Recently, I bragged about my incredible Martin J-40. Today I want to tell you the story of how I came to acquire it. Though I learned to play guitar when I was about 12, I played junk guitars my whole life. In my early thirties I realized that this was not just a teen phase and that I needed a real guitar. So I saved money that I got from my dad for birthdays, honorariums that were given for weddings and funerals (I did a surprising amount of the latter over a couple of years), and other odd funds that would come my way for my dream instrument. Doing no research (my bad), I decided on the ubiquitous Martin D-28.
I bought it at a Guitar Center (good people if you want an electric, acoustics not so much). I was thoroughly happy with it and played it for about three years. I was given a subscription to Acoustic Guitar magazine and began understanding more about these instruments. Though I was in no way unhappy with my D-28, I decided that if I ever needed to replace it, I would look for something like an HD-28 (scalloped braces).
We planned a special worship service on a Friday night. We used all the musician and many of the singers in the church and even brought in an outside keyboard player for it. Our Thursday night rehearsal went great and we were excited for the next evening.
Everything was left set up as we exited the church that night. To my utter dismay, however, when the church custodians came in to clean the next morning, the church had been burglarized. Among the missing items was, of course, my Martin D-28!
I was bummed. Even worse than not having it was the realization that some kid was sitting in his room not knowing what a quality instrument he had and playing "Stairway to Heaven" on it. Badly.
I borrowed an instrument and the worship service went great. Next came dealing with the insurance company. Actually, they were great. All of my missing items (which included a bass and some speakers) were covered, so the adjuster told me to go shopping.
This time I was prepared and ended up at a wonderful guitar shop that sadly doesn't exist any longer. This establishment had forty Martin guitars for sale. It was a guitar geek's candy store. After playing several HD-28s, the proprietor suggested I look at the J-40. He quoted the Chris Martin "dreadnought of the nineties" line and pointed out the different shape and tonal qualities. I was hooked. I played a half-dozen of this model. The tone of one was a bit muffled, but the others were bright and booming. One instrument in particular stood out, however. Others who happened to be in the store agreed that this was "the pick of the litter."
I have played this guitar for fifteen years, mostly in worship-leading. The devil--a thief and a liar--tried to silence praise by stealing my instrument, but God restored it to his glory. And the irony is that I ended up with a better instrument to give praise to God.
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