D-28

Purpose-built baritone gauge — for baritone-scale acoustic guitars in B-to-B or A-to-A tuning.

MA540 on D-28 — factory Martin gauge for players who find 12-54 too stiff for long sessions.

Factory-voiced pairing — Martin dreadnoughts come alive with SP phosphor bronze.

Martin SP tone with extended life — ideal for gigging Martin players.

Unconventional: 80/20 Bronze on a D-28. Today's Martin standard is Phosphor Bronze (PB) — warmer, more balanced, longer-lasting. Martin ships its D-28 with PB from the factory. But bluegrass flatpickers — the pickin' circles that gave us Tony Rice and Doc Watson — famously reject PB and demand 80/20 Bronze for a specific reason: when playing alongside a 5-string banjo and fiddle in a pickin' session, PB strings get swallowed; the warm roundness that sounds beautiful solo disappears into the banjo's attack.

80/20 Bronze has cutting zing and sharp midrange projection that slices through dense acoustic mixes — you can actually hear your D-28 among 5 other instruments. What you gain: cutting presence in ensemble context, brighter flatpicking attack, stronger note separation. What you lose: PB's warmth and complexity when playing solo, and 80/20 oxidizes faster — you'll replace them every 2 weeks instead of 3-4.

Worth it for bluegrass; questionable for solo fingerstyle.