Modern Bluegrass Cannon With Pre War Soul
If you love that big, piano like D-28 roar but want the slinky, fast feel Billy Strings lives on, this is your wheelhouse. Martin took the heart of a 1940 D-28, then tweaked the feel and response so it keeps up with the most aggressive flatpicking and crosspicking you can throw at it.
The secret is that shorter 25 inch scale paired with a slightly wider nut and a satin modified low oval neck. String tension drops, bends and slides get buttery, and fast runs feel less like a fight and more like a flow, without losing the cut and authority you expect from a rosewood dread.
25 Inch Scale That Lets Your Left Hand Breathe
The 25 inch scale is the game changer here. It shaves just enough tension off the strings so your fretting hand can move faster, stretch farther, and vibrato and bend with way less effort.
If you have ever loved the sound of a traditional D-28 but felt like you were wrestling it on longer sets, this scale length hits that sweet spot. You still get that classic Martin punch and projection, but the guitar feels more cooperative under your fingers.
Spruce And Rosewood That Roar And Bloom
Classic Martin recipe: solid spruce top over East Indian rosewood back and sides, tied together with forward shifted X bracing and GE scalloped spruce braces. Translation for players: huge low end, clear top, and a dynamic midrange that blooms as you dig in.
The top wears an antique toner gloss that looks like it has a few decades of honest play time already, framed in bold herringbone and antique white binding. It sounds every bit as rich as it looks, with the kind of resonance and sustain that makes open chords ring and single notes sing.
Neck Built For Speed, Not Ego
The genuine mahogany neck is cut to Martin’s modified low oval profile with a standard taper. It feels fast and familiar, never clubby, and the satin finish keeps your hand gliding even when the room gets hot.
That custom 1 23/32 inch bone nut and 16 inch radius ebony board give you a little extra room for complex voicings and clean hammer ons, without feeling like a classical guitar. Real talk, it is the kind of neck you forget about because it is doing its job right.
Billy Strings Details, From Headstock To Endpin
From the faux tortoise pickguard and zig zag back strip to the abalone diamond and square long inlays, this thing leans hard into pre war vibe. The headstock carries an East Indian rosewood plate with the authentic CFM script logo, plus nickel enclosed gear tuners with butterbean knobs that feel solid but old school.
Each guitar gets a custom paper label with Billy’s pre printed signature and graphic, so you know you are holding the real deal. No electronics are installed, so you are getting the pure acoustic voice of the guitar, ready for whatever pickup system you trust on stage.
Plek Precision And Moore Guitars Player Perfect Setup
This D-28 Billy Strings leaves the factory Pleked, so fretwork is dialed in with ridiculous accuracy. That means clean notes all the way up the neck, lower action potential, and zero weird dead spots.
On top of that, our techs treat it like it is going into their own bluegrass rig. You get our full Player Perfect setup, triple inspection, and a hardshell case so it shows up ready to hit the jam, studio, or stage the same day it lands.
Questions about this guitar? Call (888) 794-8482 and talk to Rob or Cory – real players, real conversation, no scripts.
