1981 Martin M-38
This was my father's Martin M-38, which he bought new in 1981. This is the guitar that he recorded both of his albums with. This guitar weighs next to nothing, but has a huge booming voice. An unusual thing about this guitar is that it came with the old style bar frets. Because of that, I rarely used it. Dana Bourgeois refretted it in the mid 80s under warranty (before he became famous as a guitar builder). In 2005 I said "enough is enough" and shipped it off to Johnny Rushing at Rushing Guitars, where he reset the neck and installed a new fingerboard with snowflake inlays and new (normal) frets. I still whined and fussed that it didn't play as well as a Gibson but lately I have spent a great deal more time with it and I am getting used to the flatter fingerboard. I have never played a guitar that sounded as good as this one and I plan to use it more and more.
