One of the most important acoustic guitars for Paul McCartney and for the Beatles’ sound in 1968.
The first appearance of a Martin D-28 with the Beatles dates back to November 1967, during the filming of the Hello Goodbye promotional video. John Lennon was the first to buy one — a 1965 model, probably to compensate for the loss of brightness from his old Gibson J-160E, which had just been repainted in psychedelic colours.
It didn’t take long for Paul to follow suit, purchasing a 1967 left-handed D-28. Just in time to take both acoustics to India for the group’s spiritual retreat in Rishikesh in February 1968.
There, at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, with these two guitars, most of the songs that would later appear on the White Album were written. From that moment on, the warm and resonant tone of the D-28 became a defining part of the Beatles’ acoustic sound — heard in Blackbird, I Will, Mother Nature’s Son, Two of Us, and all the way through to Now and Then, the Beatles’ last song released in 2023
It was there, at the ashram, that most of the songs later included on the White Album were written using these two instruments. From that moment on, the warm and rich sound of the D-28 would feature on many Beatles acoustic recordings — tracks like Blackbird, I Will, Mother Nature’s Son, Two of Us, all the way to Now and Then, the Beatles’ final song released in 2023.
The guitar in our photo is a Sigma by Martin D-28, featured in our videos for Now and Then, Blackbird and Dear Prudence.
