The King is alive, well at least his famed D-28 is. The Martin guitar company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania is honoring the King of rock & roll, Elvis Presley with two limited production Elvis Presley Commemorative Edition D-28 and D-28M guitars. This year marks 30 years since Elvis passed away and coincidentally 175 years since Martin guitars was born. Both models are based on his famous 1955 D-28. Sporting exclusive features throughout, the Martin D-28M and D-28 Elvis Presley Commemorative Editions capture Elvis’ unique charisma.
Limited to just 175 guitars to mark Martin’s 175th anniversary, the D-28M features rare Madagascar rosewood back and sides and an Adirondack spruce top with 5/16″ scalloped Adirondack spruce braces for brilliant, powerful tone. Fine black and white inlay lines highlight the soundhole rosette and purfling accented by elegant grained ivoroid binding.
The D-28 features back and sides of East Indian rosewood and a top of Carpathian spruce. The combination of these fine tonewoods and 5/16″ scalloped top bracing produces a responsive guitar with fantastic volume, punch and sustain. The rosette has matched purfling around the top and back. The body is bound in grained ivoroid.
There is an Elvis motif on the polished black ebony headstock which is the King and his Martin from a famous 1956 photograph inlaid in mother of pearl and black pearl. The black ebony fingerboard features Pearl bordered abalone star position markers. On the black Micarta heelcap the TCB Lightning Bolt logo is inlaid in mother of pearl.
Classic 1950s specs common to these guitars include a 1 11/16″ mahogany neck with diamond volute and satin finished, Grover deluxe nickel Kluson tuners, vintage style Martin decal logo on the headstock, black ebony belly bridge, genuine bone nut and saddle, and gloss lacquer finish with vintage-appropriate light amber aging toner on the top.
The unique tooled leather covering originally crafted by Charles Underwood made Elvis’ D-28 instantly recognizable. The D-28M is outfitted with a tooled leather guitar cover based upon Underwoods’ design and comes in a special oversized vintage Geib style hardshell case to accommodate the cover.
The D-28M Commemorative Elvis Presley Edition’s List price is $11,499.00 and the D-28 Commemorative Elvis Presley Edition’s List price is $6999.00. Authorized Martin dealers will begin taking orders for the Elvis Presley Commemorative Edition guitars immediately and participating dealers will be listed on their website.�