Acoustic Guitar NAMM 2026 Report

We live in interesting times, to say the least, and the 2026 NAMM Show, held January 20-24 in Anaheim, California, certainly bore that out. While the event has regained much of its pre-pandemic energy and din of sound, the overall mood—at least around the acoustic instruments—felt quieter and more restrained, less about spectacle and more about substance.

The C.F. Martin & Company display is always a highlight for steel-string aficionados, and as usual, the celebrated guitar maker brought a wide range of instruments. Many were dependable workhorses, but there were also a few usual showpieces—among others, a pair of dreadnoughts painted by artist Robert Goetzl and the Custom Shop M Paisley Ember Burst, which recalled the striking finishes seen on certain Fender electrics over the years. Also notable were two Molly Tuttle signature models—the D-18 and D-X2E—a fitting tribute to one of today’s most influential modern flatpickers.

It’s always a big deal when a boutique company like Collings Guitars introduces a new model, and this year the Austin, Texas–based builder unveiled two variations on its narrow-waisted, 14-fret platform: a C10 Traditional and C-00, each more vintage-voiced than the benchmark C10 and designed to offer punchy, open sounds. At the same time, Collings showed its new DS1 A HC—a 12-fret dreadnought in the recent Hill Country series. (Stay tuned for a full review in the Spring 2026 issue.) Though not acoustic, it was also thrilling to hear guitarist-composer Adam Levy play his solo piece “Clandestino (Elegy for a Cheesemonger),” incidentally transcribed in the November/December 2022 issue, on a 71 Pine T-style electric in the Collings booth.

All of these instruments seemed to favor tone over bling, and that sensibility carried across the floor. In recent years, makers like Bourgeois Guitars and Santa Cruz Guitar Company often brought especially ornate, eye-catching pieces, but models such as the Bourgeois Country Boy VTD or Hogtop 00-14 and Santa Cruz’s limited “greatest hits” collection—including a 1929 00, Firefly, and others, available at special low prices—felt comparatively spartan and purpose-driven.

Breedlove Guitars, which in recent years had featured a dense lineup of models, many of them made overseas, appeared to scale things back with a greatly simplified collection—just three body styles (dreadnought, parlor, and concert), all built with more traditional, though still sustainably sourced, tonewoods, in Breedlove’s Oregon workshop.

The same trend was evident among larger makers. Gibson, instead of a splashy display, showed understated instruments like its satin-finished Century series. And in place of its usual showstopping limited editions, Takamine focused on classic designs such as the Pro Series P10DC, a revitalization of an early model with refined 42-style trim.

Walking through NAMM for hours, across displays large and small, what stood out just as much as the guitars themselves were the sounds coming from the booths—so many players, many of them young, admiring new instruments, trading licks, and clearly invested in the instrument. Whatever broader uncertainties may be in the air, the acoustic guitar itself feels anything but fragile.