™

PG. 40

PG. 48

PG. 10

PG. 22

VOLUME 1 | 2014
 C. F. Martin’s signature on a canceled check from 1856

3 | MARTIN ™
 SET LIST
6. TAKE IT FROM THE TOP
A Word from Chris

8. LINER NOTES
Letters from the Community

10. THE NEW PIONEERS:

SETTING A NEW STANDARD
By Jonathan R. Walsh

18. NORTH STREET ARCHIVE

22. ED SHEERAN: 15 MILLION ALBUMS

SOLD & HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED
By Jeff Simpson

26. NEW RELEASES

40. 180 YEARS OF MUSIC TRADITION

New Martin App Charts
Acoustic Music History
By Daniel Long

48. BUDDY GUY TAKES THE

BLUES FULL CIRCLE
Martin Interviews Chicago Bluesman
By Marshall Newman

52. FROM THE WORKBENCH

54. INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR

By Peter Szego

62. REVISITING VINTAGE TONE

New Martin Retro™ Strings
By Omer Leibovitz

66. THE 1833 SHOP ®

68. IN MEMORIAM
Kitty Wells & George Jones

70. SOMETHING OLD

4 | MARTIN ™
5 | MARTIN ™
 TAKE IT FROM THE TOP
A WORD FROM CHRIS
Dear Martin Enthusiast,
  Welcome to the first edition of Martin —The
™
Journal of Acoustic Guitars. You may be familiar
with The Sounding Board, a publication we
produced two times a year to coincide with
the two NAMM shows we attend. We decided
to consolidate these publications into one
broader and deeper look at what is going on
at the Martin Guitar Company.
  Last year, we celebrated our 180 anniversary.
th
Not quite as exciting as our 175,th but still
significant. In fact, while there wasn’t as
much public hoopla around our 180,th it was
an important opportunity for those of us who
work at the company to pause and reflect
on our past, present and future. In fact, my
colleagues are already excited about the
tremendous celebration we can have in 2033!
6 | TAKE IT FROM THE TOP
  I have to tell you how proud and amazed I
am at the conclusions drawn in the spectacular
publication of the book Inventing the American
Guitar. This project has taken several years.
While I had an inkling of what was being
discussed by the scholars who were investigating
my great-great-great grandfather’s work, it
wasn’t until I began to read the proofs for
the book that I began to grasp the profound
influences he had on today’s modern acoustic
guitar. I don’t want to give away the plot, so I
encourage you to get a copy of the book.
  Speaking of books, there is also a new book
out about the Martin ukulele. Who would have
thought that the company would be in the
midst of the third ukulele boom in its history?
  Meanwhile, back at the ranch (well, actually,
the factory), we have been busy responding to
the demand for more and more Martin guitars,
thanks to a continued resurgence of acoustic
music and the singer-songwriter. This is an
exciting time to be an acoustic guitar builder.
When popular artists embrace Martin guitars
to ply their craft, it is good for business.
  Our goal continues to be to try and find the
balance between the old and the new in our
ongoing effort to build the perfect guitar. We
are closer than we ever have been to that
elusive, but worthwhile, goal.
  I hope you enjoy this publication. Remember to
come and visit us any time you are near Nazareth.
Sincerely,
C. F. Martin IV
Chairman & CEO
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
 MARTIN
™

THE JOURNAL OF ACOUSTIC GUITARS

PUBLISHER C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.

VOLUME 1 | 2014
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Amani Duncan
EDITOR Dick Boak

DESIGN & PRODUCTION Spark (sparkcreatives.com)

ART DIRECTOR Denis Aumiller
DESIGNER Laura Dubbs
ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Joe Iacovella
COPYWRITER Scott Byers
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Pat Lundy
PRINTING Payne Printery

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dick Boak, Jonathan R. Walsh,

Jeff Simpson, Daniel Long, Marshall Newman, Peter Szego,
Omer Leibovitz

PHOTOGRAPHY John Sterling Ruth, Mandee Taylor,

Justin Borucki, Donna Hunter, Kevin Mazur, Jimmy Williams,
Mike Tomaskovic

MARTIN ™ THE JOURNAL OF ACOUSTIC GUITARS

Business Office
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
P.O. Box 329, Nazareth, PA. 18064
P. 610.759.2837
F. 610.759.5757
www.martinguitar.com

© 2014 C. F. Martin & Co., Inc., Nazareth, PA.

All rights reserved.

M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M | 7
 LINER NOTES
LETTERS FROM THE COMMUNITY
Dear Martin Guitar,
I am an avid Backpacker user. I have a brand
new one and want to let you know that I love
the little guitar. In fact, I had it customized with
style 45 hexagon inlays! After I hiked to the top
of the mountain with my paraglider, I played
some songs to pass the time in the beautiful
meadow while I waited for a good launch
window. It was quite a flight and I suspect
this has not been done before!
8 | LINER NOTES
For my day job, I have an acoustical engineering
research office where I can measure the attack,
sustain and surface vibration of instruments.
This is especially valuable when comparing
vintage instruments with modern day replicas.
I certainly share your passion for guitars.
Sincerely,
Peter Karsten
Braunschweig, Germany
ONCE THE MUSICAL
Dear Chris Martin,
This great photo from the Broadway show
Once was taken recently on set at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in Manhattan.
C. F. Martin & Co. is a sponsor of the popular
show and Martin guitars are prominently
featured, as they certainly should be!
Sincerely,
Emily Bender
New York, NY
ABC’s HIT TV SHOW NASHVILLE

Dear friends at Martin,

Here’s a show worth seeing—ABC’s
Nashville! The show’s lead actor, Charles
Esten (shown to the right with co-star Hayden
Panettiere), made his Grand Ole Opry debut at
the Ryman Auditorium this past November with
his Martin guitar. Charles performed “Back
Home,” a song he has performed on Nashville,
and a Buck Owens song, “Act Naturally.” As
a Martin fan, I was glad to hear that the show
has been picked up for a full season. It’s a hit
and your beautiful guitars are all over it!

Sincerely,
A music lover in Nashville

“I CAN’T TELL YOU WHAT IT MEANS TO US

OVER HERE TO HAVE MUSIC IN OUR LIVES!”

U.S. ARMY PILOT

Dear Mr. Martin,

Our company recently acquired one of your
Little Martin ® guitars. We really love this little
instrument and I can assure you, it gets a great
deal of use. I can’t tell you what it means to us
over here to have music in our lives!

Regards,
Allen Steich
B. Co. 4-3 AVN
Kandahar, Afghanistan

M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M | 9
 ™
10 | MARTIN
FACTORY STANDARD
   When Henry Ford pulled apart the innards of steam engines in his late teens, grease under his nails and on his
clothes, it is easy to wonder if he had an inkling of the brand he’d be building later in life. Or, when Jasper “Jack”
Daniel was learning to work a still, getting to know the smell of sour mash as he got older, did he know how iconic
the square bottle of his whiskey would become? And, when Christian Frederick Martin was apprenticing with
Johann Stauffer in Vienna in the early 1800s, leaving work at the end of every day covered in sawdust, his fingers
sticky with hide glue, could he glimpse the 180-year-long story that he was just beginning? The landscape of
American culture is defined by names: Martin, Ford, Daniel; men and women who breathed life into their ideas in
workshops and garages around the country, but ultimately grew them into something much larger than themselves.
What does it take to carry the seed of an idea, the spark of passion from quiet workbench to noisy assembly line?
How does a company today live up to the name that defined an industry almost two centuries ago?

11 | MARTIN ™
 “THAT’S THE FIRST THING,” HE SAYS, “TO MAKE SURE THAT THE GUITARS WE
ARE BUILDING TODAY ARE AT LEAST AS GOOD AS THE GUITARS THAT WERE BUILT
YESTERDAY, AND ALL THE YESTERDAYS THAT GO BACK 180 YEARS.”
SETTING THE STANDARD
  Before he could introduce the X-bracing
that would one day become the industry
standard, and nearly a century before the
first Dreadnought guitars carried his name,
C. F. Martin Sr. had to build that name into
one that was synonymous with excellence.
C. F. Martin IV, CEO and Chairman of Martin
Guitar, says that this began with one thing
primarily: quality. “I spent a fair amount
of time earlier in my career looking closely
at the guitars that he built originally, the
original New York guitars, and I was, at
that point, impressed by the impeccable
workmanship,” says Martin. “Whatever
drove him to build guitars to that level, I
think that was the point that the standard
was set for everybody else who builds
guitars.” C. F. Martin Sr. learned from
the best—he apprenticed in the famed
Viennese workshop of Johann Stauffer—
and upon returning to his native Germany
was able to use his considerable skill
as a craftsman to create guitars in the
Stauffer style that were unmatched in their
construction. In 1833, however, disputes
with the German Guild system sent him on a
journey that would change his life, and the
sound of American music, forever.
  That year, Frédéric Chopin composed
his Bolero, Op. 19, for Piano. A stirring
piece of music, it is the product of a Polish
composer working in a Spanish style, written
while exiled in France, where he would
spend the rest of his days. The same year,
C. F. Martin Sr. would find himself in a
similar, self-imposed exile, far from his
homeland. In Germany, the Martin family’s
association with the Cabinet Makers Guild
led to a protracted dispute with the Violin
Makers Guild, who called Martin Sr. and
12 | THE NEW PIONEERS
his ilk “bunglers” and “nothing more than
mechanics,” and fought to ban them from
creating guitars at all, believing that only
Violin Makers should have that honor. In
order to pursue his passion, Martin Sr. and
his family, boarded a ship bound for the
United States, away from his homeland and
to the place where he, too, would spend
the rest of his days. He arrived in New York
City in November, set up shop near what is
now the mouth of the Holland Tunnel, and
began to use the craft he had mastered in
Europe to create something truly unique.
Eventually, like Chopin, Martin would draw
inspiration from Spain: “In New York City,
C. F. began to blend the Stauffer-influenced
Viennese guitar designs with Spanish-styled
instruments ordered by his distributor
John Coupa,” Martin says, “and with the
inclusion of his own unique innovations,
a new and refined guitar emerged.” He
eventually moved his company from a
w o r k s ho p in New York to a factory in
Nazareth, Pennsylvania—a move that would
be the first step on the road that took Martin
from being one of many talented luthiers to
becoming an American institution.
  It was in Pennsylvania, in the early 20 th
century, that technology pushed a crucial
change for Martin. “The company made the
transition, as did other guitar makers,
from gut to steel strings,” says Martin.
“That point,” he says, “that was sort of the
stake in the ground where we say, okay,
this is an American instrument. This is
a n evolving design, a p urely American
guitar.” The C. F. Martin & Co. guitar
company was now entering the territory
it would later come to define, creating a
series of guitar designs and innovations
that would eventually supersede all others
in the field of guitar manufacturing.
BUILDING A LEGEND
   As history has taught, however, innovators
do not always become institutions (R.I.P.
Studebaker, Atari); a brand needs to pass the
test of time in order to become legendary.
Part of this is shepherding that initial vision
through an intensely competitive marketplace.
“He had competition,” says Martin of his
great-great-great grandfather. “What aspect
of the competition drove him? What aspect
of the competition drove him crazy? Those
are two different things—and maybe the
end result is the same—but he and all of my
ancestors, so far, have managed to, if not
stay ahead of, outlive all of our competitors.”
  As much as we recognize C. F. Martin Sr.
as an innovator and a master luthier, he did
much more than build the finest guitars in
the country: he developed the nation’s finest
guitar factory as well. While there are those
who would criticize any product made on
as large a scale as Martin does today (over
100,000 guitars per year), “you can’t make
them better in your studio,” says Martin.
“You might make them as good as we can
in your garage, but nobody can make a
better guitar than we can.” That dedication
to q ua lity is par t of h ow th e co mpany
was able not only to get off the ground
180 years ago, but also to survive the Civil
War, the Great Depression, two world wars,
and countless financial crises. “A big part
of it is competing with ourselves,” says
Martin, “and knowing that we can’t be the
generation that lets down all of the previous
generations of Martin employees.”
   “That’s the first thing,” he says, “to make
sure that the guitars we are building today
are at least as good as the guitars that were
built yesterday, and all the yesterdays that
go back 180 years.”
BUILDING A LEGEND
  The key to becoming a part of this musical
heritage, says Greene, lies in the players:
“Our guitars are so heavily influenced by
the artists who play them. A lot of our best
innovations come from the needs of artists;

These proud workers were
photographed at Martin’s North
Street factory circa 1939. Referred
to as “the machine room,” this
is where raw wood was cut and
processed into guitar parts.
The lumber in the foreground is
freshly resawn mahogany for
Style 18 backs and sides.
  “I think a part of it is longevity,” says Fred
Greene, Martin’s General Manager of Guitars,
about the company’s success. “When you
think of country music, or bluegrass, or folk,
or blues, or rock ‘n’ roll for sure, the sound
that you’re hearing is a Martin guitar, and
then that starts to tell you that’s what that
music sounds like. Everything else is going
to be measured against that.”
  Becoming a standard, then, is not simply
a matter of creating the finest instrument
availab le, b ut a lso a b o ut b e c o m i n g
a n integral part of the greater musical
landscape. “I’ve just seen so many people
and kids become curious about the music
itself,” says Martin. “And they begin to
do some research and say, ‘I’m going
to look at some of my musical heroes,’
and, inevita b ly, in o ur ca se, m o re of te n
t h a n not, you find a connection between
those musical heroes and Martin guitars.
So I think there’s a continuity where, if a
young player says, ‘I’m going to do some
research; I’m really interested in the roots
of this music,’ along the way, they keep
bumping into Martin guitars.”
they’re the ones out there creating new
music; they’re playing our instruments, and
the sound of our instruments starts to be a
signature of that time and place.” This is
as true today as it was when Gene Autry
commissioned the very first top-of-the-line
Martin D-45 back in 1933. As easy as it
is to look at a D-18 or HD-28 today and
appreciate what is now a classic design,
when the Dreadnought was introduced, it
was larger and had smoother curves than
anything the company had produced before.
  Though having someone lend their name
to the success of a particular model or
design is an important part of helping
it become accepted by the wider public,
that relationship is reciprocal. “The
relationship we’ve had with artists is one
of mutual admiration,” says Martin. “And,
generally, it starts when the artist isn’t
wildly successful, famous, or wealthy.
They’re ambitious; they have a talent, and
at some point early in their career, they get
a hold of a Martin guitar—they buy one, or
someone lends them one—and that’s the
point at which they realize the importance

14 | THE NEW PIONEERS

 “AND GUITARS SOUND BETTER AND BETTER THE MORE YOU PLAY
THEM—CERTAINLY OUR GUITARS DO. AND YOU CAN’T SAY THAT
ABOUT EVERY INSTRUMENT. THERE ARE NOT MANY THINGS IN
THIS WORLD THAT GET BETTER THE MORE YOU USE THEM.”

of playing a Martin, in terms of their career.
And so, by the time we get to know of them,
they already know about us. We’re not
looking for people and saying, ‘Hey, can we
pay you to play a Martin, or can we give
you a free Martin?’ Those people who we
want to talk to, they already know about us.
They’ve had a Martin, or several Martins,
and that guitar was there for a long time
with them in terms of their career.”
  But in a century that has seen spinet
pianos, accordions, organs, and
synthesizers come in and out of style,
part of what helps carry the Martin Guitar
name through history is the success of
the industry itself. “It’s such a worldwide
phenomenon, that people want to play
guitar,” says Martin. “I think one of the
reasons that our business is so good is
there’s a reason we are competing with
other people—there’s enough demand and
the customers want choices; they want
alternatives, and that’s a good thing.”
  One of the things that sets acoustic
guitars apart is the unique relationship
musicians have to the guitars themselves.
“There’s more interaction with an acoustic
guitar than with a lot of instruments, from
a musician’s point of view,” says Greene.
“For instance, if I push a key on a keyboard,
it sounds exactly the same as if any
professional musician pushes that key,” he
says. “It’s the same sound coming out. But
it’s not necessarily the same sound that
comes out with a guitar, because it’s all in
the way that your hands play, and feel, and
move, and grip the instrument, and great
guitarists and musicians can get things out
of the instrument that I can’t.”
  Part of this is because guitars, as wooden
instruments, vary from one another by
nature. “Guitars have personalities,” says
Greene. “There are variants in each guitar,
like people. They may look basically the
same, but they’re not the same. And they
change over time; they change with the
way you play them—again, like people.
So they start to take on personalities that
are unique, and you form a real bond with
them, because you kind of personally
go through the same changes, in a weird
way, that guitars do. And guitars sound
better and better the more you play them—
certainly our guitars do. And you can’t say
that about every instrument. There are not
many things in this world that get better
the more you use them.”
The wooden clothespin has served as the
simple tool for gluing the guitar’s interior
ribbon lining since the onset of the company.

M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M | 15
 KEEPERS OF THE FLAME
  Innovation, vision, and dedication to
quality helped get Martin Guitar through
the first 180 years of its existence, and
Martin and Greene feel those same qualities
will get them through the next 180. “We
want to preserve what we’re proud of within
the organization, and certainly with our
guitars,” says Greene, “but throughout the
history of Martin, it’s always been about the
evolution of the instrument—you’re always
trying to make it better. At no point has any
generation really rested and done nothing;
they’ve all tried to move it forward in some
particular way, and I think that’s really
important. You definitely feel a responsibility
to the heritage and the tradition of what we
do; we’re never going to give that up—that’s
just not going to happen.”
  “But,” he adds, “we don’t have to give
it up. I don’t think we have to walk away
from one piece of what we do in order to
do something else; I think we can do them
together. We can always offer a straight-
out D-28, D-18, Dreadnought, 00-42 or
something of that nature; but we don’t
have t o w a lk a w a y , o r g ive t ho s e t hing s
up in o r d e r t o cr e a t e s o m e t hing ne w
t hat a ns w e r s a m us icia n’s ne e d t o d a y ,
because their needs today may be a little
b i t d i ff e r e n t . I’m really excited about the
fact that we live in a time when we can
do those kinds of things, and technology
is pushing us. So it’s not something I’m
worried about—it’s something I’m conscious
of. But I feel very comfortable that we have
the right mix within our organization, to
celebrate where we’ve been and be excited
about where we’re going.”
16 | MARTIN ™
  Just as it did in the past, Martin’s focus
on its players is helping to guide the
company as it moves forward today. “We
don’t introduce changes to our guitars to
make our job easy,” says Greene. “We try
to make adjustments to the instruments
that make them better for the player, that
make the tone better for the player. If we
were simply to go ahead and come up with
some kind of a new neck joint because it
was easier for us to adjust, or it was easier
for us to produce, with no care about how
it sounded, that may help us temporarily,
but in the long run we’d lose what makes
us unique, which is how our guitars sound.
Guitars don’t really have any other purpose,
if you think about it; their only purpose
is to make music. If they’re not making
music or making sound, they’re just
basically giant paperweights.”
  And, as they did in the past, changes
in materials and technology are helping
to inspire the company’s designs as well.
“I think we’re going to become a little more
experimental in terms of the mixing of
tonewoods,” Greene says. “Some of the
traditional tonewoods just aren’t available, or
are available in very limited quantities, so I
think we’re going to have to experiment.”
  While changes in wood availability
(Brazilian rosewood, famously, is no
longer harvested for guitar production) are
seen by some as an obstacle, Greene feels
differently. “It’s definitely an opportunity,”
he says. “There’s a part of me that would
like to have all the old, traditional materials
available; but there’s another part of me
that wonders, if they were still readily
available, would we be so anxious to push
so hard to try new things? Would we rest on
 “WE WANT PEOPLE TO GO OUT THERE AND PICK UP OUR GUITARS,
CREATE BEAUTIFUL MUSIC, TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES
THEM PERSONALLY AND INSPIRES OTHER PEOPLE. THAT IS THE
PRIMARY PURPOSE OF EVERYTHING WE DO.”
our laurels and just be satisfied with what
we have? I look at this as a real opportunity
for us to go out and find things that can
maybe inspire people in a different way.
Technology is pushing us, and the world is
becoming a smaller place; we’re able now to
find woods that we couldn’t find, maybe, in
the 1920s.” In terms of what these changes
might look like, Greene says, “I think our
use of Madagascar rosewood, which is not
a traditional guitar tonewood, and some
of the other rosewoods, for sure, are going
to come into play. This year we’re going to
experiment with Honduran rosewood on
some of our Custom Shop models, and
we’re experimenting with torrefied spruce
tops, which are tops that are basically
heated until the cells collapse, yielding a
more aged tone.”
  Treating those materials with respect,
Greene says, is a big part of making sure
Martin has a successful next century as
well. “We’re certainly way more responsible
in our usage, as I think most industries are,
of the natural resources that are available
to us. It’s in our best interests to make sure
we don’t abuse the resources that we’re
given. And, I think, in the end, it provides
more choices for consumers to find the
piece that speaks to them. Before, you were
very limited: you were getting Brazilian
rosewood, or you were getting mahogany
or maple, that’s it. If you couldn’t get it out
of that, then you were sort of stuck. Now
you have many more choices, whether it
be koa, or ovangkol, or walnut; Cambodian
rosewood, or Honduran rosewood, or
17 | MARTIN ™
Indian rosewood, or Madagascar rosewood;
sipo, sapele—you can go on and on. There’s
something out there, and you never know
when a young guy or girl is going to pick up
a guitar that’s a nontraditional piece of wood,
and go out and create something iconic. And
then, from that point forward, that piece of
wood and that guitar is an iconic instrument.
Forever associated and linked to that time
and period and person. And who knows who
that inspires, and it goes on and on and on."
NEW PIONEERS
 
 
  Martin and Greene talk about it today
with great humility; it is almost as if they
do not realize that they are Martin’s new
pioneers, which we know is not the case.
They are focused, on the one hand, on the
responsibility of history, the “blessing and
the curse,” as Martin puts it, of helming a
company with almost two centuries’ worth
of heritage behind it. But on the other hand,
they are focused on the future, where
new materials, new techniques, and, most
importantly, new players will take them.
The fact that “the more accomplished you
become, the less you think about it and
the more you feel it,” as Martin says, that
feeling is what Martin’s future is all about.
“We create instruments because we want
to change the world,” says Greene. “We
want people to go out there and pick up our
guitars, create beautiful music, to make
something that inspires them personally
and inspires other people. That is the
primary purpose of everything we do.”
 NORTH STREET ARCHIVE
Charlie Anglemire

ANGLEMIRE GUITARS

CUSTOM RESOPHONIC GUITAR

CRAFTED BY CHARLES N. ANGLEMIRE
CIRCA 1910-1920, NO SERIAL #

Charlie Anglemire was a master craftsman
who wo rk e d at Martin from May 1906
through August 1 9 1 7. H i s extraordinary
fascination and experimentation with
d o u b l e s o u n d b o a r d s a nd s us p e nd e d
double bodies most likely contributed to
the Paramount and Model America designs.
This resophonic model, with its lyre-shaped
sound hole and clock-key neck adjustment,
is unique. A secondary spruce frame is
suspended at the middle of the instrument,
supporting a resonator cone. The body has a
figured maple clasp around the top of the sides
that allows the top and back to be separated.

18 | NORTH STREET ARCHIVE

CUSTOM TAROPATCH
CRAFTED BY CHARLES N. ANGLEMIRE
CIRCA 1916, NO SERIAL #

Based on the small Portuguese instruments

that would become the Hawaiian ukulele, this
eight-string taropatch by Charlie Anglemire
(Martin employee from 1906-1917) is the
most unusual example we have ever seen.
The exquisite and ornate layered headstock
and matching “pondelogue” body inlays
are enhanced with an elaborate bridge and
delicately inlaid Handel tuners. The all-
mahogany body is indicative of subsequent
Martin ukulele offerings that would create
significant growth for the company.

MARTINGUITAR.COM | 19
20 | MARTIN ™
 This vintage image from the extensive Martin Archives
shows a worker preparing a rosewood guitar back prior
to the assembly of the rim. This is the earliest known
photograph (circa 1912) of the inside of the original North Street
factory. A batch of larger traditional 000 12-fret bodies is on
the workbench. Martin models continued to grow in size to
compete in volume with the mandolins and banjos of the era.

21 | MARTIN ™

BY: JEFF SIMPSON
All photographs in this article
are courtesy of Justin Borucki.
22 | ED SHEERAN IS JUST GETTING STARTED
ED SHEERAN: 15 MILLION ALBUMS
SOLD & HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED
  On a Sunday night last August, Ed
Sheeran walked on stage at the London
Olympics closing ceremony to perform a
softer version of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were
Here” in front of 3.8 billion viewers. While
he played, a tightrop e w a lk e r w e a r ing a
three-piece suit stepped slowly overhead .
The wire act was used to reenact the
Wish You Were Here album cover with its
iconic photo of two businessmen shaking
hands, one of whom is on fire. But the
image s e e m s more fitting for the plight
o f a y o u ng musician whose career has
skyrocketed in t he s p a n o f a f e w s hort
years in an industry that’s still looking for
footing in the digital era. The metaphor’s
clear: With fame comes the risk of falling in
the charts or slippin g und e r t he w e ig ht of
expectation—of getting burned. Few young
artists handle the spotlight well, but Sheeran
exudes a certain charm and confidence that
suggests he takes it all in stride.
  Sheeran doesn’t look like your typical
pop star. The 22-year-old British singer-
songwriter from Framlingham, Suffolk—a
quiet market town on England’s east
coast known for its thirteenth-cent u r y
medieval castle—readily admits he “doesn’t
look like Justin Timberlake.” His copper hair
is arranged in a controlled, yet messy “bed
head” that boyishly frames his face, giving him
a slightly cherubic look, while his performance
attire almost always consists of hoodies,
t-shirts, blue jeans, and sneakers. His college-
freshman dress style and easy demeanor may
come across as feigned nonchalance, but
his poise, on and off the stage, has an air of
weather-worn honesty: He’s paid his dues.
FROM NOWHERE TO EVERYWHERE
  Sheeran started playing guitar at age
11, and by 16 he had dropped o u t o f s c h o o l
a nd m oved to London with no contacts
and little money. To make a name for
himself, he busked along London’s famous
Grafton Street and played as many shows
as he could get. (He claims to have played
over 300 shows in 2009 alone.) In early
2011, he released an independent EP,
No. 5 Collaborations Project, and used
the Internet and word-of-mouth marketing
t o b uild a nd g ro w hi s f a n b a se. The EP
e ve nt ua lly c a ug ht t he a t t ent i o n o f b o t h
Elton John and Jamie Foxx, and Sheeran
w a s s ig ne d to Asylum Records, who
released his debut record, + (pronounced
Plus), later that same year. + would go on
to be certified quintuple platinum in the
U.K. and earn Sheeran two BRIT Awards
(the British equivalent of the American
Grammys) for Best Male Solo Artist and
Best British Breakthrough Act. This is a lot
of attention for an artist to receive only
a mere six months after his debut record
drops, but watch Sheeran perform and the
hype starts to make sense.
  During the BRIT Awards, one of Sheeran’s
first major live performances, he stood on
 Ed S heeran with his Signature
LX1E Little Martin ® Guitar.

a small black stage surrounded by candlelit

tables and guests dressed to the nines
in designer apparel. The stage floor was
transparent and flickered with computer
images projected from underneath that
accompanie d addi ti on al an i mati o n s
displayed on a digital backdrop. And in
the middle of all the techno-wizardry,
Sheeran, dressed down in a green t-shirt
and holding his staple LX1E Little Martin ®
guitar, delivered a solo performance of
his hit single “Lego House.” His minimalist
aesthetic made it seem there was no way he
could live up to the garishness of the stage
dressing and 3D animations swirling around
him, but once he started the first line—I’m
gonna pick up the pieces and build a Lego
house—in his pure tenor voice, it was hard
not to be surprised by his presence and skill.
Beneath his boyish good looks and down-
to-earth personality lies a smart and savvy
songwriter who understands that in the
end, songs matter and appearances don’t:
“A good song is a good song.”
  Sheeran claims he didn’t start off being
comfortable on stage, but his accessibility
and composure as a performer are major
contributing factors to his newfound fame in
the U.S. (+ has gone certified platinum in the
U.S.). In 2012 he made a guest appearance
on Taylor Swift’s album Red, which debuted
at number one on the Billboard 200 chart,
and he co-wrote her hit single “Everything
Has Changed.” On working with Taylor Swift
and writing songs for the British boy band
One Direction, Sheeran says, “It’s healthy
to collaborate an d try n e w th i n gs . I t’ s
been something I’ve tried to do from the
beginning of my career. It’s nice to have cuts
on some of the year’s biggest albums.”
 “IT’S A MASSIVE THING FOR ANY ARTIST TO GET ANY SORT OF SIGNATURE
MODEL FROM ANY GUITAR COMPANY, BUT TO HAVE IT FROM THE TOP
ACOUSTIC GUITAR COMPANY IN THE WORLD WAS A BIG HONOR.”
  Sheera n’ s songwriting, though clearly
ED SHEERAN IS JUST GETTING STARTED
indebted to the acoustic styles of artists
like David Gray and Damien Rice, at times
shows a flare for acoustic/hip-hop mash-ups.
He’s not afraid to rap on + with numbers
like “U.N.I.” or “You Ne e d M e, I Don’t
Need You,” which includes, of all things,
beatboxing. He cites Eminem and A$AP
Rocky as influences in equal measure with
Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.
  But it’s the more serious storytelling
numbers on + —“Small Bump,” in which he
recounts the story of a friend’s miscarriage
in the first-person, or the lead single,
“The A Team,” which tells the story of a
drug-addicted young prostitute Sheeran
met while playing at a homeless shelter—
that have captivated fans and critics. “The
A Team” was nominated for Song of the
Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where
Sheeran performed it as a duet with Elton
John on piano. He describes the moment as
his “introduction to American [audiences].”
  Ironically, these songs have also been
fodder for his detractors, who question the
authenticity of his songwriting. Appropriation
has historically been troubled water for
singer-songwriters, but Sheeran fearlessly
engages with his material to such a degree
that even if you’re not convinced of his
integrity, you at least have to believe that he
b elieves in the sincerity of his songs, and
in doing so, he casts a sort of subconscious
pop spell over his listeners.
  Despite all the success, Sheeran manages
to stay grounded and loyal to his fans.
During an interview in late 2012 with Studio
Q’s Jian Ghomeshi, Sheeran explained his
views on balancing fame with reality: “No
24 | ED SHEERAN IS JUST GETTING STARTED
matter how big you are, people are only going
to buy your records or come to your gigs if
they like you. It doesn’t matter if you have a
hit record, they’re not going to support you
if you’re a jerk.” Sheeran later backs up his
statement when Ghomeshi asks about the
fact that Music Metric listed + as the most
illegally downloaded album in the U.K. “I am
the most illegally downloaded artist,” Sheeran
says, “but I’m also the most legally streamed
artist and the second most legally bought artist.
My view on that is, I’m on 9.5 million people’s
iPods, which I’m pretty cool with. I didn’t make
the album to go on 10,000 people’s iPods; I
made the album to be universally worldwide
and for everyone to hear.”
GIVING BACK THROUGH MUSIC
  This year marked a new milestone in
Sheeran’s mission to give back to his
fans and community. In July, Martin
Guitar, the family-owned company that’s
been making some of the world’s most
renowned acoustic guitars since 1833,
announced the launch of the LX1E Ed
Sheeran Signature Edition. Since he was
16, Sheeran has exclusively played the
standard LX1E Little Martin ® guitar, known
for its portability and affordable price tag.
“I got a Little Martin® because I didn’t have
a fixed place to live,” Sheeran says. “I was
hopping on the train every day and walking
a lot, so I used it as a rucksack a nd kept
everything in the bag, and it was a very
p ortable thing. It didn’t feel oversized at all.”
  The LX1E Ed S heeran Signature Ed it io n
features Ed’s personal artistic details on
the headstock, including his signature
 LX1E Ed S heeran Signature
Editio n Ma r t in Guita r

fluorescent orange “+” plus sign and

“est. 1991,” which represent the name of his
platinum-selling album and year Sheeran was
born, respectively. Additionally, the “+” plus
sign logo is laser-etched on the solid sapele
top, which signifies the title of his platinum-
selling debut album.“It’s a massive thing for
any artist to get any sort of signature model
from any guitar company, but to have it from
the top acoustic guitar company in the world
was a big honor,” Sheeran says.
  The Signature Edition is listed at
$599.00 MSRP, with one hundred
percent of Sheeran’s portion of the sales
donated to EACH (East Anglia’s Children’s
Hospices). EACH aims to raise around
six million pounds each year from public
donations to support families and care
for children and young people with life-
threatening conditions across the U.K.
Sheeran’s mother volunteers at EACH,
which is located near his hometown. “I’ve
worked with children’s hospices arou nd
the world,” Sheeran says, “but [this] one’s
my local one, and I think it’s important to
give back to the area you’re from.”
  Sheeran spent the summer of 2013 on tour
with Taylor Swift and has written material
for a new album, which he’s currently
recording. It’s clear that the Ed Sheeran
brand is trending on a global level and
shows no sign of slowing down anytime
soon. He’s an effortless performer, a catchy
songwriter, a charitable celebrity, an d, by
all accounts, a genuinely n i ce and funny
guy. Can it all last? Only time w i l l te ll, but
ask Sheeran dire c tl y an d he’s perfectly
clear: “It’s been a fantastic journey so far.
I feel like it’s just starting.”
 NEW RELEASES

OM-ECHF NAVY BLUES

LIMITED EDITIONS
  The OM-ECHF Navy Blues is the third in a series
of collaborations between C. F. Martin & Co., Eric
Clapton and Eric’s multitalented friend/associate
in Japan, Hiroshi Fujiwara. Prior ECHF models
included the popular “Bellezza Nera” (Black Beauty)
and the “Bellezza Bianca” (White Beauty). While
these two models featured a shorter 24.9" scale
length, this OM edition incorporates the longer
25.4" scale for added string tension and tonal
projection. The neck and body are lacquered and
polished with a striking dark navy coloration
atop East Indian rosewood back and sides and a
European spruce soundboard. Each OM-ECHF Navy
Blues guitar includes an interior label, individually
numbered and personally signed by Eric Clapton,
Hiroshi Fujiwara, Dick Boak and C. F. Martin IV.
www.martinguitar.com/new

ERIC CLAPTON

Photo: Kevin Mazur

26 | NEW RELEASES
27 | MARTIN ™
 CS-00S-14
The CS-00S-14 is a premium Style 42 12-fret
slotted-head fingerstyle model, crafted with
rare Honduran rosewood back and sides for
resonant tone, a torrefied (temperature aged)
Swiss spruce top and an ultra-lightweight,
nonadjustable carbon fiber neck reinforcement.
Featuring unobtrusive plug-and-play Fishman
Aura VT electronics, only 114 of these exclusive
instruments will be offered worldwide.
www.martinguitar.com/new
LIMITED EDITIONS

28 | MARTIN ™
 SHOW SPECIAL

SSC-D35-14
  O ffered as a 2014 NAMM Show Special
exclusive to the Canadian marketplace.
Designed in collaboration with Martin’s
Can adi an di s tri bu tor, Kief Music, t he
SSC-D35-14 features a Canadian red spruce
soundboard with certified cherry sides and
back wings with Pacific big leaf flamed
maple center wedge. The cherry is toned
in red, giving the illusion of the Canadian
flag and logo. A matching maple heel cap
includes a laser engraved maple leaf. An
uncirculated Canadian beaver nickel is
inlaid and encased as ornamentation for
the ebony veneered headstock.
www.martinguitar.com/new

29 | MARTIN ™
 SHOW SPECIAL

2014 NAMM SHOW SPECIAL

SS-000S-14
  Offered as a 2014 NAMM Show Special limited
to no more than 30 premium instruments,
the SS-000S-14 is a breathtaking traditional
12-fret design crafted with rare, highly figured
Claro walnut top, back, sides and neck. A classic
floral and vine inlay motif is executed in thin
veneers of tonally viable aluminum, beautifully
designed and engraved by master engraver Tira
Mitchell. A thinly dimensioned top, supported
with Adirondack red spruce bracing and hide
glue body construction, yields a surprisingly
balanced and brilliant fingerstyle sound.
www.martinguitar.com/new

30 | MARTIN ™
 15 SERIES

D-15 M BURST
  The D-15M Burst, constructed with
genuine mahogany top, back, sides and
neck, is accented with beautifully toned
prewar mahogany-top shading.
www.martinguitar.com/new

31 | MARTIN ™
 000-28K AUTHENTIC 1921
  Based on a pristine 1921 000-28K from the
Martin Museum collection, this slotted-head
MARQUIS COLLECTION

12-fret is a completely faithful re-creation of the

original, featuring flamed Hawaiian koa top,
back and sides, hide glue construction and a
hand-shaped neck without a truss rod. It is
offered with Martin Silk and Steel strings.
www.martinguitar.com/new

32 | MARTIN ™
 D-28 AUTHENTIC 1937
  Perhaps the most revered vintage
D-28s are the ones created in 1937 with
forward-shifted, hand-scalloped X-bracing,
Adirondack red spruce soundboard
and a 1ƒ" neck width. This addition to
the Authentic Series is a re-creation
of the original 1937 model offered with
Madagascar rosewood back and sides.
www.martinguitar.com/new

33 | MARTIN ™
 RETRO SERIES

000-18E RETRO
  Martin’s groundbreaking Retro Series
represents the most significant advancement
of our era in amplified acoustic sound. Based on
a beautiful 1940 14-fret 000-18 “donor” guitar
from the Martin Museum collection, this 24.9"
short scale model produces clear and expressive
response for stage or studio use. With modern
performance and playability, the 000-18E
Retro offers the visual and tonal integrity of the
mahogany auditorium guitars from the prewar era.
www.martinguitar.com/new

34 | MARTIN ™
 D-35E RETRO
  Chris Martin's vision for the Retro Series is to
perfectly capture the mystique and tonal emotion of
priceless, pristine and well-aged Martin guitars. With
electronic imaging contributed from a 1967 vintage
D-35 “donor” guitar, the resulting acoustic and
amplified tone is projective, balanced and resonant.
Classic and enhanced D-35 appointments include a
three-piece back, black pickguard, ivoroid bindings and
a certified European spruce soundboard with thin ©"
width bracing. The visual appeal of the original D-35 is
captured and blended with a High Performance Neck®
taper for easy action and enhanced playability.
www.martinguitar.com/new

35 | MARTIN ™
 PERFORMING ARTIST SERIES

GPCPA4 SHADED
  The GPCPA4 Shaded (left) and DCPA4 Shaded (right)
Grand Performance and Dreadnought cutaway models
are warmly shaded-top versions of the Performing Artist
Series GPCPA4 and DCPA4 models, respectively.
www.martinguitar.com/new

36 | MARTIN ™
 DCPA4 SHADED

37 | MARTIN ™
 ROAD SERIES

DRSGT
  The DRSGT (left) and 000RSGT (right) additions to
Martin’s affordable Road Series feature 14-fret neck-to-body
construction with polished gloss Sitka spruce tops. Each
comes equipped with Fishman sonitone electronics with
USB. The USB port allows for easy plug and play with
today’s computer based recording packages. Both models
feature solid sapele back and sides and necks carved from
sipo, a close relative of mahogany. These newly evolved
models emulate the appearance, integrity and tone of the
Martin Style 18 models. www.martinguitar.com/new

38 | MARTIN ™
 000 RSGT

39 | MARTIN ™
180 Zoom in.
Take a seat.
Scroll through the archives.

by daniel long

  Picture a grayed Woody Guthrie addled by shaking

hands and quivering vocal chords, stewing in the dingy,
sunless corridors of Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.
He finds himself involuntarily committed to a state asylum
in New Jersey, separated from his wife and kids (for their
protection, precautionary), and ponders everything that
came before. He remembers the dust coming off the
quaint prairie hills of Okemah—the house that burned, the
sister who burned. He remembers a black woman and her
son, lynched and hanging beneath a bridge. He recalls his
own father—a member of the revived Ku Klux Klan who
had helped that mother and son hang from that bridge—
being burned by a coal-oil fire before taking off toward better
things in Texas. And he remembers his own mother being
taken away to the Oklahoma Hospital for the Insane to be
treated for the same nervous disorder for which he has
been committed, the Huntington’s disease never to leave
and the mother never to return. And now, unable to hold
a pen or a guitar or to even rightly swallow, Guthrie is
lifted only by the occasional trip to the outside world to
commiserate with family and friends. Memory is a queer
sort of thing, both for its blessing and its curse, the way
it whispers toward us of an old life derived of sweeter,
less bitter times. Picture Woody Guthrie, a man who had
grabbed folk music by the throat with a brimming country
heart and a mahogany guitar etched with the words “This
Machine Kills Fascists,” waiting for an orderly to come or for
a visitor to arrive, for anything that would pass the time.

40 | MARTIN ™
   North Street production, circa 1958. Fitting the neck to the body dovetail joint is
perhaps the most difficult job in the making of a Martin guitar. Here the neck of a 00-17
is being final fit by Walter Kist before hide gluing. Photo courtesy of Sonja Zapf-Learn.

41 | MARTIN ™
 Woody Guthrie owned many Martin guitars, among them
the occasional mahogany topped model of the type popular
during the post depression years. This photo was taken in
June of 1940 at the Highlander Folk School in Kentucky.
Photo courtesy of The Woody Guthrie Archives.

  And now picture young Robert Zimmerman,

a liberal arts student and fraternity pledge
at the University of Minnesota, killing the
clock by leafing through a borrowed copy
of Guthrie’s autobiography, Bound for
Glory. Born to a Jewish family—his father
owned a furniture store but had been a
semi-professional baseball player before
contracting polio—Zimmerman borrows
not only books but also cigarettes and
clothes, whatever his friends will spare.
As the semester goes on, the freshman
spends less time studying and more time
performing folk music under the stage name
Elston Gunn, a name he hopes will capture
the American imagination. Zimmerman—or
Gunn or whatever we might know him to be
called—is increasingly less inclined to pick
up his homework, despite his admiration for
the poet Dylan Thomas, and more inclined
to pick up his guitar or flip through the frank
autobiography of the Oklahoman troubadour.
In a few short months, he finds himself as a
college dropout in New York City, not going by
Zimmerman or Gunn but by a new moniker
he has been working—Bob Dylan—as he
announces the following to a sparse crowd
at the Café Wha?: “I been travelin’ around
the country, followin’ in Woody Guthrie’s
footsteps.” In fact, by all accounts, Dylan has
made the move to New York City particularly
to meet Guthrie, whom he knows to be on
his last legs at the psychiatric hospital. After
making new friends in Greenwich Village
and visiting the home of Guthrie’s wife and
children in Queens, Dylan is invited up to
meet Guthrie on one of the fallen star’s
weekend excursions away from the asylum.

42 | MARTIN ™
 “THIS HAS TO DO WITH HOW A PERSON OR A GROUP CAN PLACE FINGERS
AGAINST STRINGS, STRIKE A CHORD, AND CREATE A TUNE SO POWERFUL THAT
THE REVERBERATIONS ACROSS THOSE STRINGS ARE FELT ACROSS PEOPLE AND
ACROSS TIME TO SETTLE INTO THE HEARTS OF MUSIC LOVERS FAR REMOVED.”
By all accounts the two hit it off, and after
their first meeting, Guthrie hands Dylan
a card scrawled almost illegibly with the
simple words “I ain’t dead yet,” inaugurating
a deep relationship that lasted until Guthrie’s
death. Not long after meeting, Dylan shared
a song he had been working on, “Song to
Woody,” and the decaying Guthrie was so
taken by the song that the tune became
one of only two original compositions to
find a home in Dylan’s 1962 debut. Woody’s
behavior and general state of health were
in such a decline that, in those last years,
Dylan became unsurprised by either praise
or harsh admonishment; but in the end Dylan
had this to say about his mentor’s effect on
American music: “The songs themselves had
the infinite sweep of humanity in them…[He]
was the true voice of the American spirit. I
said to myself I was going to be Guthrie’s
greatest disciple.” So great was Guthrie’s
influence on Bob Dylan that the younger
musician copied everything from Guthrie’s
harmonica holder to his hair to his political
inclinations to his rich country twang, leading
Guthrie’s daughter Nora to point out that
many of the quirks and traits that Dylan
imitated on stage did not coincide with her
father as a performer, but were more in line
with the jerks and impediments of speech
or behavior that characterized the disease
that took her father’s life. And it is on this
grand stage—art imitating life, life imitating
death, and young musicians trying to escape
the harsh anxiety of influence—that we look
at a new project by C. F. Martin & Co. that
intends to bring American music alive to a
new generation of enthusiasts.
THE POWER OF INFLUENCE
  More a student of Dylan Thomas than of Bob
Dylan, a literary editor of great historic merit
once told me that the greats have a way of
finding one another, of communing with one
another—of speaking to one another across
the bounds of both space and time. Just by
our conversation, he assured me, we were
like one of those parlor games that teenagers
will play to count the degrees of separation
from one Hollywood actor to another—alone,
neither of us was more than four degrees
from Ernest Hemingway or David Foster
Wallace or Toni Morrison. What he was trying
to say, I think, was that the world of making
art is surprisingly small, and that for every
anecdote of a young Bob Dylan meeting
his Oklahoma idol, we are confronted with a
large family lineage of American musicians
and influencers who are shaded by one another,
entangled, s e p a r a t e d by a smaller degree
than might be rightly imagined considering
the wide range of American music. Woody
Guthrie, for example, was able to deeply
influence a young Bob Dylan, who, in turn, is
credited by some biographers as introducing
the Fab Four to marijuana. Jimi Hendrix—no
stranger to cannabis himself, if archival footage
from Paris is to be believed—related to Rolling
Stone that he was originally supposed to be
on the Magical Mystery Tour, and it is well
known now that Hendrix sent a telegram
to Paul McCartney asking him to be part of a
super group featuring Hendrix, McCartney,
and the young jazz icon Miles Davis. Hendrix,
in turn, had a surprising but tangible influence
on The Beastie Boys, whose frontman Adam
Yauch went on to inspire Eminem, who later
discovered and signed the rapper 50 Cent.
  Within a handful of turns, the careful student
of music is able to identify a tangible link
between Woody Guthrie and 50 Cent, paying
no mind to other connections such as Guthrie’s
friendship with “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who
was a primary influence of Janis Joplin as well
as Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, who covered “In the
Pines” during the band’s 1993 MTV Unplugged
performance. It pays no heed to the fact that
Dylan was the lover of Joan Baez for a time
and makes no mention of any of the young
musicians with whom Dylan toured or rightly
inspired at the height of the Urban Folk
Revival. Despite all evidence to the contrary,
however, this article has very little to do
with deifying or rectifying the legacy of one
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie or his immaculate
student. This has to do with how a person or a
group can place fingers against strings, strike
a chord, and create a tune so powerful that
the reverberations across those strings are
felt across people and across time to settle
into the hearts of music lovers far removed.
MARTINGUITAR.COM | 43
 Hank Williams’ D-18 Martin Guitar, 1947, Serial #98611
It’s likely that Hank Williams personally purchased this distinctive Martin D-18,
featured in many of his promotional photos, from Arts Music Shop in Montgomery,
Alabama, in March of 1947. Already having attained a degree of fame with the Drifting
Cowboys, Hank performed with this guitar in his subsequent shows on the Louisiana
Hayride and later during his famed years in Nashville. Photo: C. F. Martin Archives

CREATING MUSIC’S FAMILY TREE This first-level map of genres, however, is

This intersection of musical influence and
history is where an exciting new project by
C. F. Martin & Co. is beginning to take shape to
reach a whole new spectrum of music lovers.
With the help of music historians, performers,
and guitar aficionados, Martin is developing
an online, interactive archive featuring the
last 180 years of American musical history.
Part family tree and part interactive historical
map, this online feature begins with both the
British Isle roots and the African-American
roots of American music and branches off
to show how both the blues and rockabilly,
for example, paved the way for the British
Invasion. This first-level map illustrates how
genres branched away or converged toward
one another, decade by decade, to help music
lovers better understand some of the musical
connections that are often unknown to the
casual fan. Some music fanatics, for example,
understand the importance of steel guitars
in the history of blues and country music but
overlook that these steel instruments largely
found their way into popular culture as a
result of country and blues musicians sitting
in clubs, waiting to take the stage, and
admiring the Hawaiian slack-key slide guitar
at the height of Hawaiian music’s popularity
in the early 1900s. It follows the path from
African-American spirituals to the rise of
Gospel to the beginnings of R&B, perhaps
illuminating the reason why many of America’s
greatest R&B singers (from Sam Cooke to
Aretha Franklin) were actually the sons and
daughters of ministers, who grew up singing
the songs of their parents and grandparents,
but who also sought to imbue those sounds
with fresh, contemporary meaning.
just the beginning. The online interface of the
musical family tree is designed much like the
online maps we use at home when navigating
to and from a desired destination. The user
can click on an area of the musical family
tree (for example, where rock ‘n’ roll and
popular country intersect) to zoom in and
find information about individual performers
or groups and how they changed the face of
music. A click on the timeline between folk
and the urban folk revival, circa 1940-1950,
will give the viewer an option to click on
Woody Guthrie or his friend Pete Seeger
to learn more about their lives and musical
stylings. This rollover feature will provide bios
and pictures as well as musical samplings
from most of the performers included. Along
the way, the viewer will also find Martin Guitar
“Historical Landmarks,” such as Elvis Presley
bursting onto the music scene, playing his
1942 D-18 or Martin’s 1916 design of their
first “Dreadnought” guitars. This family tree
of American musical history coincides with
C. F. Martin & Co.’s 180 th anniversary, but
make no mistake: This is a gift for all music
lovers, regardless of instrument or guitar
affiliation. For every reference to a performer
like Woody Guthrie (who favored smaller
mahogany guitars like the 000-18, 0-18,
or 0-15) or Eric Clapton (who favors Martin
000-sized guitars almost exclusively), there
are a host of others who favored the quivering
strings of pianos or vocal cords or rival
guitars. Who can deny the greatness of Lead
Belly, whose iconic Stella Jumbo 12-string
made him a hit (but who also dabbled with a
Martin six-string on more than one occasion,
just for the record)?

™
44 | MARTIN
180 YEARS OF MUSIC TRADITION
 MAKING MUSIC, MAKING HISTORY
C. F. Martin & Co.’s creation story is well
known and does not bear repeating, but, at
the heart of this musical timeline, it is clear
Martin believes that music is the result of
one generation influencing another and feels
pride in helping that process along. It is very
possible that no American guitar can make
such a sturdy claim to the development of
American music, and you cannot blame the
company for taking great pride in pictures
of Bob Dylan playing a Martin D-28 at the
concert for Bangladesh in 1971 or images of
cowboys like Tex Ritter and Gene Autry—Roy
Rogers playing his OM-45 Deluxe. Leo Fender
adding electronic components to a Martin,
leading to the proper birth of the electric
guitar. You cannot blame C. F. Martin & Co.
for taking heart in John Lennon and Paul
McCartney playing D-28 guitars while in
India as Paul looks to an interviewer and
says, “Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Braaa, La-La how
the life goes on. That’s all there is so far. We
don’t have any of the words yet.” At every turn
in American history, Martin finds itself there in
tight strings and rosewood: Elvis Presley and
his leather-covered Dreadnought used on most
of his early recordings for Sun Records. Hank
Williams and his D-28. Joan Baez with her 0-45,
playing her name into lights at the Newport
Folk Festival. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
thinking of Kent State as they strum out the
song “Ohio.” A young Kurt Cobain, struggling
to make rent, beating out songs that will
rouse a generation on his D-18 named
“Grandpa.” Don McLean stringing a Martin
while he thinks of friends taken too young,
his heart falling as if from the sky as he sings
himself into history. And then the youngsters
like Dave Matthews and John Mayer—Dierks
Bentley rising from the heat of Arizona. But
this sort of cataloguing is both insufficient and
too much, and one is mindful of the scroll-cut
plaque Frank Henry Martin hung above his
shop: “Non Multa Sed Multum.” “Not many,
but much,” or “Quality, not quantity.”
www.martinguitar.com/music
M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M | 45
 “AND AS WE EXPLORE THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN MUSIC,
WE FIND THAT THE VOICES OF THE MIGHTY DEAD SING
ONLY ONE SONG: I AM LIVING, I AM LIVING, I AM LIVING.”
  As C. F. Martin & Co. works with historians
and archivists to build a proper learning tool
for students of music all over the world, the
team will look to add many features to expand
both the timeline’s scope and functionality.
While the initial timeline will include an
exhaustive overview of American music, the
team plans on adding additional music genres
and artists as part of its second phase, to
be released sometime in 2014. They plan on
expanding the information available about
individual artists by including timelines of
instruments and of works by the artist, song
lists, photo libraries, details of connection and
influence, and many other features, including
an expanded audio player. Social media will
be embedded to allow music lovers from
around the world to share and comment
as well as suggest new artists to include on
the timeline. While Martin is proud of its
rich musical past, it is mindful of how that
past influences both the present and the
future. History tells us that sometimes the
greatest innovations in music and in culture
(from the urban folk revival to the historical
European Renaissance) occur when
people take a look at their roots, at their
struggles, at everything that came before.
Much like a young Bob Dylan looked to the
songs of Woody Guthrie to inject humanity
and meaning into the music of a different
age—and much like Martin has occasionally
retooled its operations by looking back
to rediscover what it adds to American
music—one can hope that this interactive
timeline can play some small part in creating
better listeners, in creating better musicians,
and creating a world in which innovation
begins with a simple but burning curiosity.
46 | 180 YEARS OF MUSIC TRADITION
HISTORY’S LESSONS
  When one looks at the age of wiretapping
and electric-fast communication, the age of
security scares and profit shares and banks
that are too big to fail, it is increasingly hard
not to wonder what Woody Guthrie, with his
humble drawl and guitar designed to kill
fascists, might sing about this land he told
us was ours. One may wonder where those
hippies went who swayed to Joplin and Jimi
Hendrix—where those vast protesters who
sang about love and civil disobedience and
the end of unnecessary war went—to gather
and age before waking up in a world altogether
different from everything they believed before.
The lesson of history is that it is dangerous to
forget: to forget what it takes, to forget where
we come from, to forget the boon of kindness
that can be shared from one person to another.
In kind, it is important to remember great art
and the unlikely hearts who hurt to make it, the
wandering of their minds and the crumbling
details of their lives. Not long ago I went home
to Oklahoma to visit family, and on the way
back to New York I stopped along the way at
the little hamlet of Okemah so that I could see
the place where Woody Guthrie lived the sort
of hurt that allowed him to sing his life. I had
told family and friends—Oklahomans all their
lives—and they admitted they hadn’t rightly
heard of anyone named anything like Woody
Guthrie. I drove into town to see that place
where Woody had written his name in drying
cement and to see that home he had lived in
while his mother was away and where his sister
had burned, and there was nothing to mark the
way. I stopped in a movie rental place—they
still exist—in the main part of town, and the
Dierks Bentley at The Station Inn with his well-worn
Martin D-28. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Williams.
woman behind the counter was happy to
point the direction a few blocks away.
She said, “Lots of folks from out of town these
days. Everyone here was shamed for a long
time. They didn’t want to be associated
with anything like that. They said he was
a Communist and all. But I guess I never
heard anything like that in those songs. Just
a lot of wanting. And hurt.” So I walked the
few blocks to his home and found a grown-
over lot with a lot of stones, built up where
a house might be. I took a rock from what
may have been Guthrie’s bedroom or his
living room or maybe nothing Woody’s at all.
So why remember? Why a timeline or a map
of history? Because sometimes there are
big-hearted people who rise from the dust
of somewhere like Oklahoma to sing songs
too true—too hurtingly shameful—to be
remembered in their time. The old poets have
a legend that when the works of a dead man
are read, something seeps inside his coffin to
warm his heart and rattle his bones. And one
likes to think that, when someone strums
a chord or rattles his vocal cords in song,
some part of that song travels through time
to reverberate in the bones of both the living
and the dead. Let this timeline, this tool of a
modern age, bring musicians back to the heart
of what makes us human, and let music lovers
better understand the hopes and times of the
people who would sing their songs back to
the earth. Woody Guthrie, before succumbing
to illness and being buried in the dirt, gave
Bob Dylan a note to make it clear that he was
not dead yet. And as we explore the history of
American music, we find that the voices of the
mighty dead sing only one song: I am living, I
am living, I am living.
47 | MARTIN ™
 BUDDY GUY
TAKES THE BLUES FULL CIRCLE
BY: MARSHALL NEWMAN
  The blues have taken Buddy Guy from
rural Louisiana to downtown Chicago, from
guitar iconoclast to guitar legend, and from
sideman to star. They also made him a member
of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a six-time
Grammy and twenty-three-time (the most of
any artist) W.C. Handy Blues Award winner
and a Kennedy Center Honoree. As far as the
blues have taken him, Buddy Guy has taken
the blues full circle, back to the acoustic
roots where it, and he, began.
  Being a master showman, Buddy Guy today
plays a Martin guitar much fancier than the
Harmony acoustic (now in the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame) on which he learned to play.
Created with assistance from C. F. Martin
Artist Relations Manager Chris Thomas in
2006, his Martin JC Buddy Guy Blues Guitar
features a cutaway jumbo body, Sitka spruce
top and East Indian rosewood sides and three-
piece back, a plethora of polka dots—a Buddy
Guy signature—in turquoise composite on the
fingerboard, rosette, bridge and bridge pins,
matching turquoise composite C. F. Martin
headstock inlay, his initials at the 12th fret,
and Fishman VT electronics with volume and
tone knobs mounted on the top. Anything but
traditional, the Martin JC Buddy Guy Blues
Guitar is among the rarest of all Martin Custom
Artist Editions, with only 36 built. For Buddy,
his namesake Martin is a tool, which, in recent
years, he has played regularly on tour.
  Guy knows—more than most—the
advantages and perils of being an original.
When he first arrived in Chicago in the late
1950s, his incendiary live performances
made him a favorite among blues greats like
Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter,
48 | BUDDY GUY
and Koko Taylor, but his early record labels
used him mostly as a session guitar player
and limited his own blues recordings to a
handful of singles until the late 1960s.
Admiration for his guitar playing and
performing style by the likes of Eric Clapton,
Jimi Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughan (all of
whom adopted elements of both) propelled
his career in the early 1970s; but the late
1970s and 1980s were tough, and, for several
years, Guy was without a U.S. record label.
He survived by touring nearly nonstop, both
in the United States and Europe. After
opening his Buddy Guy’s Legends nightclub
in Chicago in 1989, his career again took
off; he released a series of superb albums,
won five Grammy Awards, and gained a new
generation of fans. In 2005 he was inducted
into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Guy has stayed busy since the Martin JC
Buddy Guy Blues Guitar debuted in 2006.
In late 2006, he made guest appearances at
two Rolling Stones benefit concerts in New
York that became the movie Shine a Light.
He recorded and released three albums:
2008’s Skin Deep, 2010’s Living Proof, which
won him a sixth Grammy Award for “Best
Contemporary Blues Album,” and 2012’s Live
at Legends, recorded in 2010 just prior to the
nightclub moving to larger quarters nearby.
He appeared in Eric Clapton’s Crossroads
Guitar Festivals in 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013
(he is one of a handful of performers to play
all four Crossroads Festivals).
He wrote—in collaboration with David
Ritz—his autobiography, When I Left Home:
My Story, which garnered excellent reviews
when published in 2012. In February that
year, he joined Mick Jagger, B.B. King, Keb’
Mo’, Gary Clark Jr., and Trombone Shorty
at the White House to celebrate the blues
during “In Performance at the White House:
Red, White and Blues.” In December, he
received a Kennedy Center Honor in a
presentation that featured tributes and
performances by Morgan Freeman, Bonnie
Raitt, and Jeff Beck and Beth Hart.
Last, but by no means least, he released
a new album, Rhythm & Blues, on RCA in
July 2013. Produced by Grammy Award-
winning producer, songwriter, and longtime
collaborator Tom Hambridge, this double
disc masterpiece features first-time studio
collaborations with an A-list of performers,
plus Guy’s own powerful lyrics, heartfelt
vocals, and mesmerizing guitar licks. In
short, it’s pretty impressive, especially for
a man who will be 78 this year!
We caught up with Buddy Guy at the
beginning of his 2013 summer tour, which
hit more than 30 cities in the United States
between June and October. He talked candidly
about his new album, his music, playing
acoustic and his protégé, Quinn Sullivan.

Photo courtesy of
Mike Tomaskovic
 MARTIN & BUDDY GUY

Martin – Tell us about the new album.

Guy – We recorded it down in Nashville. We had so much material we finally divided it into
two discs: The Rhythm and The Blues. The Rhythm is full-throttle rhythm and blues-style
blues; I got to record Junior Wells’ “Messin’ with the Kid” with Kid Rock, “One Day Away” with
Keith Urban, and “What You Gonna Do About Me” with Beth Hart. The Blues disc is classic
blues and includes some of my favorites. I recorded “Evil Twin” with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry,
and Brad Whitford of Aerosmith and “Blues Don’t Care” with Gary Clark Jr.

The new material on Rhythm & Blues was written with my producer, Tom Hambridge. I’d be
talking, reminiscing, and he would stop me and say, “That’s a song.” We’d work out the details
and head into the studio. This album features electric guitar, but if it does well, I plan to put
some acoustic on the next one.

Martin – You’ve played acoustic guitar throughout your career and recorded some classic
albums—like 2003’s Blues Singer—entirely acoustic. Why does the acoustic guitar appeal to you?

Guy – It’s the original guitar, before Leo Fender and Les Paul. It’s traditional. For some songs,
it sounds better. When I’m touring by bus, I play two or three songs on the acoustic each
night. I usually play seated—my acoustic has a balance and shape to be played seated. But
I’ll jump up if I’m feeling it. My mother used to say it’s that old Baptist church thing: if you’re
feeling the spirit, you have to get up.

Martin – Does your Martin guitar get much attention?

Guy – Lots of attention. Kids say “wow”—they’ve never seen one like it.

Martin – So your Martin goes on tour with you?

50 | BUDDY GUY
 “...I TAKE THE MARTIN WITH ME. IF
TIME ALLOWS, I PLAY IT EVERY NIGHT.”

Guy – Absolutely. When I’m the headliner, it’s there. In the beginning, I took it on tour
everywhere. Now I don’t take the Martin on planes—I won’t risk it. But if I’m touring by bus, as
I did this year here and in Canada, I take the Martin with me. If time allows, I play it every night.

On one European tour, when I was still flying with the Martin, the airline wouldn’t check it;
they made me buy a ticket for the guitar. I took it on board and managed to put it in the
overhead. Then the plane got held at the gate, and they announced we were waiting
because a passenger—a “Mr. Guitar”—hadn’t checked in! I had to explain to the crew that
“Mr. Guitar” was already on board.

Martin – You’ve inspired so many musicians over the years. Who inspires you?

Guy – All the players inspire me. I learned nothing from books. I learned from those guys. Martin JC Buddy Guy
Blues Custom Guitar.
Just like everyone who gets their inspiration from me, I get mine from them.
Photo courtesy of Mike
Tomaskovic
Martin – What is the state of the blues?

Guy – The blues are being ignored for airplay and it kinda hurts. Kids are being influenced
by what they hear and what they see, and it isn’t the blues. It isn’t Muddy Waters. The
blues deserve better.

Martin – You have a young protégé now?

Guy – Yeah, Quinn Sullivan. He’s from New Bedford, Massachusetts. I first met him when he
was seven years old. The night I met him, I invited him onstage, and I could not believe his
playing. I unplugged his amp to make sure he wasn’t faking. I brought him to some other
people, and they couldn’t believe it either. He toured with me and I helped him a bit. He is 14
years old now and just released his first album, Getting There.

M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M | 51
 FROM THE WORKBENCH
WE ARE FAMILY
CASSANDRA FRANTZ
  Cassandra Frantz, or Cassie as we love to
call her, is the welcoming face you see every
day when entering the front doors of Martin
Guitar. She has been an employee of the
company for 42 years and worked in the Sales
and Human Resources departments before
becoming the Martin Guitar receptionist.
52 | WORKBENCH
Cassie describes Martin Guitar as her family.
She has experienced hardships in her life
during her years of employment and credits
her Martin family for helping her to persevere.
She enjoys waking up each day and coming
to her Martin home, where she is met with
familiar faces as well as new ones daily.
 CHRIS ECKHART
  A 19-year employee of Martin Guitar, Chris is the
Custom Shop set up technician. One of the highlights
of Chris’s job is being able to play beautifully crafted
instruments before anyone else does. He also finds
HARRY VADYAK it amazing that he gets to set up guitars for artists
  You have probably seen the warm such as The Avett Brothers. Chris loves his career
smile of Harry Vadyak during a Martin at Martin and thoroughly enjoys playing a part in
Guitar factory tour. He is a two-year making “America’s Guitar” the best.
employee of the company who works
as a finish inspector and has also spent
time as a finish sander. Harry finds pride
knowing that his work helps make the
MICHAEL DICKINSON
guitars that positively impact someone’s
  Michael Dickinson is a 23-year veteran of the
happiness. Harry describes the Martin
company and nicknamed the “Martin Oracle.”
culture as a family environment that
Michael has worked in numerous departments,
continuously offers new opportunities
such as the Sawmill and Customer Service, and
for him and all coworkers.
is the current buyer of exotic and sustainable
wood. He has traveled to countries like Belize,
Cameroon, and Tanzania for Martin business.
Michael finds that the most rewarding part of
his job is walking through the Custom Shop
CHRIS POSTMA
or Final Inspection and seeing the wood he
  As a final inspector, Chris makes sure the
purchased on a finished product.
finished product is perfect before it lands in
the hands of its owner, the customer. He has
been a Martin Guitar employee for a little over
a year and chose his job because of his deep
love of music and the daily teamwork at the
factory. Chris loves knowing that he is bringing
music and joy to the community.

JOE MURANTE
  At the young age of 13, Joe Murante fell in love with
Martin Guitar while on a factory tour. When he walked
into the plant, he remembers the smell and how much
everyone enjoyed their work. He started his career
at Martin Guitar right out of high school in 1969. He
feels so at home while at work that he says, “If you
love what you do, you never work a day.” He currently
works as a neck fitter, but has been a part of many
departments during his 44-year tenure.
 INVENTING THE
AMERICAN GUITAR
THE PRE-CIVIL WAR INNOVATIONS OF C. F. MARTIN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
By: Peter Szego

Most Martin guitar aficionados know that C. F. Martin Sr. arrived in New York City
from his native Saxony in 1833, and that he began making European-style guitars
with distinctive scroll headstocks and elegant decorative elements in the style of
his acknowledged mentor, Johann Georg Stauffer of Vienna. Equally well known is
that by the outbreak of the Civil War, Martin’s guitars had evolved into the iconic
American flat-top played by millions around the world today. However, the creative
path that Martin followed to invent the modern Martin guitar has remained a
mystery—until now. This is the story of how the mystery was unraveled.
November 6, 2013, marked the 180 th anniversary of C. F. Martin’s arrival
in America. Among the celebrations is the launch of a major book and museum
exhibition that gives Martin lovers an opportunity to learn in detail how Martin
created his signature guitars. The book, Inventing the American Guitar: The Pre–Civil
War Innovations of C. F. Martin and His Contemporaries, was published by Hal
Leonard in October. The exhibition, Early American Guitars: The Instruments
of C. F. Martin, will open at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in
January 2014 and continue on view throughout the year.

54 | MARTIN ™
55 | MARTIN ™
 “...THE KEY SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR WHAT WE
NOW IDENTIFY AS THE MODERN MARTIN GUITAR
WAS THE EARLY SPANISH GUITAR...”
INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR
UNLOCKING THE MYSTERY
  In 2003, Philip Gura published his definitive
biography of C. F. Martin, C. F. Martin &
His Guitars 1796–1873. As I devoured the
chapters of Gura’s book, I was surprised
to discover that the period spanning the
transformation of Martin’s earliest European-
style guitars to his fully developed flat-top
guitars was remarkably brief, substantially
less than two decades. I began to wonder
about the process Martin went through to
create his uniquely American instrument.
What were his inspirations? His influences?
Gura’s book, which is primarily an in-
depth biography and cultural and trade
history rather than a study of the guitars
themselves, did not address these questions.
In addition, I realized that answers to
these questions would not be found in
the extraordinarily rich collection of C. F.
Martin’s business journals housed in the
Martin Archives, because, as Gura pointed
out, the journals provided only minimal
descriptions of Martin’s early guitars.
Furthermore, since no journals spanning the
critical ten-year period between 1840 and
1850 survive, it became obvious to me that
something more than conventional scholarly
research would be needed to unlock the
mystery of Martin’s creative journey.
I discussed my interest in how the
design of Martin’s guitars evolved with
Philadelphia musical instrument dealer
and Martin expert Fred Oster. We quickly
came to the conclusion that the path to a
better understanding lay in studying the
instruments themselves, and we set out to
56 | INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR
track down as many significant examples of
Martin’s early guitars as possible. Our first
step was to create a list of all the high-grade
pre–Civil War Martin guitars that we could
locate in publications, museums, and private
collections. But we discovered that guitar
books, articles, and catalogs repeatedly
pictured the same few guitars. What we
initially hoped would be a database of scores
of instruments ended up consisting of less
than thirty significant early Martin guitars.
  Our next step was to gather as many
early Martin guitars as possible and to invite
a small group of Martin experts—collectors,
dealers, restorers, and scholars—to inspect
and document these instruments. Our
objective was to come up with a hypothetical
chronology based on the guitars’ evolving
designs and construction. We anticipated that
once we were able to evaluate Martin’s early
guitars in chronological order, we would
be able to identify and understand each
step in his creative process.
We held two mini-conferences at Fred
Oster’s Vintage Instruments shop in
Philadelphia and C. F. Martin & Co.’s
offices in Nazareth in 2008 and 2009.
Fred and I were joined by Martin experts
Richard Johnston of Gryphon Stringed
Instruments, Jim Baggett of Mass Street
Music, Matt Umanov and Tom Crandall of
Matt Umanov Guitars, Marc Silber of Marc
Silber Music, and luthier Steve Kovacik. The
other participants included C. F. Martin &
Co. archivist Dick Boak; Ashborn guitar
scholar David Gansz; guitar maker and
Spanish guitar scholar David LaPlante; Arian
Sheets, the curator of stringed instruments
 C. F. Martin, c. 1841-1843. J.B. Coupa paper
label. This “missing link” in C. F. Martin’s
creative development was his incorporation of
a range of design and construction features
that he discovered in early Cadiz-style
Spanish guitars into his own guitar design.

at the National Music Museum and a scholar

of the Markneukirchen instrument trade;
researcher and archivist Greig Hutton; and
Richard Brunkus, an American furniture and
decorative arts expert and restorer.
  We brought together a study collection of
over forty significant early Martin guitars,
by far the largest such collection ever
assembled. We also amassed guitars by
Martin’s contemporaries Louis Schmidt, George
Maul, Henry Schatz, and James Ashborn, as
well as early nineteenth century Austrian and
Spanish guitars similar to instruments that
we speculated might have influenced the
development of Martin’s guitars.
  By the end of the second conference, we
were confident that we had identified how
C. F. Martin had transitioned from making
his earliest Austro-German style guitars to
producing a mature X-braced American-
style flat-top guitar. Our most startling and
significant discovery was that the key source
of inspiration for what we now identify as the
modern Martin guitar was the early Spanish
guitar, not the Austro-German “Stauffer-
style” guitar that historians had considered
Martin’s most important influence. We
identified three distinct stylistic periods:
Martin’s initial Austro-German style, an
intermediate Spanish style, and his final
American style, by which time his guitars
had all of the attributes—except size—of
the iconic Martin flat-top guitar.
 THE AUSTRO-GERMAN STYLE:
INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR
MARTIN’S EARLIEST GUITARS
  C. F. Martin’s earliest guitars are instantly
recognizable. Their scroll-shaped headstocks,
body shape, and decorative features are
very similar to guitars made by Johann
Georg Stauffer, the most successful luthier in
early nineteenth century Vienna and Martin’s
acknowledged mentor. However, until recently,
there has been no way to date Martin’s earliest
guitars or place them in chronological order.
  Early in his career, Martin affixed paper
labels inside his guitars. These labels
identified Martin’s early partnerships and
shop addresses during the six years that
he remained in New York City. Combining
extensive research in the Martin Archives
with a close inspection of Martin’s earliest
guitars, Martin scholar Greig Hutton
identified eight Martin label designs. And,
based on clues about Martin’s partnerships
and address changes found in the Martin
Archives, Hutton was able to place the labels
in probable chronological order, which in turn
allowed us to determine the most likely order
in which Martin made his earliest guitars.
  While the exterior of these guitars remained
entirely Austro-German in style, inspection of
their interiors proved that by 1838 Martin had
already begun experimenting with different
top bracing patterns, subtly changing his
guitars from within as he worked to improve
their sound and volume.
MARTIN’S TRANSITIONAL
SPANISH STYLE: THE MISSING LINK
  Martin & Coupa labels, identifying the
partnership that C. F. Martin formed with
Spanish guitar virtuoso and teacher
58 | INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR
John Coupa, are by far the most common
paper labels found in Martin’s early guitars.
And it was apparently Coupa who prompted
Martin to build guitars in the Spanish style.
By 1839, he had already sold Coupa nine
“Spanish guitars,” and, when Martin moved
to Cherry Hill, Pennsylvania, that same year,
he retained Coupa as his sole retail sales
agent in New York. That relationship lasted
until Coupa’s death in 1850.
  Guitar maker and scholar David LaPlante
was the first to notice the striking similarity
between certain early Martin guitars and
Spanish guitars of the 1820s and 1830s. He
had studied, repaired, and built reproductions
of both Martin and early Spanish guitars for
decades. When a guitar with a Martin & Coupa
label came into his shop for restoration, he
was struck by how similar in appearance
and construction it was to instruments made
between 1820 and 1835 in and around Cadiz,
the major commercial center in the south
of Spain. Remarkably, these early Spanish
guitars, which are quite rare, look more like
nineteenth-century Martin guitars than Spanish
“classical” guitars, which were first constructed
in the 1850s by Antonio de Torres.
  The interior construction and exterior
features that many Martin & Coupa guitars
shared with Cadiz-style Spanish guitars
include fan-patterned top bracing, a “Spanish
foot” on the interior, and exterior elements,
such as a tapered rectangular solid headstock
with friction tuners, a back strip that continued
over the heel cap, and striped banding along
the centerline of the sides of the guitar.
Martin also introduced several features
that we now take for granted as signature
Martin features, but which he imported
directly from early Cadiz-style Spanish
 C. F. Martin, c. 1837 (left); C. F. Martin 2 ˙-34, c. 1850-1862 (right).
Upon his arrival in New York in 1833, C. F. Martin constructed guitars
in the Austro-German style. But, by 1850, less than seventeen years
after coming to America, he had already evolved into producing
American-style flat-top guitars in standard models and sizes.

guitars. These include his characteristic

body shape, the Spanish heel, and even the
classic three-ring rosette pattern.
  Spanish guitar virtuosi who performed
regularly on the New York stage appear to
have been one of the inspirations for Martin’s
interest in Spanish guitar construction. None was
more important than Señora Dolores Nevares
de Goñi, who arrived in New York in 1840 and
quickly established herself on the New York
concert stage. In 1842 and 1843, she performed
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, within ten miles
of C. F. Martin’s home and shop. We know from
a journal kept by Martin’s granddaughter that
Madame de Goñi visited Martin’s home and
that he made two guitars for her:

Madame de Gorci [sic], probably the finest

professional guitar-soloist of her time, in
the South, was also there. It was she, I
think, who clung to her Spanish guitar and
would have no other. One evening when
all were gathered together, Grandfather
brought her a guitar that he had made in the
exact shape of her Spanish guitar, but with
his thin sounding board and other Martin
characteristics. Quite casually, he asked her
to try it. Madame de Gorci took the instrument
but displayed little interest. She struck a few
chords, played a piece or two, then got up,
took her Spanish guitar and set it in a corner.
‘I’m through with that,’ she said. ‘I don’t care for
it anymore. This is the guitar I want.’ That must
have been a great triumph for Grandfather.
 “ WE CAN NOW IDENTIFY THE HIGH POINTS OF
MARTIN’S PROGRESS INVENTING THE FULLY
MATURE X-BRACED FLAT-TOP GUITAR.”
THE AMERICAN STYLE:
INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR
INVENTING THE MODERN GUITAR
  Very few of Martin’s early guitars are
definitively datable. Fortunately, however,
the dates of one of the guitars that he made
for Madame de Goñi in 1843, and a similar
instrument that was given to a young West
Point cadet, John Darragh Wilkins, upon his
graduation in 1846, are both identified in
Martin’s journals. Although these guitars,
purchased just three years apart, have many
similar features, the most telling difference,
which requires a mirror to detect, is a
clear indication of the direction Martin was
headed. Instead of fan-patterned top bracing
associated with Martin’s Spanish-style
guitars, the de Goñi guitar has the earliest
documented example of his X-bracing. It is a
simple, symmetrical pattern, which required
a relatively small modification of Martin’s
fan bracing pattern. In the guitar Martin
made for Wilkins only three years later, the
X-bracing pattern had already advanced to
the asymmetrical top bracing pattern that is
found on the majority of Martin’s later guitars
and is still in use to the present day.
  We can now identify the high points of
Martin’s progress inventing the fully mature
X-braced flat-top guitar. And we also know
that the entire process took place in a briefer
period of time than historians ever imagined.
By 1839, within six years of his arrival in New
York City, Martin was already experimenting
with fan bracing in one of his Austro-German
style guitars. Two years later, he was constructing
entirely Spanish-style guitars, with profiles that
are recognizable today as the characteristic
Martin body shape. By 1843, ten years after
setting foot in America, Martin had introduced
60 | INVENTING THE AMERICAN GUITAR
X-bracing to reinforce the top, the last step
towards his invention of the modern American
flat-top guitar. Finally, by 1850, after less
than twenty years in America, Martin was
already standardizing the sizes and models
of his guitars, thereby bringing his remarkable
period of innovation to completion.
CELEBRATING MARTIN’S
180 TH ANNIVERSARY
  You will find many of the most important
guitars Martin made during his lifetime
in Inventing the American Guitar—and,
throughout 2014, during the year-long
celebration of the 180th anniversary of Martin’s
arrival in America, you can view over thirty
examples in person at the Early American
Guitars: The Instruments of C. F. Martin
exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Also on exhibit will be the legendary Martin
000-42 Eric Clapton played on his Unplugged
album, and several of the most dazzling
guitars that C. F. Martin & Co. has created
to celebrate previous milestones in the
company’s long and distinguished history.
  The 300-page book includes essays by a
stellar cast of contributors. James Westbrook
introduces American readers to Johann
Stauffer and Viennese guitar makers. Also for
the first time, Arian Sheets presents instrument
making in Martin’s German homeland, the
Vogtland, and hometown, Markneukirchen.
David Gansz explores the guitars of James
Ashborn, Martin’s only successful competitor,
as well as America’s love affair with all things
Spanish during the first half of the nineteenth
century. David LaPlante discusses early Spanish
guitars from Cadiz and the profound influence
these guitars had on C. F. Martin. Finally, veteran
Martin historian and connoisseur Richard
Johnston knits together C. F. Martin’s life
and the transformation of his guitar design.
This heavily illustrated book includes
stunning photographic profiles of forty-five
early guitars, many of which were unknown
until recently, complete with bracing diagrams,
measurements, and technical drawings.
  Two letters we received recently have
underscored the significance of our recent
scholarship into C. F. Martin’s early guitars.
After reading Inventing the American Guitar,
Chris Martin IV, C. F. Martin’s great-great-
great-grandson and the current CEO and
Chairman of C. F. Martin & Co., sent us this
note: “That old saying ‘you never stop learning’
is very apparent to me with the publication of
Inventing the American Guitar. Reading about
the research that went into revealing the ‘Ah
Ha’ moment when my great-great-great-
grandfather made the leap from copying
Johann Stauffer to developing his own, distinct
style (with a little help from Spanish luthiers)
is a tremendous step in accurately telling
the story of that great American instrument,
the flat-top steel string acoustic guitar.”
  George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars in Nashville
has done more than anyone to elucidate the
history of American guitars. After reading
Inventing the American Guitar, he wrote:
“Although I have collected and studied
guitars since 1963 and am considered
to be knowledgeable in this field, I found a
considerable amount of information presented
in this book that I had not known previously,
some of which has caused me to change long-
held opinions.” Indeed, George went a step
further by observing, “I now realize that the
only remnant of Stauffer’s guitars that’s left
in today’s Martins are the bridge pins!”

C. F. Martin, c. 1841-1843 (left); C. F. Martin, c. 1843-1848 (right).

From the most simply appointed to deluxe custom-grade examples,
Martin’s Spanish-style guitars adopted such features as body profile,
tie-block bridge, solid rectangular headstock, three-ring rosette and
Spanish heel from early Cadiz-style Spanish guitars.
 REVISITING VINTAGE TONE
NEW MARTIN RETRO ™ STRINGS
BY: OMER LEIBOVITZ
The moment the needle hits the vinyl on
Neil Young’s Comes a Time, the sound of
Young’s Martin guitar brings you to another
place, a little nearer the earth, a little farther
from the stresses of daily life. From Hank
to Elvis, Dylan to Cash, McCartney to Baez,
the classic sound of a Martin guitar has
come to be the lightning that generations
of musicians have tried to bottle. Struck
180 years ago and connecting musicians
across generations, love for the Martin sound
has grown only stronger with age. Like any
stringed instrument, time has sweetened its
tone, and now a vintage Martin is worth more
than its weight in gold—not just because it
creates a sound like no other, but because,
no matter how much players spend collecting
vintage guitars and high-end microphones, it
seems nearly impossible to make a guitar now
sound like they did on those classic records.
Body shapes, playing styles, and, crucially,
tonewoods are the tools we as musicians
use to build a signature sound. Yet a D-18
Authentic 1939, or even a vintage D-18 from
that year, can still struggle to capture the
classic sound exactly as we remember it.
But for all the custom end pins, bone nuts,
saddles, and tuning machines we customize
to hone our tone, one of the most overlooked
pieces in the quest to create that divine sound
is one of the easiest to change: our strings.
Martin is able to build instruments to the
specifications of the original classics we
love, using the exact same methods and the
exact same materials (in the case of the
New Martin Authentics), even infused with
the lush tone of classic microphones (as
62 | REVISITING VINTAGE TONE
in the Retro™ Series); but if the strings
that we strike as players are purely new
millennium, we will never truly be able to
recreate that elusive, timeless tone.
If the guiding principle with acoustic
guitars is always to honor the old ways, for
the past fifteen years in the guitar string
industry, it has been “newer equals better.”
Whether that means experimenting with new
materials like titanium and cobalt, unique
wrap wire, and, of course, coating strings in
a fluorocarbon sheath, string manufacturers
and players alike can often seem to be
drawn toward the sheen of the latest and
greatest. For Martin, innovation is part of
their tradition, and they applaud anyone who
works to break new ground; new techniques
in string manufacturing can yield tones that
are perfect in completely novel ways. But for
the purists and the old souls, that does not
always strike at the vintage sound they seek.
Perhaps Tony Rice has always been a
purist and an old soul when it comes to his
sound. Born in Danville, Virginia, in 1951, Tony
is considered to be one of the most influential
guitarists in the uniquely American genres of
bluegrass and acoustic jazz, and for that he is
a legend. Recently inducted into the International
Bluegrass Hall of Fame, Tony has used classic
tones to break new ground with the likes of J.D.
Crowe and the New South in the 1970s; in his work
with artists like Jerry Garcia, David Grisman,
Ricky Skaggs, Norman Blake, and more; and
in the successful solo career he has nurtured
since the 1980s, developing his own brand of
bluegrass. So, when Tony came to Martin to
discuss the idea of revisiting a long out-of-favor
Monel alloy and creating strings with the sound
from a bygone era, they jumped at the chance.
 Monel, first developed in 1905 for the
International Nickel Company, was truly
revolutionary at the time it was invented. It
is a unique blend of approximately two-thirds
nickel and one-third copper, and, at the time
of its creation, represented a huge shift in how
these metals were alloyed that was both faster
and more cost-effective. Over a decade before
the stainless steel’s ubiquity in American
manufacturing, Monel (named after International
Nickel’s president at the time, Ambrose Monell)
was easier to work, strong, and, perhaps most
importantly for us guitar players, resistant to
corrosion. For this last reason, it was often used in
shipbuilding as well as architecture—in fact, New
York’s original Penn Station was roofed with over
300,000 square feet of the material. In addition
to being used in construction, Monel also found
use in musical instruments, such as trumpets,
tubas, and French horns, and, as early as the
1930s, in strings for musical instruments.
With the start of World War II, however, nickel
began to be in very short supply—so much so
that, from 1942 through 1946, U.S. nickels were
no longer even made of nickel—and stainless
steel was available as a ready successor.
Stainless steel became a major component
of musical instrument strings, and, as tastes
in music and sound changed and materials
became more or less readily available, the
standard for acoustic guitar string wrap wire
eventually turned to bronze and phosphor
bronze. It was not until Martin and Tony Rice
began to discuss how to recreate a string
that captured the lost tones of decades
past that the company decided it was worth
relearning how to use this amazing material
for their acoustic guitar strings.
 “WELCOME BACK, OLD FRIEND.”
  For the engineers at Martin, however,
recreating the classic strings that Tony loved
was not the simple matter of dusting off an
REVISITING VINTAGE TONE
old recipe and getting to work; much has
changed in manufacturing over the past 40
years. The machines used decades ago are
different than those used today, as are the
source materials and factories themselves.
More importantly, our expectations as
players have grown over the years. One of
the greatest changes brought on by shifts
in technology is more consistency and,
therefore, more reliability in guitar strings.
  The most notable design change since the
early 1900s, for instance, was the introduction
of a hexagonal core wire in the 1970s, replacing
the round core wire previously used. While a
shift as simple and unique as changing the
shape of the wire around which the wrap wire
is wound may not seem flashy or striking,
this design means that the wrap wire has
greater bite against the core, which results
in a tighter, denser wrap and, ultimately, a
more even, reliable string design. So, when
it came time to create a string that had the
tone and heart of Monel, Martin realized that
most players would prefer a Mustang to a
Model T, and used a hex core.
  With these and a few other changes, Martin
brought Monel strings back to life and into
players’ hands in the form of their new Tony Rice
Signature strings. So the question is: how do
they stack up to the sounds we hear on our
favorite classic albums? From the man himself,
Tony Rice, the feedback was resoundingly
positive. “Welcome back, old friend. I’ve missed
you,” said Tony—just the response that Martin
was looking for. After introducing these strings
to the market as Tony Rice Signature Strings
(a .013 gauge set, Tony’s favorite) to rave
reviews, Martin decided to release other
gauges also as simply “Martin Retro™
. ”
64 | REVISITING VINTAGE TONE
  To this player, the Retro™ difference is truly
striking. We are all familiar with the guitar
string “sweet spot,” that period of time after
you’ve put on a fresh set when they are not too
new and bright, but haven’t yet become too
broken in or dull. Martin’s Tony Rice strings
live in that space, bringing clarity and warmth
in equal measure. On top of this general
difference, there is also a certain magic these
strings bring, a unique sound that is all their
own. Played on a 2010 D-18, that sound can
best be described as woody, warm, and clear.
They bring out all the characteristics I love
from records past: Hank’s signature twang
and the reedy evenness of Bob Dylan playing
Joan Baez’s 0-45 at the Newport Folk Festival
in 1964 come to mind. They provide a perfect
foundation on rhythm, and shine on lead; the
unique qualities of the Martin Retro™ strings
offer guitarists a soft touch that makes bends
and slides feel effortless. On a rosewood
guitar like an M-36, the bass is present
and deep, but the harmonics are given
a rich evenness that is complex without
competing with the note’s fundamental,
and the treble is sweet as honey.
  Martin Retro™ strings aren’t just for players
looking to create the sound of a bygone era,
however. Martin Ambassadors the Sleepy Man
Banjo Boys—ages 10, 13, and 15—have fallen
in love with their tone. As folk, bluegrass, and
Americana continue to be discovered by up-
and-coming artists, the woody, earthy tone of
these strings will surely be an integral part
of the classic albums waiting to be written.
If you love the rich sound of an acoustic
guitar, chances are good you’ll love these
strings, whether you’re playing Woody Guthrie
or Marcus Mumford, Johnny Cash or Seth
Avett, Bob Dylan or Ed Sheeran. Just as in
their guitars, Martin, with these strings, stays
true to its tradition of being revolutionary.
 This rare 1938 store counter display from the Martin
Archives is illuminated and the “MARTIN” letters
bubble up in an orange glow from heated glass tubes.

65 | MARTIN ™
 THE 1833 SHOP ®

THE MARTIN UKULELE

MARTIN UKULELE
The Little Instrument That Helped
Create a Guitar Giant
by Tom Walsh and John King
Published by Hal Leonard, Softcover

The Martin Ukulele is a detailed and

thorough look at the ukuleles built by the
C. F. Martin Co. of Nazareth, Pa., and at how
the instrument’s success forever changed the
company that made them. Martin’s ukulele-
making led the small, respected builder of
fine guitars and mandolins into an era of
unprecedented growth in the 1920s and
helped it become one of the most legendary
manufacturers of high-quality guitars in the
world. Drawing heavily from the extensive
archives at the Martin factory, the book
examines the company and its development,
$34.99 (US)
from production records, sales ledgers,
ISBN: 9781476868790
and a vast collection of correspondence to
214 pages
hundreds of photos, including many of the
rarest ukuleles the company produced. Now available for purchase in
Extensive additional imagery chronicles The 1833 Shop® at martinguitar.com/1833
the history of the popularity of the ukulele
itself. The book is both a narrative about
Martin’s ukulele manufacturing history and
a reference work detailing the numbers
of each style of ukulele ever made by the
company. It is an exploration from Martin’s
first attempt at production in 1907, to the
peaks of ukulele popularity in the 1920s and
1950s, to the disinterest that caused Martin to
cease ukulele production in the 1990s, to the
recent resurgence that has allowed the firm to
again offer a wide assortment of new models.

66 | THE 1833 SHOP ®

 John Mayer
Martin player, 15 years

Learn more about John Mayer’s Martin 00-45SC and how Laurel Canyon
shaped the California sound at martinguitar.com/laurelcanyon

67 | MARTIN ™
 IN MEMORIAM
GEORGE JONES 1931-2013

THE UNFORGETTABLE George Jones was born in 1931 in Beaumont,

Texas, his musical foundation a combination
of church singing and Grand Ole Opry
broadcasts. He loved Bill Monroe a n d
Roy Acuff. As a teenager, Jones left home,
worked the honky-tonk circuit, got married,
got divorced, and did a stint with the Marines
before signing his first record deal in 1954
with the Beaumont-based Starday label.
Over close to sixty years in the business,
George Jones recorded hundreds of sides for
Mercury, Musicor, United Artists, Epic, and
KITTY WELLS 1919-2012 MCA. Among his most memorable number
ones were “She Thinks I Still Care,” “The
Kitty Wells (1919-2012) was born Ellen Deason in Nashville, Race Is On,” and “Walk Through This World
Tennessee. Her coming of age coincided with the rise of With Me.” His duets, such as “Golden Ring”
Nashville as the center for commercial country music. At and “Near You,” with onetime spouse Tammy
a time when few women had a shot at solo country stardom, Wynette were especially popular with fans.
RCA Records took a chance on Kitty Wells and in 1949 Rock ‘n’ roller Elvis Costello covered Jones’s
released “Death at the Bar” and “Don’t Wait for the Last “A Good Year for the Roses.” Frank Sinatra
Minute to Pray.” Because women were seen as having back-handedly but with high regard called
little commercial potential, the record was tepidly promoted Jones “the second greatest singer in America.”
and went nowhere. Kitty Wells faded momentarily into the George Jones, with over a hundred and forty
background, but then in 1952 Decca Records offered her country hits, died on April 26, 2013.
the song “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,”
a woman’s take on the chauvinist stance in a recent
Hank Thompson hit “Wild Side of Life.” Her performance
resonated with the public, and the song launched Kitty Wells
as the “Queen of Country Music,” the first woman in that
genre to have a number one hit and sell a million records.
Kitty Wells ruled well into the 1960s as the nation’s top
female country artist. Her duet with Red Foley, “One by
One,” remained on the charts for almost a year. A TV
show cohosted with her husband, The Kitty Wells/Johnnie
Wright Family Show, featured family members and
friends and had a long run in syndication starting in the
late 1960s. Among Kitty Wells’s honors and accolades
are the NARAS Governor’s Award for Outstanding
Achievement in the Recording Industry (1981), the
Academy of Country Music’s Pioneer Award (1985),
the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1991) and
The Music City News’ Living Legend Award (1993).

68 | IN MEMORIAM
 Martin playe Seth Avett
r, 12 years

Learn how North Carolina’s rich musical heritage influenced Seth Avett’s
sound at martinguitar.com/Seth. Order the new Martin D-35 Seth Avett
Custom Signature Edition at your local authorized Martin dealer.
SOMETHING OLD
RENAISSANCE STYLE GUITAR
C. F. MARTIN SR.
CIRCA 1845-1852

  Intricate pearl inlay blended with exquisite

design and detail combined to create this early
masterpiece by C. F. Martin Sr.
C. F. Martin & Co., Inc.
510 Sycamore St., Nazareth, PA 18064
www.martinguitar.com

VOLUME 1 | 2 01 4

Learn more about the Martin 000-42 and how the legend of the crossroads influenced music at martinguitar.com/crossroads.