Martin introduced the D-1 dreadnought acoustic in 1993 as part of their 1 Series. The D-1 is an affordable traditional solid wood guitar in the spirit of the Style 15 and Style 17 models that Martin introduced during The Great Depression. The Dreadnought design (refined by Martin in the early-1900s) was first produced in 1931 bearing the Martin brand name. The first two models were named the D-1 and D-2 that soon became the legendary D-18 and D-28 models.

The initial Martin One Series D-1 was made from 1993 to 2006. The Martin D-1 model was reintroduced from 2009 until around 2012 but with some changes: the rosewood fingerboard and bridge was changed to a morado fingerboard and bridge on these later models (a similar feel to rosewood but slightly lighter looking). The later models had Stratabond necks (a type of multilaminate) and solid sapele back and sides (the 1993-2006 models had mahogany necks, laminated mahogany sides and solid mahogany backs). The pickguard was changed from tortoiseshell to black on these later D-1s and a slightly different top bracing pattern was used.