Martin J12-16GT, 12 String Acoustic Guitar

I bought my Martin J12-16GT 12 string acoustic guitar in November 2002. According to the serial number look-up on the Martin website, it was built that year.

A Martin guitar can be identified by its model number. The J means it's a jumbo body style. In reality, this guitar is not appreciably bigger than a dreadnaught guitar. The 12 indicates that it is a twelve string. The 16 is the ornamentation series and the GT tells you that it has a gloss top.

The top is solid sitka spruce with a gloss finish and the back and sides are solid genuine mahogany with a semi-gloss finish. As with all Martin guitars, the tone is superb, the action great and the guitar is just plain fun to play. By Martin standards, this is a fairly inexpensive 12-string guitar. A good friend of mine who is a very accomplished guitarist played it and when he found out the price, called it a "best buy"! Everything you want to know about Martin guitars can be found on their web site.

On November 5, 2005, I took a drive to Malone NY to visit Dave Nichols at Custom Pearl Inlay. Dave is internationally recognized for his custom guitar building work. He does custom inlay work for Martin, teaches classes on guitar building and inlaying and, in general, is a world-class craftsman. A visit to his shop is truly a beyond the ordinary experience. I had Dave install a Martin Thinline® Series Gold+Plus Maximum electronic pick-up in this guitar. This is an active endpin-mounted pick-up system.

In October 2010, one of the gentlemen that I jam with in Dexter asked me if I wanted to accompany him to Dave Nichols' shop. As old friends, he was going up to visit him the next day. I hadn't been there in five years so I did go and took this guitar with me. The action was starting to raise and I thought it would be a good idea to have him look at it. It turns out that the bridge was starting to separate from the body ... a humidity thing. They kept it overnight and I went back the next day to pick it up. Martin has a complete unconditional guarantee on its guitars to the original owners so it didn't cost me anything to have it fixed.