Jason Isbell owns some prized classic guitars, reminiscent of a 1934 Martin 000-28 that he calls one of the best acoustic guitar he’s ever performed. However when it got here to recording his solo acoustic album Foxes within the Snow, he turned to this smaller and plainer Martin 0-17, a latest acquisition from Retrofret Classic Guitars in Brooklyn, New York.

Listed at $30, the 0-17 was practically the underside of the road in Martin’s 1940 catalog—solely the 0-15, a really comparable mannequin with a much less shiny end, was cheaper, at $25. In contrast with guitars just like the 00-18 ($50), 000-28 ($90), D-28 ($100), and D-45 ($200), the 0-17 was a extra inexpensive providing for lean occasions. Martin didn’t skimp on the woods within the 0-17, with its high-grade mahogany physique, prime, and neck and rosewood fingerboard and bridge, however stored the trim quite simple. The physique has no binding, and fingerboard dots and a small soundhole ring are about the one decorations. Isbell’s 0-17 has the unique Waverly tuners and chipboard case.

When Isbell first went into the studio for Foxes within the Snow, he made some check tracks with a prewar Martin D-18. “Lovely guitar, sounded unbelievable, however it simply ate up the sonic house,” he says. “The place I sing, frequency sensible, is true the place a guitar hits if you’re taking part in chords down on the finish of the neck, and I felt prefer it was getting misplaced. The co-producer, Gena Johnson, felt the identical method, prefer it was simply an excessive amount of guitar for what we wanted—for my voice particularly, not for everyone’s.”

In contrast, the modest 0-17 was good. “That little mahogany Martin felt actually good,” he says. “It match proper within the house the place we wished a guitar to be, and it performs so properly.”

This text initially appeared within the Could/June 2025 situation of Acoustic Guitar journal.