Collectible Guitar Special Edition The Music Zoo

MARTIN’S GOLDEN ERA

TRADITION MEETS MODERN INNOVATION:

ADVANCING THE CRAFT, PRESERVING THE HERITAGE

HOW YOU CAN MAKE THE ONE “ ”

TRULY ONE O F A K IND

BETWEEN THE STRINGS WITH

DON MCLEA N

JOHN RENBOURN

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As you contemplate building your dream instrument, know that we can bring to you all the benefits of our longstanding relationship with C.F. Martin Guitar. It’s why Martin has named us to its very elite group of partners in bringing you the best experience possible. Thanks to our intimate understanding of the Custom Shop process, we know everything there is to know about this very special experience, and we will be there with you every step of the way, from design concept to that magical day when you open the case for the first time to behold your one-of-a-kind treasure. There’s just nothing like it.

What do you want to build? If you can dream it, the Martin Custom Shop can build it. From a simple change that turns a stock Martin model into a personalized heirloom to a deluxe 45-style guitar crafted of exotic woods and elaborate inlays, we will work with you to put your unique vision into the hands of top-tier Martin luthiers. The result is sure to join the ranks of the finest guitars ever built. And your design experience begins right here.

We welcome the opportunity to help you navigate through the entire process, getting your ideas dialed in with complete detailed specifications and supporting images, and ready to submit to the folks at Martin for pricing. It really is that easy. Or you can simply start with the base model you like and add your personal touches. It’s entirely up to you.

What’s more, you might be surprised to learn that custom doesn’t have to mean out of reach. Sure, some extraordinary projects can run as high as $50,000 or more, but you can imprint your

special touch in a custom Martin for a lot less than you’d think. And if you don’t want to wait, we routinely stock many great Custom Shop guitars right here in our store. These guitars are available for purchase now, so stop by and check them out for even more ideas about what’s possible.

Are you ready to build the Martin Custom Shop guitar of your dreams? Contact The Music Zoo to get started now! As your Certified Martin Custom Shop Expert Dealer, we look forward to partnering with you to create a personalized instrument for you to cherish for years to come. In the meantime, we hope the pages of this special edition of Collectible Guitar will inspire you in new ways to pursue your music-making dreams, no matter their body shape or level of trim!

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As your personal Martin Custom Shop Expert, THE MUSIC ZOO is delighted to welcome you to this very special edition of Collectible Guitar!

A gorgeous Grand Jumbo 12-string custom showcasing an Adirondack spruce top with 42-Style pearl perimeter and rosette. The intricate suite of inlays—head plate, fingerboard, pickguard, and bridge—is the stunning “Tree of Life” theme applied in colorful select abalone pearl. Bone pins with pearl dot inlay complete the offering and enhance the colorful continuity from top to bottom on this tremendous creation.

From the Desk OF THOMAS RIPSAM

Dear Martin Enthusiast,

If you’re reading this, I hope you are thinking of adding a Martin guitar to your life. Whether it’s your first Martin or your fifth, you have come to the right place, especially if you are looking to create your one-of-a-kind dream guitar. The Music Zoo is a Martin Custom Expert and they know how to bring your custom Martin to life.

As a long-standing partner, The Music Zoo has made the pilgrimage to our Custom Shop in Nazareth, PA. They have spent considerable time hand-selecting wood, picking out fixtures, and designing special inlays. They do amazing work; they have great stories to share with you—and their customer service is top notch. We are confident that you are in the best of hands.

All of us at Martin Guitar are here because we love music, and we want to help you realize your musical dreams. Wherever you are on your journey, we’ll be cheering you on!

Best,

Thomas Ripsam, CEO

PRESIDENT & CEO, C.F. MARTIN GUITAR & CO.

YOUR FAVORITE MARTINS: WHAT YOU HAVE, WHAT YOU WANT!

So many guitars, so little time. Fortunately, where guitars are concerned, we’re not called to a life of monogamy. If we’re lucky (and can get away with it), we can maintain a whole bevy of those acoustic beauties. (One artist told us he can buy any guitar he wants—as long as his wife gets equal compensation in jewelry!)

Indeed, each guitar has its own unique personality, its own aesthetic, its own tonality. But as good as any one guitar might be, we sometimes find that it just can’t possibly cover all the bases for us. Perhaps that’s why Martin has introduced so many new and varied models over the past several years.

Why so many guitars? Well, different instruments inspire us in different ways: some guitars simply have more songs in them. A new guitar can also encourage us to be more adventuresome, leading us to explore the “dusty end” of the fretboard that suddenly becomes more inviting.

Scott has been with Martin for 15 years and is currently a member of the product development team, focusing on new product Introduction. Previously, he led the Custom Shop through many dealer and distributor design collaborations and anniversary projects.

The variables going into a decision about a new guitar—whether it be the first, second, third, or tenth—are myriad and often complex. One may have a little stronger bottom end, another a singing treble. The strings on one may snap and pop a little more aggressively than the next, while another may have a shimmering highend. Then there are the other classic considerations: spruce versus cedar; mahogany versus rosewood versus maple versus koa; long scale versus short scale; 12-fret versus 14-fret; Dreadnought versus OM versus Grand

Performance. All exhibit decidedly individual characteristics, as well as respective strengths and weaknesses. And in sorting it all out, we all seem to have different ways of going about the process of curating our acoustic arsenals.

It’s in that context that we spoke with Martin’s Scott Sasser (Director, Martin Custom Shop), Fred Greene (VP Product Management), and Tim Teel (Director of Instrument Design) to learn their thoughts on the option anxiety that inevitably presents to those players seeking the “Next One.”

SCOTT SASSER

Do you adore the sound of a Martin D-28? If so, you find yourself in the company of a great many iconic artists. This venerable instrument is not only steeped in musical history, but in terms of both form and function it has evolved to a point of near perfection. Revered as a classic expression of Americana, this instrument has also demonstrated amazing versatility. Even so, the folks at Martin will be among the first to admit that it can’t do it all.

“Music is evolving,” says Fred Greene. “It’s changing. The way people use the instruments today is not the way they

used them in 1938 when the Dreadnought was really coming into its own. So, we work hard to design and build guitars that fit what players are doing now. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to abandon our history or tradition—we believe you really can have both, the best of the old and the new. It needn’t be one or the other.”

In those cases, though, where just one instrument must do, one can quickly find themselves in a quandary. With so many available choices, settling

Fred Greene joined Martin as V.P. of Manufacturing in 2004, after working his way up from janitor to COO at Gibson. He currently serves as Martin’s V.P. of Product Management.

FRED GREENE

on one can be difficult. Scott Sasser sympathizes. “On the custom side of our business,” he says, “we often see clients wrestling with option anxiety— the ‘fear of missing options.’ And it’s not only our clients: in some cases that anxiety is coming from a dealer or distributor!” Ultimately, though, decisions must be made, and unfortunately, that choice can’t be “all the above.” Which is why Sasser advises restraint. “In many respects,” he says,

on the important things; don’t try to capture everything in that one guitar.” Sasser offers the perfect analogy. “Think of it this way,” he adds. “Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors. You can’t put them all into one bucket and expect to create an irresistible uber flavor that everyone on the planet will love. It would taste awful!”

Indeed! So, what does Sasser suggest to those contemplating their next new acoustic friend? “Consider

this... one instrument to do. An acoustic instrument is a very focused, intimate, and personal piece of gear. It’s not intended to be a Swiss Army knife. A degree of versatility is always nice, but it’s important that the instrument be the best that it possibly can be for what it is intended to do. So, to that end, I always advise people to consult with their Expert Dealer. Your dealer is your advocate, the one with whom you can bounce ideas off and sort out

“I ALWAYS ADVISE PEOPLE TO CONSULT WITH THEIR EXPERT DEALER. THEY CAN HELP GUIDE YOU ON THE PATH TO THE PERFECT MARTIN FOR YOU.”

on the path to the perfect Martin for you.”

In helping to whittle down the many options available, Tim Teel asks just three questions to establish one’s footing on that path. “I believe Martin makes a guitar for every individual player out there,” he says. “To help make that match, the first question I ask is how long they’ve been playing. My suggestions will be very different for a beginner versus someone who has been playing for 30 years and is looking for something very special. The next question is about the music they’ll be playing. If they enjoy country or bluegrass in a more traditional setting, a Dreadnought will be ideal, whether it’s a 28, a Modern Deluxe edition, or maybe an Authentic if they tend toward the higher end of the spectrum. If they have more eclectic tastes, then we might be talking a GPC or our new SC line—especially if they’re into more modern music. The SC, for example, has an extremely

balanced sound and is very good for all kinds of music, especially when playing plugged-in on stage. And lastly, I ask about budget. And here again, Martin offers a wide range.”

A wide range, indeed. Martin covers the waterfront from a few hundred dollars for an X-Series instrument to an over-the-top D-200, which can be had for $125,000. But given the breadth of choices, does Teel, himself, have a personal preference? “Oh, yes,” he is quick to answer. “One thing I’ve always been partial to is the sound of a D-35. When I was growing up, my grandfather worked at Martin. His personal guitar was a D-35 Brazilian built in 1968. I grew up playing that guitar. So, every time I pick up a D-35, it reminds me of home. And, you know, you can play almost anything on it.”

Tim Teel’s grandfather, ROBERT C. LONGLEY, photographed at the Martin factory in the 1970s. The banjo was his second favorite instrument, behind his employee-made 1968 D-35, shown below.

Tim Teel has served different roles and innovated many new products over 37 years of service at Martin Guitar and is currently focused on Instrument Design.

TIM TEEL

Teel also acknowledges that there are times when he picks up a different model and different songs just seem to flow out of it. “It happens with different body sizes and shapes,” he says. “Their different tonalities inspire in different ways. Dreadnoughts, of course, have more bass associated with them. Likewise, rosewood has a deeper tonality than mahogany. A Grand Performance model on the other hand is akin tonally to the sound of a Dreadnought, but with less bass response. When we get into small-bodied guitars like an OM or 00, they may not be as loud, but they are very sweet—ideal for fingerstyle players. And if you’re into blues, the 000 with its short scale—the Eric Clapton model, for example—will be very appealing. And lastly, the new SC body shape brings its unique tonal quality to the mix. It’s particularly well-balanced across the range, encouraging the player or songwriter to explore different musical directions.”

There’s no question that each guitar can inspire in its own way. That said, while we’re discussing ways of narrowing down the options, it can also be argued that variety is the spice of life. Perhaps the best way to eliminate option anxiety is to eliminate the anxiety. In other words, acquire more Martins! Scott Sasser tells us, “It’s like the golfer who has a bag full of different clubs—each club is optimized for different kinds of shots. You’re not going to drive with a putter, right? There are

different clubs in the bag for a reason. Each has a specific purpose. The same can be said of guitars. A typical Martin collector/enthusiast may gravitate to a particular body shape, but they enjoy exploring tops, backs, and sides, each of which imparts distinct tonal qualities. Conversely, others may appreciate the immediacy of the sonic differences available via a palette of body shapes. Each approach to adding sonic variety is credible, and each collection may serve very different purposes for the

proud owner.”

Teel adds that the experience is not unlike that of the electric player’s relationship with different effects pedals, each providing a different color on the sonic palette, whether it’s a compressor or distortion, a chorus or a flanger.

“The Martin enthusiasts,” Teel says, “are collecting different body shapes and tonewoods to expand their acoustic frontiers. They may start off with one club in the bag, but over time wind up with bag full of Martin clubs.”

“WHILE WE’RE DISCUSSING WAYS OF NARROWING DOWN THE OPTIONS, IT CAN ALSO BE ARGUED THAT VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE.”

FROM LEFT: SC-13E Special Burst, GPC-X2E Macassar, 00-28 Modern Deluxe

THE CONTINUING QUEST FOR PERFECTION

Chet Atkins stood on the stage, showing off his signature Country Gentleman between songs. “This is an electric guitar,” he announced. “It’s a lot better than the gas guitar.” Indeed! While technology advancements have their place, note that the electric guitar, successful as it became, did not displace the acoustic. Quite the opposite. Acoustic guitar sales have actually exceeded those of electric guitars in the majority of the past 15 years. And if recent years are any indication, it’s not slowing down.

Take 2021, for example—a banner year for C.F. Martin & Co. Not only did the company register its highest annual production quantity ever, it also surpassed 2.5 million instruments built over its storied history. All this success notwithstanding, could Martin become a victim of its own success? Can a product be so good that it becomes fixed, unable to adapt to changing times and tastes?

Martin suddenly finds itself at an interesting hinge of history as the Boomer generation gives way to Millennials and Gen Z and whatever comes next. How will this transition inform Martin’s approach to its business? How will the company maintain its relevance among these new generations marked by decidedly different worldviews and value systems? And how

will the company reach these emergent demographics without alienating its core base—or losing its traditions? While the company’s heritage is deep, is it also an anchor that holds it back?

These are the very questions that Fred Greene wrestles with on a daily basis.

“There is definitely a yin and a yang,” he says, “with a company that has so much history and is so iconic in the sense that almost all other guitar makers’ products are in some way influenced by what Martin has done. But there’s no question that even a great history can work against you. We get it both ways from consumers. There are those who want us to stick to what we’re doing—’Don’t do anything differently’, they tell us. But it’s difficult to grow the

George Hineline of Tatamy, PA. Martin Filling Department, Note: 000-18 14-fret

business that way. In order to grow, the business has to continue to evolve.”

It’s to this point that Greene reminds us that the now-classic D-18s, the 000s, the OMs, the 00s—all are evolutionary products, with their respective seminal forms originating in the early part of the last century.

“The people of the Martin of old didn’t just stick with what they had,” he says. “They continued to grow and move forward, and that remains our remit to this day. The problem is that now the products are so strong it’s hard to convince people to try anything new. And when you do make improvements, the question becomes, is it really an improvement or is it just something different?”

It’s a good question. The old McDonald’s slogan “Change is good” might have worked well for burgers, but is change also good for guitars? Plato can help us find an answer here. In short, the philosopher reasoned that if forms degrade with the passage of time, then we must find increasing perfection the further we retreat into the past. “The good,” Plato would insist, “is that which preserves.” Therefore, if the starting point of all change is perfect and good, then change can only be a movement that leads away from the perfect and good! In other words, the perfect state is the arrested state,

fixed in its essentials by immutable laws of historical achievement.

Now let us invert Plato’s argument. If Greene is correct in his assertion that Martin’s foundational forms are in a state of continuing evolution, then by definition, perfection is yet to be achieved. No amount of gazing into the past will ever reveal such imagined perfection, impressive as those instruments may have been. The idea that the D-28 is the lapidary standard of perfection dooms us, then, to the tyranny of imperfect forms. Such perfection is an illusion. So, Martin—faithful to its DNA— continues to innovate, to discover, to improve. Its venerable past notwithstanding, perfection is yet to come, meaning it can only be attained by looking forward, not backward. When it does, I suspect we’ll recognize it.

“THE PEOPLE OF THE MARTIN OF OLD DIDN’T JUST STICK WITH WHAT THEY HAD. THEY CONTINUED TO GROW AND MOVE FORWARD, AND THAT REMAINS OUR REMIT TO THIS DAY.”

Martin celebrates famed American-style tattoo pioneer, and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum’s namesake, Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins in this special edition Dreadnought guitar. It features elements of Collins’s work, titled “Homeward Bound”.

MARTIN, MAN, AND MACHINE:

WHERE TECHNOLOGY MEETS TRADITION

Martin: “A company with one foot in the past and one foot in the future with a very steady handhold in the present.” That’s how Tim Teel puts it. “What I mean by that,” he explains, “is we have such a spectacular product line—arguably the best acoustic guitars in the world—descended from the iconic instruments of the 1930s and ’40s. They were amazing. Those guitars will never go away, and they will only get better as time goes on. That’s the past. Our future,

though, is informed and inspired by that past. And we can’t help but wonder about our forefathers at the company who were designing those amazing guitars, especially as those instruments were coming into their own. If some of today’s materials and processes were available to them at that time, what sorts of guitars would they have built? What would they look like? It’s fun to speculate, but we believe they’d look a lot like the Modern Deluxe series.”

1. Snowflake inlay found on the 42 Style Modern Deluxe models

2. The D-45 Modern Deluxe Headstock Inlay

3. The Modern Deluxe Series

This retrofitting of the today’s advanced materials technologies into the best of the old deigns exemplifies Teel’s take on the company today. Martin’s Vintage Tone System® (VTS) top and bracing, for example, imparts that classic aged sound that otherwise develops only after 50 years of playing, while a composite carbon fiber bridge plate and set of Liquidmetal bridge pins boosts volume and sustain. Teel, who developed these and other innovations, notes that a composite carbon bridge plate is lighter than maple, yet stiffer, adding more output and more sustain to the guitar. “That’s something that could not have been done back in 1930,” says Teel. “Those materials simply did not exist. Nor did the Liquidmetal alloy in which the bridge pins

1. LUXE BY MARTIN® Bridge Pins - Gold with Pearl dots

2. LUXE BY MARTIN® Bridge Pins - Gold with red dots

are cast. Had these materials been available to Martin craftsmen in 1938, you can be sure they would have used them.” The same can be said of Martin’s innovative titanium truss rod.

About those bridge pins... Liquidmetal® is an acoustically intriguing amorphous material developed by NASA and Caltech. It exhibits a remarkable ability to conduct sound energy across a wide range of audible frequencies. (To get a sense of just how reflective it is, check out this video.)

The physics of bridge pins is actually quite simple: string energy is transferred directly into the pin and then reflected into the soundboard where its vibrational response

moves the soundwaves into the air. Wooden bridge pins tend to absorb energy, resulting in a quicker decay and less sustain. Bone pins improve matters, reflecting more energy into the top, but the Liquidmetal pins really ratchet things up, reflecting essentially all the string energy. It’s quite remarkable.

Likewise, centuries of woodcraft have seen a natural progression in the tools used, advancing from handsaws to bandsaws to today’s CNC machines. Even so, Martin maintains an ideal mix between man and machine: the irreplaceable human touch is really what makes a Martin a Martin, while modern machinery can offload some of the more mundane tasks. What’s more, many

“WE STILL THINK OF OUR GUITARS AS ART. THEY’RE FUNCTIONAL, BUT DEEP DOWN WE STILL THINK OF EVERY GUITAR AS A WORK OF ART.”

of the company’s craftspeople have been plying their trade at 510 Sycamore Street for the better part of a quarter century. That’s an unparalleled depth of experience in the industry. “And they’ve acquired really unique skills,” says Greene. “When you come through the factory for a tour, you will see somebody shaving braces and be amazed by how fast they do it—and astonished by their accuracy. It’s very impressive. We try to maintain as much handwork as we possibly can, as the human interaction is important to the way our products sound. You could turn this operation into a 100% engineering exercise where robots build everything in a factory that could run without the lights on. That just doesn’t fit who we were as a brand and what we

represent to musicians. We still think of our guitars as art. They’re functional, but deep down we still think of every guitar as a work of art. Yes, we use the best tools available, we integrate the best technologies, but with the knowledge that it’s the hands of the artisans that make the difference.”

Taken together, modern materials and techniques advance the state of the art, preserving the essence of the tradition while enhancing the performance of the instrument. And as a final nod to its heritage, for its technology-enhanced Modern Deluxe line, Martin went with a 1930s style script logo inlaid in pearl on the headstock. Last century’s Martin builders would have approved.

history OWN A PIECE OF

D-28 Authentic 1937 Aged

THE CUSTOM SHOP EXPERIENCE

Martin’s Custom Shop has come a long way since its beginnings—back when “custom” meant offering a handful of standard options from a tri-fold brochure, and then building the guitar in the regular factory, not in a separate shop.

Today’s dedicated custom shop didn’t come into being until 1979 when the vision was fully realized with craftspeople making only custom guitars and with a much wider selection of options and possibilities. Spurred in part by the growing number of boutique makers building custom instruments based on traditional Martin shapes, the company was determined to demonstrate that nobody could build a Martin better than, well, Martin. Additionally, the company wanted to make

the point that while there are indeed a great many highly skilled luthiers operating under their own shingles, Martin, being a larger company, is uniquely able to bring more resources to bear with its manifold technologies, highly skilled craftspeople, and large stocks of select materials that would otherwise be very difficult for others to match. In other words, in its Custom Shop, Martin is bringing together the best of both large and small worlds.

And now for the differences.

The construction paths of the Custom Shop and that of the regular factory are based on very different modes and methods. For starters, the standard production manufacturing mode employs many team members spread out across a larger area of the factory, with smaller groups specializing in particular operations, e.g., bending sides, carving braces, installing bindings, performing finish work, or other tasks. Interestingly, even within this production environment clients may still request certain details in a “hybrid custom” guitar that has standard manufacturing consistencies dialed into them (a la the original tri-fold brochure). For example, one fairly common request is a D-28 with an Adirondack top and a pearl inlaid head

plate. The advantage for the client is that he can get those special (but limited) fea–tures without having to wait the long lead times associated with a Custom Shop build.

In the Custom Shop mode, that guitar would be built quite differently: it would be constructed using traditional, pre-heated hide glue, hand-shaped “Authentic” bracing patterns, and a host of other client-specified details executed by a small team. The instruments resulting from the two paths will share a common Martin “DNA”, but they may vary wildly in their aesthetics while also exhibiting sonic nuances and perform at different levels.

(A word is in order here regarding the use of the hide glue in the Custom Shop versus the

white wood glue used on the production line. In short, the difference comes down to “cohesion” versus “adhesion.” White glue creates a strong mechanical bond by penetrating the porous surface and solidifying at the point of contact. Hide glue, on the other hand, yields molecular cohesion, in effect becoming one with the wood. The result is increased resonance and energy transfer, imparting more of that reverberant quality so characteristic of older Martins.)

Custom Shop director Scott Sasser thinks of the differences between the modes as like having the AMG Group inside the Mercedes factory. “All the vehicles built are spectacular,” he explains, “but if someone requests the

AMG-level of construction, that work gets done by a smaller, dedicated team. That’s exactly how it works at Martin.”

To get a better idea of how it works, we propose a straw man build. Imagine, if you will, a fingerstyle player who (naturally) already has a trio of OMs, a couple of 00s, and maybe a 000 for good measure—classic fingerstyle gear. What’s missing? A Dreadnought! So, our player decides to make this classic platform the basis of his “Next One.” For starters, he’ll likely want a 1 3/4” nut, as opposed to the old 1 11/16” Dreadnought standard. He might want a slightly shallower body depth to help balance things out a bit. To further smooth out the low end and bring out more of the highs, he selects cocobolo over

rosewood. And why not add a Vintage Tone System top to add a shimmering ring to those cross-string picking patterns! As for aesthetic appointments, he goes with ebony binding, an unadorned fretboard, and ebony tuners to complete a presentation of understated elegance. Now, that strikes us as a unique mix of parameters that would intrigue any fingerstylist—and perhaps even banish forever the notion that Dreadnoughts aren’t suited to fingerstyle playing. But what does Sasser think? “Ah,” he responds, “those features are exciting. They’re interesting, sensible, justifiable. They’re not Frankenstein-weird. That’s a client we would actually love to talk to. There’s just enough going on there and the palette has enough color to be appealing and not confusing. Equally

“More is always more. But as we mature, we come to fully appreciate the truism that less is more.”

important, it’s not getting so deep into the weeds that it just won’t work. Yeah, that would be an interesting guitar.”

To the latter point, Sasser carefully cautions that things can sometimes get out of hand. Some of the more esoteric requests—selected tweaks to the bracing, for example—can create a diminishing return. “We don’t want to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for the build, but we do try to keep things as grounded as we can in the reality of what an instrument is capable of and more importantly, what the player is capable of.”

Alright then. So, our fingerstyle Dreadnought passed the audition (yeah, we’re seriously thinking about it, too!). But what, generally, are the sorts of things that really excite the Custom Shop craftspeople? What kinds of guitars do they look forward to building? “We see a lot of incoming requests for pearl dripping off of every possible corner,” Sasser says. “And we wonder where it’s going. Oftentimes we don’t know who the ultimate owner of the instrument is going to be. We wonder

about instruments with heavy pearl appointments. We look at the design and go, ‘Wow! That’s going to be a spectacular looking showpiece. I hope it gets played.’ We wonder if they’re getting built to go into someone’s collection as a trophy or if it’s actually going to get taken downtown for singer-songwriter night. We just never know. But as for what really impresses us, it’s the simple elegance. To look at the materials that someone chose and to get an aesthetic feel for it, we find ourselves again going, ‘Wow! That is such a pleasant combination of materials and design elements.’ It has this sense of completion and continuity, and we can tell from the specs on paper that the client has really put a lot of thought into it. They didn’t take it overboard. It’s a proper, beautiful guitar. That said, we can faithfully execute some of the worst taste imaginable! We do advise against — and sometimes respectfully decline — some unpleasant combinations. Don’t get me wrong; more is always more. But as we mature, we come to fully appreciate the truism that less is more.”

“We wonder about instruments with heavy pearl appointments. We look at the design and go, ‘Wow! That’s going to be a spectacular looking showpiece. I hope it gets played.”

FACTORY CROSSTALK

As for the interplay between the two sides of the house, when Teel and Greene design a new model, it typically spends a year or two in standard production before its features become available to the Custom Shop. An exception to this practice occurred with the Super Dreadnought. “We did this one in reverse,” Teel recalls, “as an experiment, just to see how it would go.”

In short, it went phenomenally well. The point of the experiment was to see just how big a 14-fret D-style guitar could be and still function. And, of course, they wanted to hear how it would sound. “We built a

couple of prototypes,” Teel says, “and we were blown away by the sound. It was incredible. Huge. But from a physical standpoint, the body wasn’t so large that it became cumbersome to play. It’s actually very easy to play. But sonically, on the bass side, we were getting a nearly 12-decibel bump on the fundamentals. The midrange boost was around 6 decibels, and we saw about half that increase

on the trebles. So, imagine a regular Dreadnought guitar with the bass and mids turned up, along with a small boost to the trebles. It’s really something. Now, that guitar typically would have been introduced in the standard line first and then found its way into the custom side of the house. In this case, though, Custom—and our Expert Dealers—didn’t want to wait. So, we decided to go for it. This was actually the first time in our history that we introduced a new body size or a new feature in Custom first and then worked it backwards to the regular factory. Next year you’ll be seeing a standard Super Dreadnought 28. That’s coming.”

Custom Shop Super Dreadnought Front & Back

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HANDCRAFTED IN VIRGINIA SINCE 1992

AIN’T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Martin can consider itself quite flattered. Its foundational architecture has become the de facto platform— the pattern from which all else followed. Indeed, Martin is the original, with a capital O.

We take for granted,” says Fred Greene, “that the modern acoustic guitar was created here in Nazareth.” Martin is, in fact, the oldest guitar manufacturer in the United States by far. “We were making guitars before the Civil War,” Greene says. “It’s hard sometimes for us to fathom those amazing craftsmen of old making guitars by candlelight, no electricity. We have those guitars in our museum, and they still play. They’re still cool guitars. And we’re still inspired by them.”

Martins old and new do indeed possess an enduring quality—they were and are meant to last generations. “That’s such a different concept,” Greene continues. “In today’s disposable world of electronics, where before

you even learn how to work the current version, they’ve already come out with the next version. And the operating system no longer works. That’s not what we do. We make something that a hundred years from now will perform even better than it does now. Who does that in this world today? Nobody. It’s the very opposite of planned obsolescence. At some point people start to understand that kind of value. There’s not much in the world that gets better as it gets older. Martin is one of the few things that does.”

Speaking of old, among the most coveted of any instrument of any type is the pre-war Dreadnought—a Holy Grail objective of collectors and players alike. Greene quips, “When people speak of pre-war Martins,

they’re referring to pre-World War II. Other guitar makers working today, who, trying to capture that quality, actually haven’t been at it all that long. When they say ‘pre-war,’ what exactly are they referring to—the Gulf War? On the other hand, these makers are essentially affirming the fact that Martin is the real deal. It’s the authentic thing. All else is appearance and imitation. And those things, those real things, have intrinsic value. Imitations will never achieve that.”

While that value comes at a price, Greene notes that compared to other things that become obsolete within two years, it’s not expensive at all. “It’s actually an incredible deal. Your grandchildren will be playing that

guitar. That’s how they will remember you. Every time they play it, they’ll be reminded of you and appreciate that you imprinted something of yourself upon that instrument. What is that worth?”

The magic of time, heirlooms, and provenance aside, Martin endeavors to make its value available in a way that anyone can experience it today, even as its value increases going forward. “Not only can you get it,” Greene says, “you can get it with a lifetime warranty. What else can you buy these days that has a lifetime warranty? People will spend $400,000 on a Ferrari that has a one-year warranty!” And Ferrari, of course, is good for just one note—an exhaust note.

D—45 Modern Deluxe

D—45 1942

Only fifty CS-OM-True North-16 models were made. The back and side tonewoods are bookmatched from beautiful, highly figured Hawaiian koa with an intricate “compass star” inlay down the centerline of the back. This dramatic inlay was executed with a combined color palette of flamed jarrah, flamed claro walnut and delicate paua shell concave diamonds against a circular ringed backdrop of “waterfall” bubinga.

The myriad elements that come together to yield a Martin guitar culminate in a signature sound—an unmistakable tone and presence that announces itself at first strum. It’s a sonic personality that comes through even on recordings. Those with well-tuned ears will readily recognize it. “Oh, that’s a D-28,” they declare. The psychoacoustics involved are that compelling—there is indeed a certain something that is impressing upon the eardrum and neural pathways that registers that particular sonic identity.

What’s more, sound, especially in the form of music, triggers direct cognitive responses to our memories, as Tim Teel attests through his experience with his grandfather’s D-35. “My grandfather always told me that when you hear a Martin guitar, you will know it.” But what, exactly, is that Martin sound—a sound so distinctive that even when blindfolded, you know it?

“To my ears,” Teel explains, “the Martin

sound is full-bodied. It’s responsive from the bass to the treble and every note and string in between. It’s true that, thanks to Mother Nature and the individual craftspeople who make them, all guitars have a slightly different voice.” (It’s also true that two tops milled from the same billet can sound different!) “But,” Teel continues, “when you categorize guitars built by a particular maker, that company’s unique sound qualities come through. Martin

has its sound. Other brands have their sound.”

Teel has tested the limits of this sonic hypothesis. When he was developing Martin’s X series—a budget line offering—his goal was to retain as much of that quality as possible, to make it too sound like a Martin. “Does a DX-1 sound the same as a D-28?” he asks rhetorically. “Well, no, of course not. But if you were to play this guitar in a small group and then swap it out

“WE WANT TO HAVE SOMEONE PICK UP A MARTIN GUITAR AND BE SURPRISED BY THIS UNEXPECTED DYNAMIC RANGE WITHIN THAT BODY, TO GIVE IT A LICK AND GO, ‘WOW! I WASN’T EXPECTING THAT!’ THAT’S THE MARTIN SOUND. ”

for another maker’s guitar, you would immediately discern that it has a different voice—a voice that is also consistent with that particular company’s sound.”

Fred Greene amplifies this notion. “When I play other makers’ guitars, I often hear elements that I like. Some will have a nice mid-range or a strong, responsive bass. They all have a piece of it. But Martin products always seem the closest to having

everything. They have that high-end bite that you need when playing bluegrass and want to get out over the top of the mix. And yet they also have that rhythm-driving bottom end thump. And then there’s that sense of balance you need when playing complex fingerstyle arrangements. It’s all there. It just seems to do everything well.”

Scott Sasser agrees. “I grew up to be a bit of a studio rat,” he says. “And I never experienced an engineer complaining about having all of that dynamic range to work with. If you’re recording an instrument that just doesn’t bring the oomph, it’s difficult to get it sitting behind the board. You just can’t engineer into a mix this organic energy, this presence. You see a lot of full-bodied instruments out there in the marketplace and you hear them in person or in a live performance.

Oftentimes, they’re packed full of midrange. And you find yourself wondering, where are the highs that just linger and hang around a little bit? Where’s the bass that slaps you in the chest? To me, that’s what the Martin sound is about. It’s one with Martin. We want it to be where one plus one equals three. We want to have someone pick up a Martin guitar and be surprised by this unexpected dynamic range within that body, to give it a lick and go, ‘Wow! I wasn’t expecting that!’ That’s the Martin sound. It’s hard to define, but players know it when they hear it, and that reaction is absolutely the most gratifying for the player AND for us.”

We wondered, then, how the company manages to retain those special Martin-esque qualities in the Custom Shop, where builds are more individualized, versus the dialed-in consistencies—with all their

predictabilities—built into the production line. “You know, that’s what makes things exciting,” says Sasser. “Think about that person who’s enthusiastic enough to commit to a collection of specs and then pay for it before they’ve had a chance to lay their hands on it. That’s a gigantic leap of faith. The question often

comes up, ‘How do how do I know this is going to sound good?’ The answer is grounded in the confidence we have in the superb work done by the generations before us who optimized the various Martin designs, and the pursuit of refinement here that never ends. The inside of a Martin guitar is definitely not a one-size-fits-all

arrangement. Our bracing patterns, profiles, and placements vary instrument by instrument. The tone bars are shaped in such a way that they act like a built-in tone control. Mother Nature is still going to have her way in the final assembly, but each build, each bracing layup—every detail—is optimally developed within each guitar. There’s something real in that. And that gives confidence to that new owner who may be waiting the better part of a year for their guitar to be built and delivered.”

Fred Greene adds that everybody seems to want to ascribe the Martin sound to a particular feature. “It’s the neck joint or it’s the truss rod or it’s the bracing pattern; it’s the thickness of the top or it’s the use of hide glue or some other element. After working here for nearly 20 years and overseeing design, I can say that everybody’s right! It’s all those things. But they all work together. It’s like saying what makes a great apple pie is just the crust. Or is it the apples? Is it the amount of sugar you put in there? Well, it’s all that stuff. Likewise, the Martin recipe in and of itself is pretty spot on, whether the guitar is built in the Custom Shop or on the standard factory line. It’s hard to improve, I can tell you that. Not that we don’t continue to try!”

“THINK ABOUT THAT PERSON WHO’S ENTHUSIASTIC ENOUGH TO COMMIT TO A COLLECTION OF SPECS AND THEN PAY FOR IT BEFORE THEY’VE HAD A CHANCE TO LAY THEIR HANDS ON IT. THAT’S A GIGANTIC LEAP OF FAITH.”

ceo. BE YOUR OWN

CEO-10

NAVIGATING THE EVOLVING GUITAR CULTURE

In the years leading up to the pandemic, the guitar industry already had one foot in the grave. Electric guitar sales had plummeted from about 1.5 million units annually to just over 1 million. The biggest, most venerable companies, including the likes of Gibson and Fender, were deep in debt, laying off staff, and shuttering factories. Some companies, Gibson among them, filed for bankruptcy.

Guitar culture found itself on life support. And with a glut of small makers contributing still more excess capacity, things were only

going from bad to worse. Indeed, the market was plunged into freefall thanks to the perfect storm combination of oversaturation, an aging Boomer generation (a dominant guitar-buying demographic), a shaky recovery from the 2008 meltdown, and Millennials’ abject lack of interest in the instrument.

Enter COVID and its attendant remote work paradigm. Suddenly millions of idle hands found something new (or rediscovered something old) to do: play guitar! What a difference a year makes. The tide had turned, with demand

quickly outstripping supply. And the slope of that demand is still holding strong. All the major guitar makers are witnessing the biggest sales numbers in their histories, with lead times only stretching further. And with the current shortages in guitar supply, you can be sure that the entire supply chain is affected. The raw materials have never seen such demand, and competition for them is fierce—tonewoods foremost among them, which were already facing sustainability issues.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)

brought the hammer down on one of the most revered of those tonewoods, Brazilian rosewood, which sent its cost into the stratosphere. And speaking of things stratistophic, the prized swamp ash used in the bodies of Fender’s Stratocaster and Telecaster models got hit—or is it bit—hard by a nasty beetle: the emerald ash borer, which has utterly decimated stands of ash forests. A situation complicated, some say, by climate change. In any case, the times, they are a-changin’.

And that goes for the very nature of guitar culture, too.

How will it be different in the digital age, to say nothing of a generation that is very different from the one that created guitar culture in the first place? Where will this next generation take it? It’s a question the guitar makers are already grappling with, as they come to

know the demographic contours of these new users, which are suddenly coming to the instrument in droves. That’s encouraging, of course. And there’s plenty of support. Online teaching resources abound, lessons flood YouTube and countless websites. (Long gone are the days of halfspeed turntable needle drops and straining to catch glimpses of chord shapes when our favorites appeared on TV.)

Fender’s online guitar instruction app Fender Play has enrolled nearly a million subscribers, the majority of which are Millennials and Gen Zers. And yet it will gladden the hearts of many a Boomer to learn that the top-learned song on the app is… Satisfaction. As in, “I can’t get no.”

How these new players learn, though, is beside the point: simply taking up the guitar provides welcome and positive relief from stream-bingeing to spending time

to invest in themselves. Let’s hope it sticks—for them, and us old guitar culture Boomers who in the past few years may have rediscovered that dusty old friend stashed away in the closet. Or splurged on a new one.

Lastly, it’s not only the next generation of players that will define the field going forward: technology will also play a role. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see, for example, how 5G/AR/VR/AI will impact music-making: next-gen communications technologies will enable high-bandwidth, low-latency connections among geographically dispersed players; AI-assisted composition will present a fascinating approach to man-machine creativity (no, that’s not a plug for ChatGPT); new revenue models will emerge that will allow artists to be paid more equitably for their work and enable them to thrive—and buy more guitars! Long live Guitar Culture!

This elegant 45-Style custom closeup reveals an intricate Celtic theme inlay suite featuring colorful paua pearl pickguard, bridge, and perimeter against a premium spruce palette. Additionally, the fingerboard incorporates a mesmerizing knot pattern that creates a perimeter border in addition to the over-the-top paua pearl central inlay. This exquisite instrument was crafted in collaboration with renowned artist Harvey Leach and our in-house artisans.

A WRINKLE IN TIME

That vintage 1953 Martin OM you’re playing? It didn’t sound like that when it was built. The reason for that is expressed in the simple equation: wood + time = happiness

The problem, of course, is the variable time. They’re not making 70-year-old guitars anymore. So, what’s really going on with these older instruments that makes them so special, so desirable?

Chemistry. And botany.

The old saying goes, “the woods are made of wood.” But what, exactly, is wood? In short, wood is an organic material comprising cellulose fibers (the main constituent of plant cell

walls), lignin (complex organic polymers), and hemicellulose (diverse sugars having a propensity to crystallize). Fascinating as this chemistry may be, only Mother Nature can synthesize those elements into a tree. But it takes time to transmute those elements into material suitable for crafting musical instruments. The only remaining question, then, is, can we speed things up?

All wood gradually loses

hemicellulose to evaporation over time. In the process, it becomes lighter, but remains just as stiff—two very desirable qualities in a soundboard. With less mass to move, the wood vibrates more freely, resulting in an increasingly resonant instrument. The crystallization of sap inside the wood over time also contributes to the process. Lignin, on the other hand, changes as it is exposed to sunlight, imparting that familiar yellowish tint characteristic of so many vintage instruments.

As any woodworker knows, the use of seasoned wood is paramount in

FAST – FORWARD 70 YEARS AND IT SOUNDS EVEN MORE AMAZING.

the success of any building project. Its reduced moisture lends stability as dry, well-seasoned stock resists shrinking, expanding, warping, and cracking.

In Martin’s earlier days, spruce would be seasoned at the North Street factory, stored up in the rafters for ten years or more as Father Time worked his magic to cook out much of the moisture-laden cellulose. Only then would the material be considered sufficiently aged for use as a soundboard. Fast-forward 70 years and it sounds even more amazing.

BUT WHO WANTS TO WAIT THAT LONG?

Ordinarily, even after seasoning, tonewoods are further kiln-dried to a moisture content of 6-8%. Good to go for building purposes, but absent that vintage tone. But what if we could also speed up the actual chemical processes in the wood that otherwise only occur with the passage of time? Could that yield a new instrument that also exhibits the lighter, stiffer, resonant qualities of vintage guitars?

Yes, through a process called torrefaction—accelerated aging via thermal modification (actually altering the wood at the molecular level). Torrefaction involves “baking” the wood quickly in a special oven free of oxygen at temperatures roughly twice that of a typical kiln drying process. The result is a tremendous acceleration of chemical changes that otherwise happen naturally over time,

removing vibration-damping volatiles as it redistributes lignin, the “glue” that bonds cellulose fibers. In the end, torrefied wood looks much like that cured naturally over many decades. And Martin has its own proprietary torrefaction process (branded as the Vintage Tone System—or VTS), the parameters of which it can precisely dial in for any targeted era.

“The best bang for the buck,” Teel says, “is on soundboards and bracing. There has been some experimentation with other parts of the guitar, but the benefit is less compelling. Both our Authentic line and the Modern Deluxe series are built with torrefied tops, yielding that magical vintage tone. As for aging the lacquer and other components, well, we still need to wait on time and nature to do its thing.”

Teel recalls the first time they

strung up a guitar built with a torrefied soundboard. “We are always experimenting and always looking at new things. There’s no shortage of that here—there’s always something new or different we’re experimenting with. Torrefaction is one of them. Immediately upon stringing up a test guitar in a D-28 platform, we were stunned. It really had that ringing sound of the guitars I was just listening to that very day in the Martin Museum as we were working on new the Authentic products. It was quite striking.”

It’s the next best thing to a time machine—inverted though it may be: Martin’s Authentic and Modern Deluxe lines may take us back to the time of company’s pre-war “Golden Era” guitars, but they also move us forward with decades of aging baked into instruments built today—truly a new Golden Era.

What if we could also speed up the actual chemical processes in the wood that otherwise only occur with the passage of time?

After 184 years, and in celebration of their two-millionth serial number milestone, C. F. Martin & Co. introduced the D-200 Deluxe. In collaboration with renowned watchmaker Roland G. Murphy (RGM), this unprecedented instrument is symbolic of the passage of time with a unique watch theme displayed throughout the many highly decorative aspects of the model.

DON MCLEAN

Along, long time ago, in the days of black and white, a person could fall in love with their instrument. And because there was first a longing, a yearning, and a deep hunger, an enchanted relationship was cultivated. And it grew. Little was taken for granted in those days—certainly a good guitar was not. They were expensive and they were hard to come by. To own one called for sacrifice of both time and treasure. And when the dream of ownership at last gave way to reality, that union of guitar and player was duly celebrated. But also like the days of black and white, that era has sadly come to a close.

As I survey the current spate of performers calling the tune in popular culture, I doubt that they have much at all to do with their instruments in that relational sense. For the most part, their guitars are just props, playing a supporting role in a play that is more about attitude and less about music. The guitars that are pressed into this lonely service have been relegated to mere accoutrement.

DON

They come, they go, they change. When one is lost, it’s replaced with no more thought than the changing of a flat tire. They’ve become commodities, where any number makers has stepped in to satisfy the demands of a fickle and capricious market. “Tools,” they call them.

When I began to play the acoustic guitar, things were quite different—and simpler. At that time, there were essentially two kinds of players in the world: Gibson players and Martin players. And those two camps were thoroughly entrenched, with little understanding between the two, really. Their styles were clearly delineated, and there was never any mistaking one for the other. The shape of the Gibson and its appointments, and the shape of the Martin and its appointments were very specific to those particular brands. And that was it.

And regardless of which instrument one chose, the unmistakable identification a musician had with his instrument produced an indelible image. Who can forget the Everly Brothers playing their Gibson guitars? And Gibson guitars are precisely what they should have had. Can you imagine the Everly Brothers playing Martins? No way! It would have been wrong! But if you saw Josh White or Lester Flatt or Elvis Presley or Ricky Nelson, it was always a Martin guitar strapped around their necks. The guitar formed a part of who they were.

In the electric world, it was the Fender guitars that knocked you out. Can you envision The Ventures or Buddy Holly separate from their Teles? It was all so natural. It was all so exciting. And it also stimulated the imagination.

In those days, there were no instructional videos or collections of guitar tablature. Oh, you could pick up a Mel Bay book and learn to play Paddlin’ Madeline Home, but that had nothing to do with playing If I Had a Hammer or Walk Don’t Run. If you wanted to learn those songs, you had to learn them from other people. You had to learn them

Young McLean with 1st D-28

from fleeting glimpses on a small, black and white television screen, where you saw something being done that you heard on a record a million times but couldn’t figure out how it was done. All this contributed to a tremendous amount of imagination, and that imagination is what yielded the relationship. And when that relationship came to fruition, when you were finally able to afford that castle in the sky guitar, it was a magical moment.

I experienced that magical moment when I was just twelve years old. I grew up in New Rochelle, New York, where the only music store in town was the House of Music. You never saw a Martin guitar in New Rochelle—no one could afford one; Martins were strictly for professionals. But one day I happened to be walking by, and that’s when I saw it in the window: a 000-18, 14-fret orchestra model. And then I saw the headstock—that venerable, squared-off headstock bearing that Holy Grail of nameplates. I’ll never forget that moment. I had to have it. Now, $150 was a heck of a lot of money in 1958—especially for a kid. You’d get fifty cents to mow a lawn. But that’s where it began.

By 1964, I was finally able to afford a Martin D-28—one of the best guitars I ever owned, and the one I had been working up to. With its Brazilian rosewood back and sides, it was absolutely gorgeous. I was married to that instrument. That guitar meant more to me than any woman, more than any physical thing in the world.

Elvis had a D-28—a leather-covered one. I’m sure you’ve seen it in pictures; it’s so strongly identified with him. That guitar was his jet engine, his way of getting traction on stage, and moving out of this life and into another world. And he’d take the audience with him. That was magic. That was an extraordinary relationship, and unfortunately, I don’t think it exists anymore. People are sadly deprived for want of that imagination, the hoping, and the belief in the instrument and what it could do—and where it could take you.

McLean’s original D-28

The guitar certainly took me out of my comfort zone. As a kid, I had never really been away from home. I wasn’t a terribly adventurous person—I didn’t need to see the world. I liked my room, and that was where I played my guitar. In my senior year at Iona Catholic High School, though, I decided it was time to step out. At that time, only a few of my friends knew that I played and sang—I had been keeping that under wraps—when I decided to enter the school talent contest. And the experience was right out of a Ron Howard movie. The entire student body was there in the auditorium, and I got up in front of those people and I played.

By then, I had a few things under my fingers. I played a stinging arrangement of Josh White’s Well, Well, Well in a dropped D tuning, a banjo breakdown, and a couple of tunes that I had written. And the place went absolutely

crazy. The kids hollered and cheered and threw things into the air. It was bedlam! And that’s when my relationship with the guitar, which had been under wraps for all those years, just exploded. The next thing I knew, I was being managed by Howard Levanthal, who worked with the Weavers. I was only seventeen, and he had me out playing clubs in the Village, and with Pete Seeger on a sailing sloop. It was amazing. And the guitar had brought me there. Before I knew it, I was on a plane, and going someplace else with my guitar. I went and I went and I went. And I’m still going!

That D-28 was my constant companion throughout those years. But sadly, our association came to an end. In the summer of 1969, I was performing with Pete Seeger at the Newport Folk Festival. I had left the guitar backstage for a moment, and someone, seizing that moment, quietly walked away with it. Needless to say, it was a

terrible time for me. I never found another guitar that could completely take its place. I found others that were just as good, but I never got over that loss. I had lost something that had become a part of me.

My prized D-28, though, wasn’t the only guitar I lost. At one point in the 1980s, Washburn asked me to play their guitars. And against my better judgment, I agreed to try one out. I took it on a fly date, and when it emerged from baggage claim, it was completely smashed. It wasn’t just dented, it was destroyed. It looked as though it had been run through with a forklift! I’m very superstitious about things, and I thought to myself, “That could be me!” Lesson learned: “Your Martin guitar… don’t leave home without it.” And I never did again! And yet, maintaining that ethic could be just as difficult. The Martin D-41 that I had been traveling with in the ’80s and the ’90s was mistakenly routed by the airline to New York, instead of my destination, which was Philadelphia. That wasn’t good. Fortunately, though, I had brought along a

second guitar, and I was able to do the concert. But when the D-41 didn’t show, I became convinced that someone had stolen it. It was one of my favorite instruments, and I hated losing it.

Six weeks later, I received a tip through a phone call that the guitar had been found. It had been stolen, alright. Baggage claim tickets weren’t checked at the New York airport, and so an unclaimed guitar was an easy mark. A fellow had bought it off the street in front of Manny’s Music in New York for $300. He knew it was hot and probably stolen for drug money. When he got home with it, he opened the case, and inside found picks with my name printed on them, along with some other things that suggested that the guitar was mine. He wondered if it might be a signature guitar, and so he called Martin to inquire. At that time, though, I didn’t have a signature model. He then managed to track me down through my record company, and ultimately he returned the guitar. I paid him the $300, and got it back.

I retired the D-41 from the road after that episode. It had served me well. I did many world tours with that guitar. It must have had ten cracks in the top, repaired with biscuit joints, and glued together in many places. But its hard knocks notwithstanding, it was a terrific stage partner. I knew exactly what that instrument could do, and it always responded to my touch.

There is a certain sense of confidence that you have in your instrument when you spend that much time together. You go through date after date after date, and it always does exactly what it’s supposed to do. No surprises. You set it up, you work on it, you stretch its limits, and you know what that instrument can do—what it can do for you.

And that’s what it comes down to, really: a man and his guitar. Roy Orbison once said that he was one of those people who got a hold of a guitar and never let it go. And when you hang on, you just can’t imagine where it will take you.

In those days, you could be alone in the world with your instrument, bolstered by an Emersonian sense of self-reliance. There is a purity that comes forth from that simplicity. It’s honest, innocent, and uncorrupted by excess or trappings of any kind. And when the two of you work out your dance in the form of a song, the result is a wonderfully deep sense of satisfaction. Every player should know it.

1. McLean performing with his D-41

2. McLean performing at the Albert Hall with his 1929 12-fret 000-28 herringbone with slotted headstock. McLean played this guitar exclusively from 1971 to 1975

3. McLean in Melbourne, Australia with his 1953 D-28. Photo courtesy of Paris Dunn.

MAKING THE CONNECTION

Don mclean is a true icon and pioneer of modern folk music who has inspired countless musicians over the decades. A four-time Grammy Award nominee, Songwriter Hall of Fame member, and BBC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, his contributions really cannot be overstated. Moreover, McLean’s music has proven culturally consequential: his era-defining anthem “American Pie” was named by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) a top 5 song of the 20th Century—a classic well-deserving of its position in some pretty tall cotton.

But he didn’t do it alone. Not to be overlooked are McLean’s many partners in his craft: the impressive array of Martin guitars that have passed beneath his calloused fingertips over the past 50 years. The word “partner” is not hyperbolic: McLean chooses his instruments not only for their inspiring feel and tonal qualities, but for their ability to “…caress my voice and make the guitar and voice become one.” That is the holistic experience of flow. And for McLean, that experience manifests almost exclusively with Martin guitars, about which he concludes, “Every player

should know it.” There is a complex interplay of psychological and physiological mechanisms at work that makes instrument selection so very personal. A deep emotional connection to a certain guitar may spring from a life experience, tradition, the influences of a favorite artist. McLean, for example, credits Piedmont blues and folk revival artist Josh White for getting him hooked on the Martin 00-21.

For McLean, the elements converge most compellingly through the medium of the Dreadnaught. McLean plays hard and his guitars don’t seem to mind, delivering the goods with no compromise to tone. He strings them with

medium gauge, set up with a rather high action, much like that preferred by bluegrass players. A bone nut, ivory bridge pins, and bone saddle with extra width coaxes more sound from the Thinline pickup he prefers. But something you won’t see on any of his guitars are tone controls—or anything else, for that matter, that might alter the instrument in any way. Ever the purist, McLean even designed his own straps out of a single long piece of leather two inches in width and fitted with a concho on the headstock with a two-foot-long leather saddle string which he ties in a slip knot so that there is no hardware to ding the guitar. He may play his guitars hard, but he also shows them the love.

Whether it’s the driving rhythm he lays down on American Pie —on a 00-21 no less—or the evocative fingerpicking accompanying Vincent —on a D-41!—McLean has a rare knack for tapping an instrument’s full potential, revealing its surprising and sometimes counterintuitive sonic possibilities, and then unleashing its magic in song. It is something to behold. Learn more about how he does it in his engaging video, Legendary Tips and Guitar Tricks with Don McLean - YouTube

“The way the guitar feels in the guitarist’s hands, the shape of the neck, the string spacing, its response and resonance in a particular style of playingeven its smell - contribute to creating a special bond between artist and instrument.”

Perhaps the most revered vintage D-28s are the ones created in 1937 with forward-shifted hand-scalloped X-bracing, an Adirondack spruce top, and a 13/4” neck width. This model is an updated version made with Guatemalan rosewood back and sides, and it includes some subtle spec refinements to make it even more faithful to the original. One of the major updates is a more accurate body profile based on dreadnoughts from the 1930s and 40s. Martin’s VINTAGE TONE SYSTEM® (VTS) is employed to age the top and braces, which captures the tone from the 1930s era.

Several years ago—it was in May—my old friend Duck Baker and I went over to Germany to play. Duck had persuaded me that it was a good idea on the grounds that he was well known and spoke the language like a native. In a way that was true. It turned out he was well known to an assortment of part-time barmen, and he did on occasion speak a bit like a native, but in a manner that appeared baffling to any of the natives of Germany. Despite that—

or maybe because of that—we had some good times, and found out what a big country it is.

At some stage we wound up in a region that felt like one of the lost kingdoms. When we got to the old hall where we were due to play, waiting outside was a nervous-looking man clutching a guitar case. He wore a long coat that had seen better days and there was something of a manic air about him. As we were walking past, he clutched my arm and said to me, “Guitar, guitar.”

At the sound check German efficiency was well-matched by the combined Renbourn-Baker inefficiency, and it all took rather a long time. I think it was still going on as the audience was drifting in. By then the man in the long coat had disappeared, and other than the token, “Who was that weird guy?” he wasn’t spared much thought. Anyway, we played, and afterwards a bunch of us were sitting around in the back room in the usual apres-concert sprawl. Eventually somebody said,

I n the wonderfully BEAUTIFUL month of MAY

“Come on, let’s go.” We got it together and were heading for the door when someone else asked, “Don’t you want to take your guitar?”

Well, I had mine and Duck had his and that was the full quota. But sure enough, there was another case lying there. We looked at it. “Isn’t that the case that crazy character was carrying?” Duck asked. It seemed probable. Nobody knew quite what to do. We didn’t feel that we should take it, but we didn’t want to just walk off and leave it, either. “Better open it,” someone suggested. It fell to me, as I had been

the clutched one. By then all attention was focused on the unopened case. I flipped the catches and raised the lid. Inside was an absolutely amazing guitar glinting with abalone inlay. It was one of the very fancy Martins, the type that most working musicians only encounter at close quarters through humidified glass-fronted cases while trying to figure out all the numbers on the price tag. There was stunned silence and a general aura of “wow.”

Tentatively I took it out and played it a little. It felt and sounded great, with a rich but well-defined bass, and that beautiful,

JOHN RENBOURN

(8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaborations with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band’s existence (1967–1973). He worked later in a duo with Stefan Grossman.

JOHN RENBOURN | BETWEEN THE STRINGS

sweet treble that only old Martins seem to have. Duck played it, too. “Well,” he said, “that blows the myth that Dreadnoughts are no good for fingerstyle.” We delved a little further. The case contained the usual bits and bobs, right down to a graded nail maintenance kit. But everything seemed strangely unused, and somehow a little too perfect. Right down at the bottom of the case was a scrap of torn paper, the last thing in there. There was writing on it. I picked it out and read it. “This is a beautiful instrument. But it was not meant for me. I have tried and I have failed. Please take it and make music with it. Share it with your friends and ask them to do the same. Goodbye.”

Nobody spoke for quite a while, then a quiet voice offered, “We’d better go past the bridge and look in the river. Sounds like he’s gone and jumped in.” That just about summed it up for all of us. It really did have that feel about it. Well, I don’t think we got as far as searching the waterfront, but we did leave with the beautiful

guitar, and we did pretty much what the note asked us to do. I have played it, Duck has played it, and plenty of our friends have, too. Right now, it has a home in a little lock house on the river not far from Oxford. But of course, that isn’t its real home. Everyone who has made music on it knows the story and understands. So, old Wildman, if you are out there and you happen to read this, please know that we all think of it as your guitar. You may feel like playing it again. We hope you do. Just give a shout and you’ll have it back. Of course, some sort of verification ceremony will be in order. That will have to be conducted by Lord Baker, who speaks the language like a native.

And that’s the story so far. I should add that before we left Germany, Duck and I went into Peter Finger’s studio in Osnabruck to record a few things together. I played one solo arrangement on the beautiful guitar. The piece I chose was Schumann’s Im Wunderschonen Montat Mai.

Only fifty D-50 Koa Deluxe models were made and individually signed by C. F. Martin IV. It’s crafted with Hawaiian Koa and includes an African ebony fingerboard inlaid with an exquisite Tree of Life pattern.

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