C.F. Martin & Co. unveil the new D-28 John Lennon, their second commemorative acoustic guitar for the iconic Beatle. Related Feature:Best Acoustic Guitar Brands This is the company’s follow up to the successful release of the limited edition D-28 John Lennon 75th Anniversasry model, this time with less visual embellishments and no mention of it being limited in production. The official public unveiling of this new commemorative guitar is scheduled to occur at the upcoming Musikmesse 2016 event in Frankfurt, Germany. Attendees of the event can visit Martin’s booth from April 7 to 10 to see their many new models, with the D-28 John Lennon being one of the highlights. The distinguishing feature of this dreadnought is found on the headstock where the Lennon’s famous self-portrait is illustrated on the rosewood plate, just beneath the Martin Guitar logo. The ebony fingerboard also features John Lennon themed inlay designs including mother-of-pearl depictions of his popular round glasses. The body of this guitar follows Martin’s traditional D-14 design, with a solid sitka spruce top supported by rearward shifted x braces. The back and sides are crafted from solid East Indian rosewood, with the back having a nice zig-zag with back stripe design

C.F. Martin & Co. unveil the Ed Sheeran X Signature Edition, their 2nd collaboration with the popular singer-songwriter. Related Feature:New Parlor Guitars Website This new signature guitar comes straight from Martin Custom Shop, featuring the “x” graphic prominently on the headstock, fretboard and body, which refers to Sheeran’s second album “x” (“Multiply”). This new release follows up on the success of the LX1E Ed Sheeran Signature Edition, and just like the 1st signature, Ed will be donating 100% of his royalties from the sales of each guitar to the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (E.A.C.H.), a UK-based charity located in his hometown Suffolk. This organization supports families and cares for young people with life-threatening conditions, serving several UK countries including the area where Sheeran himself grew up. Ed Sheeran said, “It was a huge privilege working with the Martin team to create another Signature Edition guitar. I’ve had the chance to bring the new model on the road with me already, and I’m excited that my fans will be able to purchase one of their own, with all the proceeds going to EACH, a charity very close to my heart.” E.A.C.H. Chief Executive Graham Butland said, “This is the second time

C.F. Martin & Co. expand their Custom Shop line with the new CS-00041-15, featuring solid cocobolo back and sides. Related Feature:Martin 000-15M Burst This guitar is part of the company’s new batch of acoustic guitars for 2015, which covers a wide range of price points. Being part of Martin’s Custom Shop built line, this particular model is meant for guitarists that are looking for upper-tier boutique acoustic guitars. Cocobolo is an exotic tonewood that is popularly used on premium guitars by various guitar builders. This tropical hardwood has great looking grains that are pleasing to the eyes, and more importantly when used on a guitar, it behaves like a combination of rosewood and koa. So it is not surprising to find companies like Martin using this tonewood on their premium guitars. The solid cocobolo back and sides of the CS-00041-15 are paired with a solid Adirondack spruce top, a premium combination that when built properly – like by Martin’s best luthiers at the Custom Shop, would expectedly look and sound impressive. To ensure that the guitar will sound close to vintage Martin guitars, the company utilized their new “Vintage Tone System” or “VTS”. This is a curious way of heating

C. F. Martin & Co. introduces the D-35E 50th Anniversary Ltd Ed, featuring the company’s Vintage Tone System (VTS). Related Feature:Martin CS-00041-15 As the name implies, this special edition dreadnought is released in time for the 50th anniversary of the D-35 model, with “E” standing for East Indian rosewood that is used for the back and sides. The Martin D-35 model have a special place in Martin Guitar’s line up, it’s most distinct feature being the three-piece back with angled center strips that follow the line where the three wood joins. This different back design along with 1/4″ straight braces give the guitar a more bass heavy tone when compared to regular 2-piece back dreadnoughts like the popular D-28 model. 50 years after it was first released, the D-35 is still quite sought after especially by fingerstyle, bluegrass and folk guitar players. So it is only proper for the company to celebrate this impressive milestone with a limited edition release that features their latest guitar building latest techniques. The Martin D-35E 50th Anniversary Limited Edition guitar comes with a 3-piece solid East Indian rosewood back and solid East Indian rosewood sides. The 3-piece back features an east Indian rosewood organic

The Martin OMC-15E is a solid mahogany body acoustic-electric with new Fishman Matrix VT Enhance Electronics. Related Feature:Best Mics for Recording Acoustic Guitars This instrument is part of the company ever expanding line of acoustics, and was released alongside a number of other new guitars during the recently concluded 2016 NAMM Show. Having had worked together for over three decades now, Martin and Fishman has formed quite the alliance. However, we all know that Fishman also supplies other acoustic guitar builders with their pickups, and so Martin wanted to have a Fishman built electronic system especially designed just for them. And so the proprietary Fishman Matrix VT Enhance pickup system was born, and is now being utilized in many of Martin’s new guitar offerings. The Martin OMC-15E is among the acoustic-electrics that benefited in this new development. This pickup system retains Fishman’s popular Matrix under-saddle pickup technology, but adds in a new “Enhance” element. This Enhance element feature lets you blend in natural sounds that are coming from the body of the guitar, allowing for techniques like body tapping and percussive playing. And interestingly, blending the piezo and element sound is as easily done via controls mounted on the soundhole.

The Epiphone AJ-220S is an affordable solid top acoustic guitar based on the 1936 bell shaped dreadnought Gibson Advanced Jumbo.   This shapely guitar has a larger lower bout and a smaller rounded upper bout which helps it create a focused and even tone. The first thing you’ll notice is the guitar’s one-inch wider 16″ lower bout that gives it a bell-like shape. This results in better bass response and louder overall volume.   For its price, you would expect this guitar to use entry level or mediocre tonewoods and construction. However, upon closer inspection, you will find that the top is made of solid Sitka Spruce which is a pleasant surprise for the price range of AJ-220S. The resonant top is complimented with mahogany back and sides, while the glued-in neck is made of solid mahogany. The satin finished neck has a comfortable profile, bearing a SlimTaper 1960’s D-shape.   Other upscale features include a bound fingerboard and great looking die-cast tuners with 14:1 gear ratio. The guitar also has a solid “reverse-belly” Rosewood bridge with compensated saddle that gives it a traditional look and helps ensure intonation and stability. Finally a tortoise-colored pickguard with the “E” logo rounds

Epiphone introduces the Hummingbird Pro, now an acoustic-electric with built-in Shadow preamp and pickup system. The core acoustic body remains true to the classic Hummingbird design, only it has modern electronics for plugging in and playing loud. The Hummingbird style was first introduced in the ’60s and quickly became popular thanks to artists like Keith Richards and Sheryl Crow. This time around, Epiphone worked together with Shadow Germany to integrate modern electronics into the guitar’s classic design. The Epiphone Hummingbird Pro uses a tried and tested setup of a resonant solid spruce top supported by mahogany back and sides. This is easily the most commonly used setup among acoustic guitar builders because of its favorably resonant tone. The neck of the Hummingbird Pro is also mahogany and features a classic SlimTaper D profile shape. It has a 25.5″ scale length and is connected to the body via a glued-in dovetail joint. Its rosewood fingerboard features 20 medium frets with pearloid parallelogram inlays. Other important neck specs include 1.68″ nut and a 12″ radius. Other features of this acoustic include a reverse belly rosewood bridge with compensated saddle and a sloped dovewing headstock with a white Epiphone logo. Central to the

Epiphone introduces their first self-tuning acoustic-electric guitar, the FT-350SCE with Min-ETune. Related Feature:Epiphone Hummingbird Pro This affordable instrument features the automatic mechanical tuner system Min-ETune, especially tweaked to work with the touchy tuning of acoustic guitars. The FT-350SCE is touted as the world’s first self-tuning acoustic guitar, thanks to the clever combination of precise machinery and electronics built into the Min-ETune system. It discretely attaches to the back of the headstock and allows for instant tuning with a simple press of a button, just like the ones found on more expensive Gibson electric guitars. Epiphone made a great move to finally get the Min-ETune built into acoustic guitars, especially since acoustic players are more inclined to use alternative tunings to make solo playing more interesting. Singer songwriters that utilize different alternate tunings for different songs in their gigs will find the preset and customizable alternate tunings to be very useful and convenient. This robot tuner is paired with a straightforward cutaway dreadnought style guitar. It features a solid spruce top with mahogany back and sides. The neck is also made of mahogany, glued into the body. The fretboard is made of rosewood and has 20 frets with traditional dot position

Epiphone introduces the PRO-1 Collection, entry-level guitars geared toward making learning to play easier. Related Feature:Epiphone Hummingbird Pro Acoustic-Electric The company gathered feedback from beginners and pros to create this new collection. It resulted in four new affordable guitars that focus on playing ease without sacrificing aesthetics and sound. Glancing at the title, I thought that these are new top-of-the-line guitars, but to my surprise, Epiphone is using the label “PRO” for their student-grade guitars. This bold statement shows that the company means business when it comes to their beginner friendly instruments. Epiphone President Jim Rosenberg said, “All of us at Epiphone are guitar players and we thought it was time that novice players have an excellent, affordable instrument they can learn on and still want to keep as they improve their skills. While designing the PRO-1 Collection, we took our combined knowledge about what makes a great guitar and merged it with cutting edge technology and design that could only come from Epiphone.” The four new PRO-1 Acoustic guitars include the PRO-1 Classic, PRO-1 dreadnought, PRO-1 Plus and the flagship model PRO-1 Ultra. According to the company, each guitar is made to be played right away, without the “breaking

Epiphone introduces the Masterbilt Century Deluxe Classic, part of their new ’30s inspired acoustic-electric archtops line. Related Feature:Best Acoustic-Electric Guitars for under $1000 The new Masterbilt series of archtops follow after the original Masterbilt archtops that were produced in the 1930s Big Band era. Featuring a bigger body for more acoustic projection and classic cosmetics, which are complemented by modern building methods for improved reliability. The story goes that the original Masterbilt provided enough acoustic projection to work with big-bands, but were soon morphed into electric archtops when magnetic pickups started gaining popularity. Now Epiphone is making this acoustic archtop available for more players, and more importantly, at a more accessible price point. The Masterbilt Century Deluxe Classic has the whole Jazz Box vibe, complete with double f-holes inspired by old violin designs. Instead of having laminated maple like most hollow body electric guitars, this one has a solid spruce top much like a regular acoustic. This solid top is supported by classic longitudinal bracing and laminated flame maple back and sides, forming the familiar jazz box shape with a 17″ lower bout, all which contribute to its distinct acoustic tone that’s described as fat, woody and punchy. Epiphone equipped