Martin | The Journal of Acoustic Guitars: Madame de Goni Bonus Article

VO LU M E 9 BONUS CONTENT

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Though small in size by today’s standards, the guitar C. F. Martin Sr. built for Madame Delores Nevares de Goñi in 1843 is a giant in the world of acoustic guitars.

The Martin de Goñi was the first documented guitar to be built with X-bracing, the first truly American guitar, and the precursor to the more than two million X-braced Martins and countless other X-braced guitars that followed. More than 175 years later, X-bracing has become the standard of excellence in steel-stringed guitars for a simple reason: unsurpassed tone.

Now C. F. Martin & Co. commemorates this histor ically important instrument with the Size 1 de Goñi Authentic 1843 guitar. A meticulously handcrafted replica of the original on display in the Martin Guitar Museum, the Size 1 de Goñi Authentic 1843 showcases that instrument’s groundbreaking innovations, unique appointments, and distinctive sound.

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“This is the most complicated Authentic we have ever made,” noted Tim Teel, Martin’s Director of Instrument D esi g n. “We haven’t p ro d u c e d a S ize 1 g u i t a r s i n c e t h e 1 9 3 0 s a n d h ad to re c reate th e fo r ms a n d tooling. In addition, Madame de Goñi’s Martin is a unique instrument, with several unusual details — some obvious and some not. We X-rayed the original and took exact measurements from the images to get the interior details right.”

The Size 1 de Goñi Authentic is visually, structurally, and tonally a nearly exact copy of the original. An Adirondack spruce top featuring Martin’s Vintage Tone System (VTS) is matched to Authentic 1843 X-bracing, including 1/4-inch unscalloped braces for crisp, fo cu se d to n e. G u ate m a l an rosewood back and sides approximate the appearance and projection of the original’s Brazilian rosewood. Internal kerfing was specially milled and separated to simulate the individual block kerfing of the era.

The genuine mahogany neck showcases the 1843 Authentic profile, slotted headstock, and long, flat diamond volute. True to the original, the ebony fingerboard is 1 7/8 inches wide at the nut and 2 5/16 inches wide at the 12 th fret, where the neck joins the body. The early version Martin dovetail neck joint also is recreated here, including addition of a Spanish foot-style extension at the back and top.

The appointments similarly pay homage to the original. The de Goñi-style herringbone rosette flanks the central herringbone element with delicate black and white mosaic concentric bands. Guatemalan rosewood binding is accented by maple purfling around the sides and back and multilayered wood purfling around the top. The de Goñi diamond pattern back strip is vividly reimagined in maple and turquoise-dyed wood.

The Guatemalan rosewood headplate is unadorned, but the back of the headstock is stamped with the early “C. F. Martin, New York” logo. Expressly commissioned for this guitar, the Demet-style side-mounted tuners closely approximate those on the original (the only guitar C. F. Martin equipped with such tuners).

Though made for gut strings, Madame de Goñi’s guitar had an ebony pyramid pin bridge: It is precisely reproduced here, including the extra thick saddle (bone rather than elephant ivory) and faux ivory bridge pins with abalone dots and half-moon shafts. Also precisely recreated is the original’s metal nut, which is custom machined in nickel silver.

The guitar C. F. Martin Sr. built for Madame de Goñi clearly was a remarkable instrument, but then Madame de Goñi was a remarkable musician. Born Delores Esturias Nevares in Spain in 1813, she married Señor de Goñi prior to 1837. A virtuoso Spanish guitarist, she began her musical career with a series of modestly successful concerts in Europe between 1837 and 1840.

In 1840, the couple immigrated to the United States. Señor de Goñi disappeared from her life soon after, but Madame de Goñi quickly became a hit in her adopted country, performing concerts in New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Richmond, Washington, D.C., and other cities to glowing reviews between 1840 and 1845. She often was accompanied in concert by cellist George Knoop and occasionally by guitarist John Coupa, a music teacher and instrument retailer who represented C. F. Martin in New York City in the 1840s.

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THE MOST COMPLIC S I AT HIS ED T “

AUTHENTIC WE HAVE EVER MADE. WE HAVEN’T PRODUCED A SIZE 1 GUITAR SINCE THE 1930s AND HAD TO

RECREATE THE

FORMS AND TOOLIN

G .”

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Meanwhile, C. F. Martin was growing his reputation

Martin almost certainly became acquainted with

as a builder of guitars, first in New York City, where he

Madame de Goñi thro u g h J o h n C ou pa, his New

established his first shop after arriving from Germany

York City representative. An unpublished biography

in 1833, a n d then o n t h e outsk ir ts o f N azareth,

written in 1913 by C. F. Martin’s granddaughter, Clara

Pennsylvania, where he moved his family and his

Ruetenik-Whittaker, tells the story of how Madame

business in 1839. During his first decade in the United

de Goñi acquired her first Martin guitar. Martin often

States, Martin’s guitar building began evolving from

hosted musicians at his house in Nazareth during the

the Vi e nnese-style guitars he’d mad e during his

summer, and in 1843, Madame de Goñi was one of his

apprenticeship with Johann Stauffer in Austria to the

guests. She arrived with her own Spanish guitar, but

Spanish-style guitars, whose growing popularity in

one evening, C. F. Martin asked her to play a guitar

the United States was fueled by a fad for all things

he’d built in a similar size, but incorporating his own

Spanish, including artists like Madame de Goñi. His

innovations. After performing a piece or two, she put

guitars’ lower bouts became w i d e r, re c t a ngular

her own guitar in a corner. “I’m through with that,”

headstocks replaced scroll headstocks, and narrow

she said. “I don’t care for it any longer. This is the

Spanish-style neck heels replaced “ice cream cone”

guitar I want.”

heels. While Martin built guitars with both Vienna-

While the bi o g ra p hy wa s written well after the

style ladder braced and Spanish-style fan braced tops

event in question, an advertisement featuring an

during this period, he also built a couple of guitars

endorsem e nt by Madame de Goñi p l a ced in the

in the early 1840s with experimental top bracing that

January 31, 1844, Albany Journal by a Martin dealer

combined elements of both bracing patterns with his

confirms key elements of the story.

own bracing ideas.

“Messrs. Martin & Coupa Gentlemen, Before leaving New York, I feel compelled to express my satisfaction an d admiration of the two guitars manufactured for me. I unhesitatingly pronounce them superior to any instruments of the kind I have ever seen in this country or Europe for tone, workmanship, and facility of execution.

Delores N. de Goñi New York, 8 November 1843” M A R T I N G U I TA R . C O M |

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Two other pieces of evidence help authenticate the 1843 de Goñi X-braced guitar in the Martin Guitar Museum.

The first is the interior C. F. Martin & Schatz (Heinrich Schatz, a close friend and — briefly — a partner of C. F. Martin Sr.) label, on which “Made for Madame De Gone” is handwritten by John Coupa (though why he misspelled her name is a mystery). The second is a letter dated November 29, 1849, from John Coupa to C. F. Martin Sr. that reads in part: “I have a guitar to be repaired, it is broke in the back, can you tell me how to send it or if you can do it when you come in to the city. It is a fine guitar, one you made for Mrs. DeGoñi.” The description fits the de Goñi guitar in the Martin Guitar Museum, which has two repaired back cracks. The repair appears to be very old and may well be attributable to C. F. Martin himself.

The X-braced guitar C. F. Martin Sr. made for Madame de Goñi marked the beginning of an extraordinary guitar evolution in the United States. By the late 1840s, the X-braced “de Goñi” had become an unofficial Martin model, available in small and large size. By the 1870s, X-braced guitars produced by C. F. Martin & Co. and its competitors had become the paradigm of the American guitar. The arrival of steel strings in the 1920s created a whole new world of X-braced guitars, and X-braced steel-string guitars excelled in every size, from parlor to jumbo. Indeed, in all the important elements — tone, volume, balance, and responsiveness — X-bracing brings out the best in steel strings, and despite nearly a century of experimentation, no other style of top bracing has surpassed it.

X-bracing works on steel-string guitars because it does several things extraordinarily well. X-bracing enables the top to handle the tension of steel strings without distorting, allowing the building of large guitars like Dreadnoughts and jumbos. X-bracing enables the top to vibrate efficiently, achieving full sound and impressive dynamic range. Last, but by no means least, X-bracing can be tailored to achieve desired tonal elements: by using wide or narrow braces, by leaving the braces unscalloped or scalloping them, and by shifting the location of the ”X” toward or away from the soundhole.

It all began with the guitar C. F. Martin Sr. built for Madame de Goñi: the first truly American guitar.

The Martin Size 1 de Goñi Authentic 1843 guitar is built entirely with hide glue and finished by hand with Martin’s recently rediscovered Vintage Gloss finish. Affixed to the interior is a facsimile of the original’s Martin & Schatz “Made for Madame De Gone” label. True to its Spanish heritage, the Size 1 de Goñi Authentic 1843 is delivered with a special set of Martin Magnifico ™ Premium hard tension gut and silk classical strings — developed exclusively with Aquila — that approximate those Madame de Goñi would have used on her guitar. The Size 1 de Goñi Authentic 1843 guitar is delivered in a specially crafted coffin-style case similar to those C. F. Martin & Co. supplied with its guitars in the 19th century.

Authorized C. F. Martin dealers will begin taking orders for the Size 1 de Goñi Authentic 1843 guitar in January 2019. Left-handed instruments may be ordered at no extra charge.

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