, sweet warm tone - low mids. Good sustain though! Solid and stiff, like a fat maple tele neck. Not as open of a sound of the typical mahogany necks.

[Paddy1951]

Not for me. Rosewood is quite heavy, comparatively.

I have always found it to be somewhat unstable as well.

It may offer some sonic improvements over mahogany but I don't think they are great enough to outweigh the downsides.

Admittedly, I have never built a guitar but I have done a fair amount of antique restoration.

Mahogany is such a good wood for its reliability.

[Goodallboy]

I'd want to play it before offering my review.

PRS electrics with rosewood necks are said to be a bit darker.

I'd be very interested in seeing how the neck would affect an acoustic tone.