Martin

OM-28

In 1929 one player asked Martin for a longer neck. The answer was a new guitar, and it lasted about four years.

1929. A player named Perry Bechtel asks Martin for something simple: more of the neck clear of the body on his 000-28. The factory could have said no. Instead it moved the whole body to meet him.

Introduced: 1929
Type: Acoustic
Class: Production

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The short version

1929
One special order
Bechtel’s 14-fret 000-28 arrives in August. By December it’s billed as the OM-28.
1930
Belly bridge
The pyramid bridge gives way to a belly bridge, and a “Martin” logo arrives.
1933
Gone
The original run ends late in the year, after about 487 guitars.
1934
Renamed and shortened
The OM name is gone by early 1934, or late 1933, depending who you ask. By late summer the scale drops to 24.9 inches.
1969
Six specials
Eric Schoenberg orders six SOM-28s through the Folklore Center in New York.
1990
Back in the line
The OM-28 rejoins the standard line. Some date regular OMs to 1993 instead.
2003
A signature
John Mayer’s OM-28, his first Martin signature, limited to 404.

Side A

A player asks for two more frets

In 1929 Perry Bechtel had a Martin 000-28 and a request. He wanted a longer neck, more of it clear of the body. On a twelve-fret guitar, the body starts at the 12th fret, and reaching past it is a stretch.

At Martin, a man named Deichman had a solution. Don’t make the neck longer. Make the body shorter at the top, so it meets the neck at the 14th fret. Bechtel’s special was delivered in August 1929.

That could have been the end of it: one guitar, one player, done. Instead, Martin kept going. The first few 14-fret 000s, built for Bechtel and for Wurlitzer, still had slotted headstocks. By December the guitar had a solid headstock and a name, the “000-28 Orchestra Model.” Soon it was just the OM-28.

One player asked, and Martin built a new model around the answer.

Same body, longer string

The OM uses the 14-fret 000 outline: fifteen inches across, a bit over four inches deep. What makes it an OM is the scale, 25.4 inches from nut to saddle. The 000-28 on the same body settled at 24.9.

Half an inch sounds like nothing. It isn’t. The longer string sits at higher tension, so the OM feels a little stiffer and sounds a little tighter and brighter, with more snap when you dig in. The short-scale 000 is slinkier and warmer. Same box, same wood, different guitar in your hands.

It isn’t a small D-28, either. A dreadnought is 15⅝ inches and deeper. The D-28 happens to share the 25.4 scale, and nothing else about the experience.

About 487 and gone

The original run went from 1929 to late 1933, and Martin fiddled with it almost every year: the bridge, the tuners, the pickguard, the logo. Underneath it was the pre-war Style 28 recipe: Adirondack spruce, Brazilian rosewood, herringbone, hide glue.

All told, there were about 487 of them. By 1933 Martin was down to a couple of dozen a year.

Then the name went away, at the end of 1933 or the start of 1934, depending who you ask. By late summer of 1934 the scale was cut to 24.9 inches. For a short window a 1933 OM-28 and an early 1934 000-28 could be the same guitar with a different stamp.

Bechtel’s own guitar didn’t survive. The story is that it burned in a fire at Cable Piano in 1935.

Flip the record · By the numbers

487
Roughly how many original OM-28s Martin built, 1929 to 1933.
25.4″
The long scale. Same body as a 000-28, which settled at 24.9.
6
SOM-28s Eric Schoenberg ordered in 1969, the first OMs since 1933.
404
John Mayer OM-28s, his first signature Martin, in 2003.

Side B

Six guitars at the Folklore Center

For thirty-some years, no OMs. Then in 1969 Eric Schoenberg ordered six through the Folklore Center in New York. Martin labeled them SOM-28, S for Special. They were the first OMs since 1933.

That’s the second time the OM came back because somebody asked. Regular production followed eventually, in 1990 or 1993, depending who you ask.

A guitar with no poster

Most famous Martins have a face attached. The D-28 has a hall of them. The OM-28 mostly doesn’t, because so few originals survive. It never got tied to one style of music, or to one player.

A lot of people try to give it one anyway, usually Clapton. His Unplugged guitar is a 1939 000-42, and his writing guitar is a 1974 000-28. Neither is this.

The closest it has to a face is John Mayer. His signature OM-28 in 2003 was his first Martin signature, 404 made. The later Mayer OM is, in Martin’s words, “a slightly scaled-down version of the original OM-28 John Mayer.”

Martin also built a careful 1931 recreation for a while. It’s retired now, and it was always a new guitar in an old suit.

Today there’s an OM-28 in the regular line, with the long 25.4-inch scale and scalloped braces. Bechtel’s guitar was lost in 1935. The thing he asked for is in the catalog.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

1929
Perry Bechtel
000-28 Special
Asked for a longer neck. His special arrived in August 1929. The guitar itself is lost, reportedly in a 1935 fire at Cable Piano.
1929
Deichman
At the factory
Shortened the 000 body so Bechtel’s neck could meet it at the 14th fret.
1969
Eric Schoenberg
SOM-28
Ordered six through the Folklore Center, New York. S for Special.
2003
John Mayer
Signature OM-28
His first Martin signature, 404 made. The prototype is in the Martin Museum.
Paul Simon
Signature OM-42
OM size, Style 42. Not an OM-28.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Martin's 25.4" long-scale 14-fret 000/auditorium — not a short-scale 000-28 (24.9"), and not a D-28.

Body: 000-14 Fret auditorium; Sitka spruce top with aging toner; East Indian rosewood back and sides; antique white binding, bold herringbone, Style 28 multi-stripe rosette
Neck: Select Hardwood (Martin spec — not explicitly mahogany), GE Modified Low Oval with High-Performance Taper; satin, dark mahogany color; dovetail joint
Fingerboard: Ebony, abalone diamonds and squares long pattern, unbound, 20 frets, 14th-fret joint
Scale: 25.4"
Pickups: None
Hardware: Ebony GE Modern Belly bridge, drop-in saddle, 2 5/32" spacing; bone pins with faux-tortoise dots; compensated bone saddle (16" radius); nickel open-gear tuners with butterbean knobs; faux-tortoise pickguard
Electronics: None
Finish: Gloss top and back/sides; satin neck; aging toner on top
Nut: Bone, 1 3/4"; 12th-fret width 2 1/8"

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

SKU 10Y25OM28. 2025 Standard Series refresh, not a 1929–33 original. GE-scalloped 1/4" X-Brace. Current Standard 000-28 is 24.9" on the same outline — different guitar. Current Standard D-28 is a dreadnought, 25.4", forward-shifted X, GE-scalloped 5/16".

Construction

C. F. Martin & Co., Nazareth. 14-fret 000 / auditorium, not a dreadnought. guitarhq.com: same outline as 14-fret 000 — 15" × 4 1/8" × 19 3/8". A D-28 is 15 5/8" × 4 7/8" × 20". Not a small D-28.

Scale is the split. Current Standard OM-28: 25.4". Current Standard 000-28: 24.9" on the same outline. Current Standard D-28 is also 25.4" — dreadnought, forward-shifted X, GE-scalloped 5/16". Current OM-28 sheet: X-Brace, GE-scalloped 1/4".

1929–late 1933 original run. guitarhq.com: introduced 1929; discontinued late 1933. Vintage Guitar (Gruhn/Carter, Oct 2010): first 14-fret 000s for Perry Bechtel / Wurlitzer still had slotted heads; then a solid headstock, billed as 000-28 Orchestra Model, soon OM-28. VG: original run 487.

Name-drop dating is a fight. Acoustic Guitar (Sep/Oct 2024): 1933 rename OM → 000; 1934 000 redesigned at 24.9". Vintage Guitar: name dropped at the start of 1934; scale cut August–September 1934. Keep both. A 1933 OM-28 and an early-1934 leftover-scale 000-28 can be the same guitar in everything but the stamp for a short window; after mid-1934 they are not.

Do not copy Sitka onto a 1929–33 original. Pre-1946 Style 28 tops are Adirondack red spruce; back and sides Brazilian rosewood. East Indian is late 1969 (serial 254497) — after the original OM run. Originals: herringbone, zipper/zig-zag, hide glue, 1 3/4" nut. 1929 pyramid + banjo tuners; pickguard late 1929. 1930 belly bridge and “Martin” logo. 1931 larger guard, right-angle tuners. Vintage neck = mahogany. Current Standard prints Select Hardwood.

Gap: VG — absent until a special OM-28 run in 1969. Regular OM production returns with OM-21 in 1993 (VG). Acoustic Guitar also says OM-28 joined the standard line in 1990. 1990 versus 1993 — keep both.

2018 Reimagined (retired): scalloped 1/4" X, not yet GE. 2025 Standard refresh (25 Aug 2026): Sitka GE bracing, GE-scalloped 1/4" X, East Indian. Hide glue not listed. Authentic 1931 retired: Adirondack VTS, Madagascar rosewood, hide glue, Authentic 1931 X 5/16" with 1/4" tone bars, genuine mahogany. Not current Standard.

Players

The OM-28 does not have a D-28 hall-of-fame shelf. Acoustic Guitar (Simmons, 2024): so few originals survive that “it is not associated with any particular style of music or player.”

Perry Bechtel — 000-28 Special, August 1929. Vintage Guitar (Gruhn/Carter, Oct 2010): asked Martin for a longer neck on his 000-28; Deichman shortened the body for a 14th-fret joint. Special received August 1929; by December, solid headstock, billed OM-28. Original Bechtel guitar missing (AG: 1935 Cable Piano fire). His Gibson is a source fight (VG 2010 = L-5; AG 2024 = Style O; VG 2018 = Style O in correspondence).

Eric Schoenberg — six SOM-28s, 1969, Folklore Center, New York. Acoustic Guitar: first OMs since 1933; labeled SOM-28 (S for Special).

John Mayer — OM-28JM, 2003. Martin (Ahner, 25 June 2025): first signature; limited to 404; museum prototype. OMJM (2006) is “a slightly scaled-down version of the original OM-28 John Mayer.” Mayer’s OM-45 anniversary is Style 45, not this guitar.

Paul Simon — OM size, not OM-28. Signature is OM-42PS, Style 42.

Not this guitar. MTV Unplugged cover is a 1939 Martin 000-42, serial 73234. Clapton’s writing guitar is a 1974 000-28. “Come back as a Martin OM-45” is an OM-45. Roy Rogers / Grossman vintage pearl = OM-45. 000-28EC is not Unplugged and not an OM-28. Do not recycle D-28 players (Hank Williams, Tony Rice, Elvis leather, McCartney “Blackbird”).

Rarity

Current Standard: regular. Authentic 1931 retired. Reissues ≠ originals.

Original OM-28 is scarce as a closed 1929–33 window. Not D-45-scarce (91); not D-28-volume. VG: original run 487.

Public year counts, labeled. Do not invent missing years.

1929 (late): 11 — One Man’s Guitar. Corwin: “roughly dozen or so.”
Pyramid-bridge (late 1929 – first week of April 1930): 102 — Hutton. Many later factory-converted to belly.
1932: 50 — RetroFret.
1933: 25 — RetroFret.

No public complete table for 1930 and 1931. Survival of the 487 is unknown. CITES Appendix I (1992) is a shipping/permit factor, not a count.

1969 SOM-28: AG — six. UMGF forum “9 or so” unverified. Almost never public.

1934 long-scale 000-28 (Hutton: 60 of 120) is leftover OM spec stamped 000-28 — not this model.

Value

Informal estimate, 25 August 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold. Public 2024–26 solds are thin. No clean Heritage/Christie’s 2024–26 hammers isolated. Treat the ladder as ask-heavy. Artist/modern OMs (Schoenberg, Lage/Mayer on modern OMs) are demand factors, not comps for 1929–33.

New street. Standard OM-28 $3,699.99 (Martin.com, Aug 2026).

Used modern. Authentic 1931 (retired): dealer asks ~$4,250–$5,500. Reissue, not a 1931.

Vintage / collectible. Sits with or slightly above pre-war 000-28, well below herringbone D-28. Guitar Value Guide 1931 excellent $95,000–$190,000 is not consistent with live 2026 asks — not a sold median.

Carter Vintage, August 2026, same-wall asks: OM-28 1932 $55,000 (full refinish); D-28 1938 $215,000 (not a comp); 000-28 LS 1934 $55,000 (000-28 stamp).

Original-finish with work: Dream Guitars 1930 ask $93,000; TR Crandall 1930 ask $74,999. Stale solds (2020–21): Music Emporium 1931 SOLD $55,000; Wexer 1930 SOLD $65,000.

Working band from live asks: restored ~$40k–$55k; original-finish with typical work ~$75k–$95k ask; forum talk ~$100k.