Originally, these guitars came with a pickup and no preamp, but this guitar had a preamp added shortly after it was bought in '87. Unfortunately, the preamp is slightly noisy.

In an attempt to offer lower priced instruments, Martin's line of Shenandoah guitars were built in Japan and then shipped back to the Martin factory in Nazareth PA for painting and final assembly. The practice of bi-continental production eventually met it's demise and Shenandoah's were produced entirely in Japan their final 3 years from 1994-1996.

Shenandoah guitars were usually given the model number of the Martin guitar they resembled, superseded by the number 32. For instance the Shenandoah D-1832, is a D-18 copy.