
“There’s something profoundly joyful about Shakti and the spontaneity of it,” says guitarist John McLaughlin, seen here with the group at the beginning of their 50th-anniversary celebrations.
The intrepid guitarist celebrates his long collaboration with master percussionist Zakir Hussain and reflects on the groundbreaking cross-cultural fusion group, his longest running ensemble, and their new studio record, This Moment.
A few years ago, John McLaughlin’s career hung in the balance. Stricken with painful arthritis in his right hand, the famously dexterous and ambitious guitarist couldn’t maintain his playing. So, he announced his retirement from live performing, offering a final tour in 2017. In Billboard, the guitarist glumly mused: “You know, musicians never die. They just decompose. So, I’m on my way.” Though he went on to mention planned recording projects, he now says, “I thought, ‘Time’s up,’ the guitar goes under the bed, and that’s it. I’m out.”
“It was not to be,” he now says from his home in Monaco. McLaughlin found his remedy in the teachings of Dr. Joe Dispenza, an American chiropractor, teacher, and best-selling author. The guitarist tuned into Dispenza’s YouTube videos and found “a wonderful technique that incorporates meditation” in lieu of medication. “Since I’ve been meditating since the 1960s,” he explains, “I incorporated this technique every morning.”
Within six to eight months, the pain of McLaughlin’s arthritis was gone. “It’s amazing,” he says. “I still do it, except I do it not just to my hands, I do it to my whole body.” By 2019, McLaughlin was back on the road, and the records kept coming, too. In 2020, he released Is That So?—co-led with vocalist Shankar Mahadevan and percussionist Zakir Hussain—and his pandemic effort, Liberation Time, came out in 2021.
“I could not believe what I was seeing, hearing. It was like on Star Trek where you’d be instantly teleported to another planet. Another universe. Molecules taken apart and put back together.” —Bill Frisell on Shakti
McLaughlin has now turned his renewed abilities to his longest running ensemble, Shakti, whose fusion of North and South Indian classical styles together with his intrepid guitar playing broke new ground in the ’70s, helping to create a template for cross-cultural collaborations. The band continue to stand in a class of their own. “About 18, 20 months ago,” McLaughlin said this summer, “I wrote to everyone and said, ‘Let’s record something before it’s too late.’”
Shakti looks much different than when he first assembled the ensemble as a vehicle to work with master percussionist Hussain. Together, they are the two remaining original members, and they are now joined by Mahadevan as well as violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram, who is the son of Vikku Vinayakram, the group's percussionist during the '70s.
Shakti has naturally evolved throughout their span, but the inventive, collaborative spirit of the ensemble remains. With the release of This Moment earlier this year, the guitarist is reflecting on the evolution of the ensemble.
John McLaughlin with his doubleneck PRS on the 2017 tour that would not, in fact, be his last.
Photo by Alessio Belloni
John McLaughlin’s Gear
Guitars
- PRS McCarty Violin model
- Abraham Wechter nylon-string acoustic
Effects
- Hermida Audio Zendrive 2
- Sony DPS-M7
- Seymour Duncan SFX-03 Twin Tube Classic
Strings & Picks
- D’Addario strings
- Jim Dunlop Jazz III Picks
First Run
McLaughlin says he became “enchanted” with Indian classical music in 1969. During this period, he was living in New York and playing with Miles Davis, and he began studying North Indian flute. “I don’t play flute,” he explains, “but it was really to learn some of the theory, some of the ragas, and to try to understand the rhythmic concepts that they used.” That same year, he met Zakir Hussain, and the two musicians became friends.
It wasn’t until 1972, though, that McLaughlin and Hussain would play together. During a visit with master sarod player Ali Akbar Khan at his school in Northern California where Hussain was teaching, the two had an auspicious impromptu musical meeting. “Being young and reckless,” the guitarist recalls, “I just happened to have an acoustic guitar and Zakir had a tabla. After dinner, we decided to sit in front of the great Ali Akbar Khan and play something.”
He continues, “Zakir Hussain is one of those rare musicians who are just instantly inspiring and are just masterly players. Within the first 10 seconds, I’m saying, ‘I have to work with this guy somehow.’” When they were done, McLaughlin recalls that Hussain shared the feeling.
“I could not believe what I was seeing, hearing. It was like on Star Trek where you’d be instantly teleported to another planet. Another universe. Molecules taken apart and put back together.” —Bill Frisell on Shakti
Shakti in New York’s Central Park in 2001, left to right: Zakir Hussain, U. Shrinivas, John McLaughlin, and Selvaganesh Vinayakram.
Photo by Ebet Roberts
Frisell remembers his reaction: “What was this?! I could not believe what I was seeing, hearing. It was like on Star Trek where you’d be instantly teleported to another planet. Another universe. Molecules taken apart and put back together. You find yourself in another world. A whole new world. John McLaughlin had already done this to me a few times before with Tony Williams, Miles, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Now this! Everything changes.”
Over time, Frisell points out, the band’s effect on him was profound, helping to inspire him to discover his own maverick voice. “A couple years later, I heard Shakti live for the first time at a concert in Boston. It was so overwhelming. There was a moment then where I thought I should stop playing. This was too much. Impossible. There’s no way. This is too big.”
Instead, he found a bigger message in the music. “I thought, ‘I love music so much. Music is beautiful,’” he says. “Whatever I can do with whatever it is I’ve got, I’m going to try as best I can to make something out of it. Maybe I can’t do what they are doing, but I’m going to find a way to do something. Music is big enough for everyone. Infinite. We all find our own way. Our own voice.”
“That dang McLaughlin would certainly and regularly put all of us in our place.” —Béla Fleck
John McLaughlin & Shakti "Joy" (Live Montreux 1976)
In 1976, the group released their debut, Shakti with John McLaughlin—now with South Indian percussionist Vikku Vinayakram—which to this day will test the limits of what an uninitiated listener might consider possible on an acoustic guitar. On the album, Shakti offers a dazzling display of rhythmic and melodic technicality that set them apart from their electric peers in the fusion scene.
“I can still remember hearing that first Shakti record and instantly feeling the connection to the music that I was getting involved into,” reminisces Béla Fleck. The innovative banjo player and fellow Zakir Hussain collaborator was also tapped to join Shakti on their 50th-anniversary tour. “It was just such a shocking revelation that it could go in that direction. Everything about it had amazing personality, life, joy, and intensity.”
Fleck, who has carved his own niche as a figurehead of acoustic fusion, recalls that Shakti’s debut “seemed like an alternate world, but one somehow related to our burgeoning progressive bluegrass scene. I know it provided inspiration to many of my peers and heroes. But that dang McLaughlin would certainly and regularly put all of us in our place. No one could aspire to that level of ability and thought in our acoustic world!”
At the time of their debut, McLaughlin was using a large-bodied guitar built by legendary luthier Mark Whitebook, who also built instruments for artists such as James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. By this point, he’d discontinued his veena study— “I don’t have enough talent to master two instruments in one life,” McLaughlin admits. “So, I went to my guru one day and I said I have to quit the veena [and focus on guitar] because that’s how I eat, that’s how I pay my rent, and I’m not able to handle both at once. And he was very understanding of that.”
The veena, McLaughlin explains, “has giant frets with space underneath. The bending is marvelous.” He sought to recreate that technique on an acoustic guitar with scalloped frets. After conferring with Ali Akbar Khan about adding drone strings to his instrument, McLaughlin and luthier Abraham Wechter, working for Gibson at the time, brought those ideas to life, creating a customized J-200 with scalloped frets and a set of seven drone strings underneath the main strings, which the guitarist played with a fingerpick he wore on his pinky.
While they’ve released a wealth of live recordings in the meantime, This Moment is Shakti’s first studio recording since the late ’70s.
That guitar can be heard on Shakti’s subsequent pair of ambitious studio recordings, A Handful of Beauty and Natural Elements. If it seemed as though the group was just getting started, it sadly wasn’t to last. “Around 1978, Vikku had to return to India to run the Academy of Percussion his father had founded,” McLaughlin explains. “We finished our concert obligations with another South Indian percussionist, but we missed Vikku very much, and Shakti went to the back burner for a while.”
Remember Shakti
While McLaughlin and Hussain continued to collaborate, it wasn’t until the late ’90s, when the percussionist received an invitation for the group to do a series of concerts, that Shakti returned. At some point, though, the guitarist had lent out his Whitebook and Wechter steel-strings. “When I called the people I’d loaned the Shakti guitars to,” he regretfully recalls, “they both came back broken. So, here we have a tour coming up and the guitars were unplayable.” (He adds, “I’ve given them away to people to hang on the wall. They’re just decoration now. It’s really a shame.”)
Without either of his acoustic guitars from the earlier incarnation of the group, McLaughlin decided he would go electric. For this reinvigorated version of the group—which would be dubbed “Remember Shakti” on a series of live recordings, starting with 1999’s self-titled release, though McLaughlin considers it all to be Shakti—he first called upon a Gibson ES-345 with a scalloped fretboard, though he used other guitars as well in this period.
Going electric helped usher in a new sound for the band. “What I wanted and what I got from the electric guitar was the sustain—to be able to play a chord and to hold,” McLaughlin explains. He adds, “I’m the harmony department in the band, and I’m bending the rules because, basically, in Indian music, there’s no harmony.”
“I’m the harmony department in the band, and I’m bending the rules because basically, in Indian music, there’s no harmony.” —John McLaughlin
Remember Shakti - Live at Jazz a Vienne
In 1998, McLaughlin and Hussain invited electric mandolin virtuoso U. Shrinivas (often spelled Srinivas) to join Shakti. “I’d seen him when he was only 14 and he was already a killer,” McLaughlin recalls. (By the time he joined the band, Shrinivas was in his late 20s.) He continues, “The electric guitar and electric mandolin work beautifully together. I was really happy about that. We had a sound together that really worked.” Indeed, the two had a musical hookup so sympathetic that it can be easy to mistake one for the other on these recordings. Listen to the masterfully navigated high-paced musical twists and turns of “Maya,” Shrinivas’ composition from The Believer, to hear just how connected the ensemble had become.
In 2014, Shrinivas passed, and McLaughlin and his bandmates were distraught. Losing a member of the ensemble once again closed a chapter for the group. “We lost it for a while,” he says.
Shakti 2023 (left to right): Zakir Hussain, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Shankar Mahadevan, John McLaughlin, and Selvaganesh Vinayakram.
Photo by Pepe Gomes
The Return
Now about a half century on, Shakti is back. McLaughlin explains that the band has always been geographically challenged—for the current lineup, Hussain is based in Northern California, vocalist Shankar Mahadevan in Northern India, violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan in Seattle, and percussionist Selvaganesh Vinayakram lives in South India. Getting everyone together simply became too difficult, which is why, he says, they haven’t recorded a studio album since the ’70s. But technology has caught up to their predicament, and the group was able to do a hybrid of live and remote sessions in order to create This Moment.
While the Shakti recordings of the 1970s were energetic, blazing sessions, the musical breathing room has continued to grow since the Remember Shakti period. That has much to do with the compositions, arrangements, and performances, but it’s also easy, when comparing This Moment to the original recordings especially, to attribute that space in part to McLaughlin’s long shift away from the plucky, percussive acoustic playing toward developing a softer electric tone.
McLaughlin has gone through many instruments over the course of his career—counting among them, in addition to his Shakti guitars, his iconic Gibson double-neck, a Gibson Johnny Smith, and a Wechter nylon-string. Most recently, he’s been using a PRS. “I got my first PRS maybe 20 years ago from Paul. What a beautiful instrument,” he remarks. McLaughlin owns several of Smith’s guitars, but it’s his black-gold McCarty Violin model he turns to most frequently. And it’s that instrument that is primarily heard on This Moment.PRS’ new Private Stock John McLaughlin Limited Edition Signature Model features a maple top, mahogany back, hormigo neck, and African blackwood fretboard, plus some special electronic additions.
The builder is now paying tribute to McLaughlin with the Private Stock John McLaughlin Limited Edition Signature Model. Limited to just 200 instruments, it’s an exquisite, detailed high-end solidbody. Featuring a maple top, mahogany back, hormigo neck, and African blackwood fretboard, the body has a high-gloss nitro finish, while the neck has only a clear grain filler. For electronics, Smith chose TCI pickups with volume and tone controls and a 3-way, plus two mini-toggles that act as high-pass filters.
“John McLaughlin is one of the geniuses of our business,” says Smith. “He was at the forefront of inventing an entire genre of music called jazz rock. He’s an extraordinary musician, guitarist, and songwriter. It’s an honor to be involved with such a person.”
As on much of his work in recent years, McLaughlin favors a soft, dark, and spacious, clean tone from his PRS for This Moment. On many of the songs—the driving multi-meter pulse of opener “Shrini’s Dream,” the waltz-like mid-tempo “Mohanam,” and the bouncy “Las Palmas”—his simple diatonic chords create the center of gravity around which the ensemble work their magic. Don’t dismay, we’re still treated to plenty of high-speed McLaughlin picking throughout. But those moments give way to more sensitive ensemble interaction, which is at the forefront.
If the original trio of Shakti recordings at times feels as though the players were pushing each other to their breathtaking limits, then This Moment finds McLaughlin and Hussain warmly holding the door for each other and their collaborators. Tellingly, on “Bending the Rules,” which finds McLaughlin taking a knotty solo, his most notable playing comes as he joins Mahadevan’s expressive vocal melody, capturing the nuances in riveting unison.
“There’s something profoundly joyful about Shakti and the spontaneity of it,” McLaughlin shares as he considers the ensemble’s long history. “This experience I had with Zakir in 1972 is still as valid today as it was 50 years ago. Which is, I think, the simple reason why Shakti is still together, although we’ve evolved and we’re the only two original members.”
When he talks about Shakti, McLaughlin repeatedly calls the members family and talks about their personal bond that extends as deeply as their musical one. Reflecting, he says, “Love, really, is what makes things work in the end, isn’t it?” he says. “If the love is not there, especially in music, you might as well be a lawyer or an accountant.”
YouTube It
Shakti performs an epic two-plus hour live set in Kolkata in January 2023, at the beginning of their 50th-anniversary celebrations, with a setlist culled from their entire history.
Featuring Bluetooth input, XLR inputs, and advanced amplifier platform, the KC12 is designed to offer exceptional sound quality and versatility for a wide range of applications.
The KC12 is a first-of-its-kind, 3-way, 3000-watt active loudspeaker system encompassing the visual aesthetic of a column loudspeaker while surpassing the acoustic performance of conventional designs. Simple and easy to deploy, the elegant KC12, available in black and white, is ideal for a wide range of customers and applications from solo entertainers, musicians and bands, mobile entertainers and DJs to corporate AV, event production, and static installations.
Column-style portable loudspeaker systems are most often put into service due to their unobtrusive form factor. However, typical designs lack clarity and definition, particularly when pushed to high output levels, forcing the user into a form-over-function compromise. Solving this common dilemma, the KC12 cleverly utilizes a 3-way design featuring QSC’s patented LEAF™ waveguide (first introduced in L Class Active Line Array Loudspeakers) combined with a true 1-inch compression driver, two 4-inch midrange drivers, and a high output 12-inch subwoofer, while still maintaining the desired, elegant appearance of a “column” system. The KC12 produces an outstanding full-range horizontal coverage of 145 degrees and 35 degrees of audience-directed vertical coverage with clean and natural sound at all output levels.
The system features three inputs: a Bluetooth ® input combined with a 3.5 mm TRS stereo input, as well as two combo XLR inputs (Mic/Line/Hi-Z and Mic/Line/+48 V), with independent, assignableFactory Presets for each XLR input, making it ideal for small events where two microphones are needed for different uses. The rear panel incorporates a multi-function digital display, offering control and selection of several loudspeaker functions, including Global Parametric EQ, Subwoofer level, Presets and Scenes, Bluetooth configuration, Delay (maximum of 200 ms), or Reverb. Bluetooth functionality also provides True Wireless Stereo (TWS), which ensures low latency pairing between the music source and both left and right loudspeakers simultaneously.
Additionally, the KC12 can be deployed with or without its lower column pole, making the system ideally suited for utilization on a floor, riser or raised stage. The system is backed by a 6-year Extended Warranty (with product registration).
“The KC12 exquisitely resolves the form-over-function compromise that has frustrated users of this category of products since they made their market introduction over 20 years ago,” states David Fuller, VP of Product Development, QSC Audio. “With the benefit of time, experience, extensive customer research, and cutting-edge innovation, our talented design team has truly created something very different from the status quo – not simply a differentiated product, but an overall better solution for the customer.”
The feature set and performance characteristics of the KC12 are complemented by a new, advanced amplifier platform, first incorporated into the L Class LS118 subwoofer released this past October. Fuller adds, “Among the platform’s key attributes are layers of real-time telemetry and protection to ensure uninterrupted performance day after day, which is a foundational QSC brand attribute.”
“Just like our first K Series reset the bar for powered loudspeakers, elevating customers’ expectations for performance, quality, reliability, usability, and professional appearance, the K Column offers a compelling, new approach to a familiar category and is destined to redefine the whole notion of what a ‘column’ is for users of portable PA products,” states Ray van Straten, VPBrand, Marketing & amp; Training, QSC Audio. “The product is simply stunning in its sleek and elegant appearance, but with the marketing tagline, ‘Just Listen’, we’re confident that once again, QSC sound quality will ultimately be the reason customers will quickly embrace the K Column as the next ‘New Standard’ in its category.”
The QSC KC12 K Column carries a MAP price of $1,999.
For more information, please visit qsc.com.
This pedal is designed to offer both unique distortion qualities and a tonal palette of sonic possibilities.
At the heart of the Harvezi Hazze pedal is a waveshaper designed around a unijunction transistor - a relic from the early days of the semiconductor industry unearthed from the e-waste bins of flea markets in Tbilisi, Georgia, the Eastern European country's largest city.
The unijunction transistor offers unique properties allowing one simple component to replace a number of very complex devices. Therefore. depending on the operating mode, users can access a distortion, a limiter, a waveshaper and a generator - with smooth transitions among each of these.
The name "Harvezi Hazze" translates from Georgian as "a fault on the transmission line" or "signal jamming", and both the semantic and phonetic nature of these translations imply what users can expect: an impediment to the input signal, which can range from pleasant harmonic distortions to complete obliteration. The signal chain of Harvezi Hazze consists of an optical compressor with fixed parameters; a dual-mode distorting amplifier with either softer or harsher clipping; a waveshaper built around a unijunction transistor; and a tone stack section designed to tame these sonic building blocks.
Signal flow and controls
Following the input, the signal goes to the Compressor, Distorting Amplifier, Waveshaper, and then to the Tone Stack and output stages. Harvezi Hazze features six control knobs, a three-way switch and a footswitch.
- Gain Control: This controls the output amplitude of the signal in the distorting amplifier section. Depending on the position of the switch, the distortion introduced by this section is soft (with the switch in the left position) or more aggressive with an abundance of high harmonics (with the switch in the middle position).
- Spoil and Spread: This knob controls the operation of the unijunction transistor (waveshaper section). Spoil sets the point on the amplitude axis at which the wave will fold, and Spread sets the amplitude of the folding. The higher the Spread value, the more severe the distortion will be, while Spoil will change the timbre and response threshold. By adjusting Spoil, users can achieve various gating and cutoff effects; at low Spread values, distortion sounds are mixed into the clean sound.
- Tone: This knob adjusts the brightness of the sound. With higher values, higher harmonics become present in the signal.
- Three-way switch. This feature regulates either the distortion mode in the amplifier section (left and center positions), or turns on the total feedback mode (right position) when the values of all knobs begin to influence each other. In this position, effects occur such as resonance at certain frequencies and self-oscillation.
- Level knob: This controls the output volume of the signal.
- Footswitch: This routes the signal through the effect circuitry or from input to output directly (true bypass).
The array of switches on the side of the unit provides even further tonal options; the lower position of the switch enables the specific function:
- Tone Stack: Routes the signal through the tone stack section (Tone knob).
- Bass Boost: Enhances bass frequencies.
- Tone Mode: Changes the behavior of the Tone knob (tilt or lowpass).
- Notch Freq: Changes the central frequency of the filter.
- High Cut: Attenuates high frequencies.
- Compressor: Routes the signal through the compressor.
Harvezi Hazze is priced at €290. To learn more, please visit https://somasynths.com/harvezi-hazze/.
Ibanez Blackout series acoustic guitars feature all-black aesthetic, high-quality electronics, and in-demand woods. Models include AEG721 with Fishman S-core pickups, AEWC621 with Ibanez AEQ-SP2 preamp, and TCY621 with Ibanez under-saddle pickup. With prices ranging from $249.99 to $399.99, these guitars offer a unique and stylish option for musicians.
Ibanez has unveiled its new Blackout series of acoustic guitars to their lineup. Inspired by the popular Iron Label series, these instruments feature an all-black aesthetic, including a matte black finish and black hardware. The Blackout series offers three distinct models: the AEG721 7-string acoustic-electric, the AEWC621, and the TCY621. Each model boasts in-demand woods, including a Spruce top, Sapele back and sides, and Macassar Ebony or Purpleheart for the fingerboard and bridge.
To complement their unique appearance, the Blackout guitars are equipped with high-quality electronics. The AEG721 and AEWC621 feature Fishman’s S-core pickups and Ibanez AEQ-SAP2 preamps, while the TCY621 utilizes an Ibanez under-saddle pickup and AEQ-2T preamp.
For more information, please visit ibanez.com.
AEG721
- AEG body
- 634mm/25" scale
- Spruce top
- Sapele back & sides
- Comfort Grip 3pc Nyatoh/Maple neck
- Macassar Ebony fretboard & bridge
- Black dyed Bone nut & saddle
- Black Die-cast tuners (18:1 gear ratio)
- Fishman® S-core pickup
- Ibanez AEQ-SP2 preamp w/Onboard tuner
- Balanced XLR & 1/4" outputs
- Ibanez Advantage™ bridge pins
- D'Addario® XTAPB1253, plus .070 guage Phosphor Bronze
- String Gauge: .012/.016/.024/.032/.042/.053/.070
- Factory Tuning: 1E,2B,3G,4D,5A,6E,7B
- Recommended case: AEG10C/MAP: $169.99
- Finish: Blacked Out
LIST PRICE: $599.99
ESTIMATED STREET PRICE: $399.99
AEWC621
- AEWC body
- 634mm/25" scale
- Spruce top
- Sapele back & sides
- Comfort Grip Nyatoh neck
- Macassar Ebony fretboard & bridge
- Black Die-cast tuners (18:1 gear ratio)
- Fishman® S-Core pickup
- Ibanez AEQ-SP2 preamp w/Onboard tuner
- Balanced XLR & 1/4" outputs
- Ibanez IACS6C coated strings
- Recommended case: AEG10C/MAP: $169.99
- Finish: Blacked Out
LIST PRICE: $599.99
ESTIMATED STREET PRICE: $399.99
TCY621
- Talman Double Cutaway body
- Neck joint at 16th fret
- Spruce top
- Sapele back & sides
- Okoume neck
- Purpleheart fretboard & bridge
- Black Die-cast tuners
- Ibanez Undersaddle pickup
- Ibanez AEQ-2T preamp w/Onboard tuner
- Ibanez Advantage™ bridge pins
- Recommended case: TM50C/MAP: $179.99
- Finish: Blacked Out
LIST PRICE: $374.99
ESTIMATED STREET PRICE: $249.99
Martin's 2025 NAMM Show lineup features new guitars with enhanced playability and vintage aesthetics.
C. F. Martin & Co. is unveiling an exciting lineup of new guitars ahead of The 2025 NAMM Show, including refinements to its trusted Standard Series and two all-new Retro Plus guitars.
With the Standard Series refresh, Martin brings fans enhanced playability, timeless aesthetics, and three stunning new models, while its two new Retro Plus guitars offer thermally aged spruce tops and the classic appearance of an 18-style guitar at an accessible price point. These releases showcase Martin's mission to create instruments that unleash the artist within.
These new guitars and more will be on display at The 2025 NAMM Show in Anaheim, California, through Saturday, January 25, with more releases to come.
Standard Series Refresh
Martin is refreshing its popular Standard Series lineup to bring subtle yet impactful refinements to enhance the look, tone, and playability of these iconic guitars, while introducing three new models to the series: the D-17, 000-17, and OM-45.
One of the key updates is Sitka spruce Golden Era (GE) top bracing, as featured on the Modern Deluxe Series, which offers a more vintage, breathy tone with enhanced sustain. The GE modified low oval neck profile maintains its popular shape but is optimized for vintage appeal with minimal increase in total mass.
It's paired with playability enhancements like a thinner fingerboard with a gently beveled comfort edge and refined string spacing at the nut, while the new GE modern belly bridge features smoother, more comfortable corners.
Standard Series guitars also now feature either bone or ebony bridge pins, along with newly added sunburst and ambertone finish options for select models. Additional aesthetic updates include a long diamond neck transition, a nut cut on angle, and a sleeker vintage-style heel.
These are the changes Martin enthusiasts have been asking for, delivering a blend of vintage appointments and modern playability enhancements. Players will notice improved comfort and vintage tones, particularly with the GE-inspired bracing and aesthetic refinements.
For more information, please visit martinguitar.com.
D-17
The Martin D-17 is a bold new offering in the refreshed Standard Series, combining vintage-inspired appointments with modern refinements for players seeking rich sounds and enhanced playability. Its iconic Dreadnought body shape is a favorite among players for its loud, projective tone and strong bass. This model is handcrafted with a satin-finished solid mahogany body, delivering a warm and woody tone, while vintage-inspired details such as a sleeker heel and nickel open gear tuners give the guitar a timeless, elegant look. With its satin-finished select hardwood neck and 25.4" scale length, whether you’re strumming big chords or picking intricate tunes, the D-17 delivers powerful, dynamic sound with a classic, vintage vibe.
000-17
The Martin 000-17 is another fresh addition to the Standard Series lineup. Its Auditorium (000) body shape offers a balanced tone and comfortable size, making it great for both fingerstyle playing and heavy-handed strumming. Crafted from solid mahogany with a satin finish, it delivers a warm, woody tone with a clear top end and a punchy midrange—ideal for players seeking a vintage-inspired sound with a modern edge. Its satin-finished select hardwood neck and 24.9" scale length contributes to a more relaxed string feel and warmer, mellower tones. Whether you’re playing at home, in the studio, or on stage, the 000-17 delivers the balanced, dynamic sound that players expect from a high-quality Martin.
OM-45
The Martin OM-45 is a pinnacle of craftsmanship in the refreshed Standard Series, combining classic appointments with modern enhancements for a truly exceptional instrument. This all-new full-gloss acoustic is crafted with solid East Indian rosewood back and sides and a solid spruce top, delivering a rich, resonant tone with remarkable sustain. Its genuine mahogany neck ensures a smooth, effortless feel, while the longer 25.4" scale length provides just the right amount of string tension for enhanced clarity, making this guitar great for intricate picking and strumming. Its dazzling pearl inlay, aging toner, and gold open gear tuners offer an elegant touch, making the OM-45 as stunning to look at as it is to play.
De Retro Plus Mahogany
The Martin DE Retro Plus Mahogany is inspired by Martin’s legendary 18-style flagship models. It combines powerful tone and iconic design with cutting-edge craftsmanship at a fraction of the price. Its torrefied solid spruce top is thermally aged for enhanced resonance and a beautifully seasoned sound, delivering the rich, broken-in tone of a vintage instrument from the first strum. It’s the same premium feature long reserved for our Authentic and Modern Deluxe series, now available for the first time ever in the Road Series. It even comes stage-ready with Martin E1 electronics, featuring a built-in tuner and controls for dialing in your perfect live tone.
000E Retro Plus Mahogany
This 000 model blends balanced tone with the same cutting-edge craftsmanship and 18-style appearance as its Dreadnought counterpart, including a torrefied solid spruce top. With solid mahogany back and sides, scalloped spruce X bracing, a Performing Artist neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge, and Martin E1 electronics, these guitars have everything you could want in an acoustic. Ideal as a gigging workhorse or your first step into premium acoustics, they deliver best-in-class quality at an unbeatable value for serious players, and a lifetime of inspiration for anyone who picks one up. Just be warned, you won’t be able to put them down—because nothing compares to a Martin.