The Martin Special HD-28 Style Adirondack VTS herringbone acoustic guitar was designed to target the highly collectible vintage sound of Martin’s 1930s Golden Era. These world-renowned instruments are cherished for their unparalleled tone and considered by many collectors and professional musicians to be the "Stradivarius" of the acoustic guitar. Thanks to Martin’s revolutionary Vintage Tone System (VTS), they've created a process to capture the look and sound of one of their older D-28 instruments and replicate it in a new instrument, like this Martin Special HD-28 Style Adirondack VTS herringbone dreadnought acoustic.

Martin’s Vintage Tone System is a proprietary temperature aging process that allows Martin to target the sound of their vintage acoustic guitars within a decade. It’s like a time machine taking your new guitar and aging it to sound vintage. Martin has honed this process by benchmarking some of the finest examples of their 185-year history, found in their Nazareth, PA, museum. Once they reference a vintage top, the new top is aged to the correct moisture content and look of that period. This proprietary VTS process is unique to Martin, and can only be found on custom, special and Authentic Martin models.

In the spirit of combining a modern feel with a vintage tone, the Special HD-28 Style Adirondack VTS dreadnought incorporates a premium grade of Adirondack spruce for the top that is temperature aged to sound like a guitar from the 1930s. The guitar is then braced with a standard 5/16" X-bracing pattern to add just the right amount of color to the tone. Martin then combined this VTS top with an East Indian rosewood back and sides, and the playability of a new Special HD-28, to create a dreadnought guitar that has an extraordinary sound and feel.

To recreate a vintage look, they add aging tone, antique white binding and a black pickguard. The Special HD-28 Style Adirondack VTS dreadnought has a clear, defined treble and midrange tone, with a very balanced, controlled bottom end.