Yea that’s a problem. And your positive you measured from the top of fret to the bottom of the string and not from the fret board, correct?

Also, a long shot but I see you are in Florida. Is it possible the top is swollen from humidity?

Unlikely

Having to reset a neck on a 43 year old Martin is not a surprise at all. Just find a good local guy and get it done with a new saddle cut and you should be set for life

Go over here and setup an account and ask these guys for a local luthier ….this is basically the PP of Martins

https://umgf.com/

Yes , it’s a HD-28. Not sure what it would be worth in good shape, prices seem to be all over the place, but if reverb is correct I paid lower than the last two years sale price.

I bought it off an individual, it’s mine now. The binding is fine, just yellowed, intonation is good. Nothing rattles. Suposedly it was his wife’s father’s who passed away a couple of years ago.

It’s fine with cowboy cords, bar cords are hard lower on the fretboard. Using a capo makes it play much better.

I talked with a luthier and he said to put a humidifier pack and loosen the strings first and make shure it settles out first. I’m not sure how long the guitar has been in south Florida, but It was in Arizona previously.

If the local guys can’t help me, they recommended a shop in St. Pete that does Martin warranty work.

I’ll know more next week, worst case it may be another learning experience for me. Not my first.

One thing to know is (I think) your guitar does not have an adjustable truss rod….

One of the local guys I talked with on the phone said he has seen some that humidity caused a problem and they came back down after drying out some. I ordered the kits to give it a try, can’t hurt and I’ll need it requardless.

I leave my electric out on a stand and I havnt noticed any changes with it though.

That is correct, no truss rod. I’ll know more next week, I figure I can spend $1,000 to $1,500 on it and not get hurt. But it wouldn’t be a good deal then.

For 40 years, my guitars have been in their case once…the day I brought them home. All my electrics and acoustics are on stands in a room with a dehumidifier kept around 50 %. No issues so far.

But if the guitar was in that dry air all its life and suddenly in Florida, who knows

But, since there isn’t much saddle left, it sounds like someone tried to compensate for the neck angle becoming too shallow over time so I wouldn’t get my hopes up. If the guitar sounds great and you love it, another $500 or whatever the job costs these days will be worth it

An HD-28 is a great guitar, pretty much an icon. I got a new one a couple of years ago. Classic Martin tone.

Musical Instrument Museum…unbelievable!

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Some more…

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I've wanted a Telecaster for a while now, already have a couple of Strat's so a week ago I brought home a Butterscotch beauty. Chambered Ash body and as soon as I held the guitar the decision was made, just under 6 pounds!!!
A long ago shoulder injury makes playing the Strats longer than 40 minutes painful but I spanked the Telly for about 90 minutes the other day with no problem, only hung it up cause of a prior commitment.
If your like I am, old with lots of sore spots then you might want to check out the chambered body.

Sorry, no pic but we all know what a Butterscotch Telly looks like.


Finn

Yes, there is something about a Tele. Leo got a lot of things really right with that 1st guitar design and to this day it has a voice like no other. They tend to feel good, stay in tune, and inspire me to explore different styles and chord voicings. Mine is Olympic white from 2003 and I expect I will be buried with it.



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Is that Chet?

my 64 reissue. these 64 pickups are some of the best sounding of all my guitars. swapped out the bridge and saddles for a brass keith richards style bridge and saddles

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New vid for Tele fans with two of my favorite Tele players and a nice look at the Clarence White B-bender

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hvwMQoCR610?si=lxOFWXvHk98l0w2c" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Update on my HD-28. It’s in the shop now getting a neck reset. $650 for the reset and new saddle. They said the frets were still ok, they had been worked on in the past.

I was initially told 2 weeks, but when I dropped it off they said it will probably be a month.

It’s definatly got the aged thing going. Only the top is checked like this, the back and sides are fine.
There is also a crack that has been repaired on the top.

Nothing I didn’t know when I bought the guitar. I’ll probably be into it for a little more than it’s worth, but less than a used newer model and this one looks cool.
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In the end you will have a great guitar with history, magnificent tone, and plays great. I think this is well worth the effort and $$ to restore. Enjoy it and don't sweat the cash too much.

Awesome! When I was a young player in the early 70s I spent many hours wandering music stores and learning about different instruments. I was that kid playing all of the signature guitar hooks a little too loud and probably poorly, driving the store owner's nuts.

There was a used B-bender Tele for sale at a local guitar store that may have belonged to a famous player. And the store owner was pretty excited about it. I played it for a while and thought "this is so not my sound" but I just didn't understand it at the time. If I saw that guitar today I would grab it.

While not a player like you guys, I still mess around with guitars and need to dive back in. It's been a minute since I have paused my learning. However, I got this little beauty from my cousin after my uncle passed. It was played by his father, my grandfather and is an early 30's Gibson L-50 arch top. I need to give it to a Gibson specialist luthier to bring it back to playability. It desperately needs new strings and a set up and the 1st through 5th frets are really worn. Not sure if I want to replace those since it was my grandfather who put that wear there. It has the sweetest checking all over and actually plays OK for needing strings and a set up. Thought you guys might enjoy seeing it. Looking at the pictures, I took those with my older phone so you can't see the wonderful checking very well.
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