C.F. Martin & Company is a US guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin

Christian Frederick Martin

Christian Frederick Martin, Sr. was a luthier who specialized in guitars.Born in Markneukirchen, Germany to a family of cabinet makers, Martin became an apprentice of the guitar maker Johann Georg Stauffer of Vienna, Austria....

. Martin is highly regarded for its steel-string guitars, and is a leading mass manufacturer of flattop acoustics with models that retail for thousands of dollars and vintage instruments that often fetch six figures at resale. The company has also made several models of electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

s and electric bass

Bass guitar

The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

es.

The company's headquarters and primary factory are in Nazareth, Pennsylvania

Nazareth, Pennsylvania

Nazareth is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The population was 6,023 at the 2000 census.Nazareth is located seven miles northwest of Easton, four miles north of Bethlehem and twelve miles northeast of Allentown...

, located in the Lehigh Valley

Lehigh Valley

The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and...

 region of the state. It also manufactures instruments in Mexico. During the year 1900, Martin produced 182 instruments. By the year 2000 that figure had risen to 24,085.

Company history

Throughout its history, the company has been run by the Martin family. The current chairman and CEO, C.F. 'Chris' Martin IV, is the great-great-great-grandson of the founder. Many characteristic features of the modern flattop steel strung acoustic guitar were first introduced by the firm. Influential innovations include the Dreadnought

Dreadnought (guitar type)

Dreadnought is a type of acoustic guitar body developed by guitar manufacturers C.F. Martin & Company. The Dreadnought style has since been copied by other guitar manufacturers and is now a common style of guitar body...

 body style and scalloped bracing.
Some time in the 1970s, Martin bought LEVIN guitars, and around 200 D-18's were apparently built in Sweden; they are stamped LD-18.

Founding

Born in 1796 in Markneukirchen, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, C.F. Martin came from a long line of cabinet makers and woodworkers. His father, Johann Georg Martin, had also built guitars. By the age of 15, C.F. Martin was apprenticed to Johan Stauffer, a well-known guitar maker in Vienna, Austria. After completing his training, Martin returned to his hometown and opened his own guitar-making shop. However, he soon became embroiled in a controversy between two guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

s.

At that time European craftsmen

Artisan

An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...

 operated under the guild system. The guitar (in its modern form) was a relatively recent instrument, and most guitar makers were members of the Cabinet Makers Guild. The Violin Makers Guild began to claim exclusive rights to manufacture musical instruments. By filing appeals, the violin makers guild tried on three occasions, the first in 1806, to prevent cabinet makers from producing guitars. In a surviving submission dated 1832, Johann Martin is mentioned.

Although the cabinet makers successfully defended their right to build guitars, C.F. Martin decided that the guild system was too restrictive. In 1833 he moved to New York City, and by 1838 he had moved his business to Nazareth, PA.

Company

The Martin company is generally credited with developing the X-bracing system during the 1850s, although C. F. Martin did not apply for a patent on the new bracing system. During the 1850s, X-bracing was used by several makers, all German immigrants who knew each other, and according to historian Philip Gura there is no evidence that C. F. Martin invented the system. The Martin company was the first to use X-bracing on a large scale, however.

From the 1860s on, fan bracing became standard in Europe, but Martin and other American builders, most of them forgotten today like Schmidt & Maul and Stumcke, as well as Tilton and Washburn, used X-bracing instead. The X-bracing might be considered less delicate sounding with gut strings, but it prepared the American guitar for steel strings, which emerged in the first quarter of the 20th century.

Growing popularity of the guitar in the early 1900s, fueled by the growing popularity of folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 and country and western music, led to a demand for louder and more percussive guitars. In response, many companies began to use metal strings instead of catgut

Catgut

Catgut is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fibre found in the walls of animal intestines. Usually sheep or goat intestines are used, but it is occasionally made from the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys.-Etymology:...

. These became known as steel-string guitars. By 1921, Martin had focused production towards this type of guitar.

The company's reputation and output continued to grow. Forays into mandolin

Mandolin

A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...

 making in the late 1890s and ukulele

Ukulele

The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....

 making in the 1920s greatly contributed to their expansion, and by 1928 they were making over 5000 instruments per year. The company remained family-owned, employing a relatively small number of highly trained craftsmen making instruments primarily by hand. This limited production capacity, and by the early 1960s Martin guitars were back-ordered by as much as three years. In 1964, Martin opened a new plant that is still the primary Martin production facility.

Innovations

The Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 in 1929, had a drastic effect on sales, and Martin came up with two further innovations in an attempt to regain business.

One of these was the 14-fret

Fret

A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...

 neck, which allowed easier access to higher note

Note

In music, the term note has two primary meanings:#A sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound;#A pitched sound itself....

s. Martin intended it to appeal to plectrum banjo players interested in switching to guitar for increased work opportunities. Martin altered the shape of its 0-size guitar body to allow a 14-frets-clear tenor neck. This followed specific requests from tenor players, primarily Al Esposito, the manager of the Carl Fischer store in New York City. These "Carl Fischer Model" tenors were soon renamed 0-18T. This was the first time Martin altered one of their original body shapes to accommodate a longer neck with more frets clear of the body.

In addition, a request came to Martin from Perry Bechtel, a well-known banjo player and guitar teacher from Cable Piano in Atlanta, who initially asked that Martin build a guitar with a 15-fret neck-to-body join. Most guitars of the day joined the body at the 12th fret, half the scale length of the string, with the exception of Gibson's L-5 archtop jazz guitars, which already used a design that joined the neck to the body at the 14th fret. In keeping with Bechtel's request, Martin modified the shape of their 12-fret 000-size instrument, lowering the waist and giving the upper bout more acute curves to cause the neck joint to fall at the 14th, rather than the 12th, fret. Since 14-fret guitars were envisioned for use as plectrum instruments, replacing banjos in jazz orchestras, the initial 14-fret 000-shape is known as the Orchestra Model (OM), a term Martin applied to all 14-fret instruments in its catalogs by the mid- to late-1930s, whether 000/OM shape or not.

Original Martin OMs from approximately 1929 to 1931 are extremely rare, and command high prices. Many guitarists believe that the OM—a combination of Martin's modified 14-fret 000 body shape, long scale (25.4") neck, solid headstock, 1-3/4" nut width, 4-1/8" maximum depth at the endwedge, and 2-3/8" string spread at the bridge—offers the most versatile combination of features available in a steel-string acoustic guitar, and today many guitar makers, including many small shops and hand-builders, create instruments modeled on the OM pattern.

The change in body shape and longer neck became so popular that Martin made the 14-fret neck standard on all of its guitars, and the rest of the guitar industry soon followed. Classical guitars, which were evolving on their own track largely among European builders, retained the 12-fret neck design.

Martin's second major innovation, and arguably the more important, of the period 1915-1930 was the dreadnought guitar

Dreadnought (guitar type)

Dreadnought is a type of acoustic guitar body developed by guitar manufacturers C.F. Martin & Company. The Dreadnought style has since been copied by other guitar manufacturers and is now a common style of guitar body...

. Originally devised in 1916 as a collaboration between Martin and a prominent retailer, the Oliver Ditson Co., the dreadnought body style was larger and deeper than most guitars. In 1906, the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 launched a battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 that was considerably larger than any before it. From the idea that a ship that big had nothing to fear (nought to dread), it was christened HMS Dreadnought

HMS Dreadnought (1906)

HMS Dreadnought was a battleship of the British Royal Navy that revolutionised naval power. Her entry into service in 1906 represented such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships, the "dreadnoughts", as well as the class of...

. Martin borrowed the name for their new, large guitar. The greater volume and louder bass produced by this expansion in size was intended to make the guitar more useful as an accompaniment

Accompaniment

In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...

 instrument for singers working with the limited sound equipment of the day. Initial models for Ditson were fan-braced, and the instruments were poorly received.

In 1931, Martin reintroduced the style with a modified body shape to accommodate a 14-fret neck, and it quickly became their best-selling guitar. The rest of the industry soon followed, and today the "dreadnought" size and shape is considered one of the "standard" acoustic guitar shapes, iconic for its use in a wide variety of musical genres.

Martin also developed a line of archtop instruments during the 1930s. Their design differed from Gibson and other archtops in a variety of respects–the fingerboard was glued to the top, rather than a floating extension of the neck, and the backs and sides were flat rosewood plates pressed into an arch rather than the more common carved figured maple. Martin archtops were not commercially successful and were withdrawn after several years. In spite of this, during the 1960s, David Bromberg

David Bromberg

David Bromberg is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Bromberg has an eclectic style, playing bluegrass, blues, folk, jazz, country and western, and rock and roll equally well. He is known for his quirky, humorous lyrics, and the ability to play rhythm and lead guitar at the...

 had a Martin archtop converted to a flat-top guitar with exceptionally successful results, and as a result, Martin has recently begun issuing a David Bromberg model based on this conversion.

During this time, Martin also continued to make ukulele

Ukulele

The ukulele, ; from ; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments, generally with four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings....

s, tiple

Tiple

Tiple is the Spanish word for treble or soprano, is often applied to specific instruments, generally to refer to a small chordophone of the guitar family. A tiple player is called a tiplista.-Colombian tiple:...

s, and other stringed instruments.

The 1960s

During the late 1960s, Martin manufactured hollow-body electric guitars similar to those manufactured by Gretsch

Gretsch

The Gretsch Company was founded in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a twenty-seven year old German immigrant recently arrived in the US. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums, until his death in 1895. His son, Fred, moved operations to Brooklyn, New York in 1916...

. Martin's electric guitar

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

s were not popular and the company has since continued to concentrate on the manufacture of a wide range of high quality acoustics. They also reinstated the famous D-45 in 1968.

During the 1960s, many musicians preferred Martin guitars built before World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 to more recent guitars of the same model. The pre-War guitars were believed to have internal bracing carved more skillfully than later instruments, producing better resonance. Additionally, 1970s Martin dreadnoughts suffered from poor intonation in the higher registers. This is attributed by some luthiers and repairmen to a gradual trend of misplacing the bridge on these guitars: the same jigs for bridge placement were used throughout the history of each model's production. As the amount of production increased from the Martin factory, the jigs eroded, resulting in inaccurate bridge placement. This was eventually identified and corrected.

Although Martin continued to produce all these models and continually added innovations, musicians liked the old ones better, and they gladly paid premium prices for vintage Martins. As this trend has continued, even guitars that were spurned when new in the 1960s began to command premium prices as "vintage" instruments.

Recent events

In 1979, Martin opened its "Custom Shop" division. Martin built its 500,000th guitar in 1990, and in 2004 they built their millionth guitar. This guitar is worth an estimated $1,000,000, being purely hand crafted and having more than 40 rubies and diamonds encrusted into the guitar. As of 2007, there are 600 employees at Martin with 13 individuals devoted to quality assurance

Quality Assurance

Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...

. In October, 2009, a Martin D-28 that was played by Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

 in his last concert in Las Vegas sold at auction for $106,200, and was purchased by Martin.

Steel string guitar stress

A steel-string guitar tuned to concert pitch

Concert pitch

Concert pitch refers to the pitch reference to which a group of musical instruments are tuned for a performance. Concert pitch may vary from ensemble to ensemble, and has varied widely over musical history...

 endures a tension of about 180 pounds (800 N) on the top of the guitar from the strings. The X-bracing system has been shown to be an efficient technique for preventing the top of the guitar from warping under this force. The braces are generally carved, scalloped and tuned to improve resonance and integrity of the guitar top, such capability being performed by skilled artisans and not readily reproducible by machine. This work is an important factor in determining the timbre

Timbre

In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note or sound or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, such as string instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. The physical characteristics of sound that determine the...

 of the guitar and a major determinant in the observation that rarely do two guitars ever sound alike, even though they are ostensibly identical in construction.

Six-string guitars

For many years, Martin has used a model-labeling system that consists of an initial letter or a number or series of zeros that specifies the body size and type (5 being the smallest and J being the largest) followed by a number that designates the guitar's ornamentation and style, including the species of wood from which the guitar is constructed. Generally, the higher the number, the higher the level of ornamentation. Additional letters or numbers added to this basic system are used to designate special features (such as a built-in pickup or a cutaway).

Martin also periodically offers special models. Many of these have a limited production run, or begin as a limited-production guitar that sells well enough to become regularly produced. Many of these special models are designed with, endorsed by, and named after well-known guitarists such as Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton

Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...

, Clarence White

Clarence White

Clarence White was a guitar player for Nashville West, The Byrds, Muleskinner, and the Kentucky Colonels. His parents were Acadians from New Brunswick, Canada...

, Merle Haggard

Merle Haggard

Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...

, Stephen Stills

Stephen Stills

Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...

, Paul Simon

Paul Simon

Paul Frederic Simon is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Simon is best known for his success, beginning in 1965, as part of the duo Simon & Garfunkel, with musical partner Art Garfunkel. Simon wrote most of the pair's songs, including three that reached number one on the US singles...

, Arlo Guthrie

Arlo Guthrie

Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...

 and Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

. In 1997, Martin launched its "Women in Music" series, which was followed in 1998 by the Joan Baez

Joan Baez

Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....

 Signature guitar, a replica of the 0-45 Baez began her career with.

Roger McGuinn

Roger McGuinn

James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...

 worked with C. F. Martin & Company to develop a seven-string folk guitar. McGuinn's guitar (the D7) is tuned the same as a standard folk guitar with steel strings, but the third (G) string is augmented with a harmonic string one octave higher. The intention was to offer the six-string player the chance to play "jangly" twelve-string style lead guitar.

As of 2005, Martin offers over 180 different guitars. Some of the more notable models are:

• 000-1: Slightly smaller in all dimensions than a dreadnought guitar (the "standard" acoustic guitar), solid Sitka spruce
  Sitka Spruce
  Picea sitchensis, the Sitka Spruce, is a large coniferous evergreen tree growing to 50–70 m tall, exceptionally to 95 m tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 5 m, exceptionally to 6–7 m diameter...
  
   top, solid mahogany
  Mahogany
  The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
  
   back, laminate
  Laminate
  A laminate is a material that can be constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to the placing of something between layers of plastic and gluing them with heat and/or pressure, usually with an...
  
  d mahogany sides, tortoiseshell binding, rosewood
  Rosewood
  Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. All rosewoods are strong and heavy, taking an excellent polish, being suitable for guitars, marimbas, turnery , handles, furniture, luxury flooring, etc.In general,...
  
   fingerboard
  Fingerboard
  The fingerboard is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the strings run...
  
  .
• 000-15: Base model of the upper end Martin Guitar line. All mahogany
  Mahogany
  The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
  
   or sapele
  Sapele
  Sapele , also known as Sapelli or Aboudikro, is a large tree, Entandrophragma cylindricum, up to 45 m high and native to tropical Africa. The leaves are deciduous in the dry season, alternately arranged, pinnate, with 5-9 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet about 10 cm long...
  
   construction. 'A Frame' "X" top bracing, 14 frets clear, Optional model 000-15S 12 frets clear.
• 000-28EC and 000-28ECB: Two of the five "Eric Clapton" models. Same size as the 000-15, constructed with higher-quality woods (especially the more expensive 000-28ECB constructed from the extremely rare Brazilian species of rosewood, hence the "B"), a different shape to the neck, and more ornamentation around the edge of the body.
• 000-18: Mahogany body guitar similar to the 000-28, but with more warmth, brought by the lower frequencies available to mahogany.
• The 000-28EC is one of Martin's most popular guitars; unlike the bigger dreadnoughts, the 000-28EC is nearer to the size of a Spanish guitar, with a slimmer body and wider fretboard.
• D-1: All solid dreadnought with a spruce top and sapele back and sides.
• D-18: Dreadnought guitar, solid Sitka spruce top, solid mahogany
  Mahogany
  The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
  
   back and sides.
• D-28: Dreadnought guitar, solid Sitka spruce top, solid East Indian rosewood (Brazilian rosewood before 1969) back and sides, ebony
  Ebony
  Ebony is a dense black wood, most commonly yielded by several species in the genus Diospyros, but ebony may also refer to other heavy, black woods from unrelated species. Ebony is dense enough to sink in water. Its fine texture, and very smooth finish when polished, make it valuable as an...
  
   fingerboard, black and white binding and ornamentation with 5/16" non-scalloped braces.
• The HD-28, introduced in 1976 replicates pre-1947 "'bone" D-28s with herringbone purfling (then manufactured only in pre-war Germany) and scalloped braces. It is an extremely popular guitar with a full sound, good balance between bass and treble.
• HD-35: Similar material and style to the HD-28, but has a distinctive 3-piece solid East Indian Rosewood back and 1/4" scalloped braces.
• D-45
  Martin D-45
  The Martin D-45 is a steel-string acoustic guitar made by C. F. Martin & Company. The model has been manufactured from 1933 to 1942, and again since 1968. The guitar was originally made of Brazilian rosewood...
  
  : A luxuriously ornamented version of the "D-28." First made for Gene Autry
  Gene Autry
  Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
  
  . Pre-World War II
  World War II
  World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
  
   D-45s (only 91 were made) are the most expensive guitars in the United States.
• J-40: a "Jumbo" sized guitar, "0000" body profile but with the same depth as a Dreadnought (4-7/8"). Woods similar to the "D-28" but with the addition of scalloped bracing. Ornamentation similar to the D45 minus the abalone in the body binding.
• OM-28: Similar to the 000-28 model in body size and ornamentation, except with a slightly longer scale, wider nut spacing, and wider string spacing at the bridge. Also known as the "orchestra" model.
• OM-42PS: Paul Simon's signature acoustic model (manufactured in the 1997 model year) is based on the OM-42, which had not been manufactured since 1930. Alterations were specifically requested by Simon himself. From the original planned run of approximately 500, only 223 were produced, making these a collector's item. A standard version of the OM-42 is in the current range.
• 16-Series: Style 16 guitars were first introduced in 1961. Later, they were the first production Martins to utilize sustainable, native woods such as ash and walnut, as well as the first to implement hybrid A-frame "X" bracing. Today, these models use solid woods such as mahogany, East Indian rosewood, koa, sapele and maple. Models include DC-16RE Aura, OMC-16E Koa, D-16 GT, 000C-16RGTE Aura and the J12-16GT, a 12-string jumbo-size guitar with the series 16 appointments.
• 15 Series: Constructed of solid all mahogany woods, featuring herringbone rosette, matte finish and A-frame "X" bracing. Models include D-15 and OMC-15E. Also acoustic bass guitar BC-15E. John Frusciante
  John Frusciante
  John Anthony Frusciante is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, record and film producer. He is best known as the former lead guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he had been for a number of years and recorded five studio albums...
  
   of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
  Red Hot Chili Peppers
  Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
  
   favors this series, himself owning two vintage O-15 acoustics. Used on solo albums (most notably on Curtains) and albums with the band (like the recent Stadium Arcadium
  Stadium Arcadium
  Stadium Arcadium is the ninth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album was released on May 9, 2006, on Warner Bros. Records. The album produced five singles: "Dani California", "Tell Me Baby", "Snow ", "Desecration Smile", and "Hump de Bump"...
  
  ), Frusciante's O-15s can be seen in action during live performances of songs, including Venice Queen (most memorably at Slane Castle
  Slane Castle
  Slane Castle is located in the town of Slane, within the Boyne Valley of County Meath, Ireland. The castle has been the family home of the Conyngham Marquessate since the 18th century....
  
  ) and Desecration Smile
  Desecration Smile
  "Desecration Smile" is a song from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and was on their 2006 double album, Stadium Arcadium. The song was the fourth song released from the album however the single was not released in the U.S.....
  
   (usually sitting on top of a special stand in a similar fashion to Slane Castle). Martin also made a line of D-15 style guitars for Guitar Center/Musician's Friend. The Guitar Center model is called the DSR and has a solid sitka spruce top with solid rosewood back and sides. Musician's Friend had two models labeled as a simply Custom-D. Both models have a solid sitka spruce top as well as either solid rosewood or mahogany back and sides.
• Road Series: Designed for extra durability, constructed of laminated 3-ply mahogany back and sides and solid spruce top. Also features specially designed top braces, shaped back braces and beveled rear block. Models include the DM. As of 2009, the Road Series has been discontinued.
• X-Series: Back and sides constructed from compressed wood fibers (high-pressure laminate or "HPL") and solid Sitka spruce or HPL top. Due to this construction these guitars are more environmentally-friendly. Models include: DX1, DX1-R, DXM, DCX1E, DCX1R3, 000CXE Black, and 000X1. Some earlier models used 'Ebonite' (black Micarta) fretboards, later models use koa or striped ebony. Necks on all models are constructed from Stratabond, a laminated wood product used for decades in gun stocks and hunting bows. Some of the more recent models are made in Mexico
  Mexico
  The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
  
  .
• Little Martin: Designed around a modified O-14 fret body, the Little Martin series is built at a smaller 23" scale length. With the exception of the LX1 and LX1E, which both have solid Sitka spruce tops, Little Martin series guitars are constructed with HPL top, back, and sides. Recent models incorporate a greater amount of synthetic materials, such as Stratabond necks and Micarta
  Micarta
  Micarta is a trademark of Norplex-Micarta industrial high pressure laminates and refers to a composite of linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber or other fabric in a thermosetting plastic, originally used in electrical and decorative Koekjes applications. Micarta was developed by George...
  
   (as opposed to rosewood or morado) fretboards and bridges. The guitars employ Modified X-Series "X" bracing, reinforced by a bowtie plate made of graphite. Little Martin series guitars do not have pickguard
  Pickguard
  A pickguard is a piece of plastic or other laminated material that is placed under the strings on the body of a guitar, mandolin or similar plucked string instrument...
  
  s or fretboard inlays
  Inlay (guitar)
  Inlay on guitars or similar fretted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard inlay techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboard, headstock —typically the manufacturer's logo— and...
  
  .
• Backpacker: a very small guitar with a body shaped like an elongated triangle,similar in shape to certain types of psaltery
  Psaltery
  A psaltery is a stringed musical instrument of the harp or the zither family. The psaltery of Ancient Greece dates from at least 2800 BC, when it was a harp-like instrument...
  
  , and designed to be very portable and inexpensive while still being constructed of quality woods.

EB 18

The EB-18 was the first electric bass the Martin company produced in 1979. The single-pickup EB-18 was a partner to Martin's E-series electric guitars. Its scroll-shaped headstock was reminiscent of the Stauffer-style pegheads of early Martins. The EB-28 was added to the line a year later. It had a mahogany body and PJ pickups. Both models were discontinued in 1983.

The general features of the EB-18 are:

• • Scale length 34"
  • Brass nut
  • Badass
    Badass
    Badass is a trade name of Leo Quan, a manufacturer of bridges for guitars and basses. Badass bridges feature individually adjustable saddles, which allows for "extremely accurate intonation adjustments."The Badass came on the market in the 1970s, and was made by entrepreneur and guitar...
    
     bridge
  • Single DiMarzio
    DiMarzio
    DiMarzio, Inc. is an United States manufacturer best known for its revolutionary direct-replacement guitar pickups. The company also produces miscellaneous guitar accessories, such as cables, straps and hardware.DiMarzio became known for its Super Distortion model, which was the first after...
    
     humbucking
    Humbucking
    For the purposes of this article, "hum" is defined as "an unwanted signal, generally at the frequency of the local A.C. electrical supply" ....
    
     pickup
  • Through piece solid construction of hard maple
    Maple
    Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
    
     and walnut
    Walnut
    Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...
    
     (body wings are glued on to central core), rosewood
    Rosewood
    Rosewood refers to any of a number of richly hued timbers, often brownish with darker veining, but found in many different hues. All rosewoods are strong and heavy, taking an excellent polish, being suitable for guitars, marimbas, turnery , handles, furniture, luxury flooring, etc.In general,...
    
     fretboard
  • Schaller
    Schaller Guitarenparts
    Schaller Electronic GmbH, generally known as Schaller, is a high-end German manufacturer of components for musical instruments, most famous for their fully enclosed machine heads which are standard on many top-of-the-line guitars and available as an extra cost option on many others.The company was...
    
     BM series open tuning heads
    Machine head
    A machine head is part of a string instrument ranging from guitars to double basses, a geared apparatus for applying tension and thereby tuning a string, usually located at the headstock. A headstock has several machine heads, one per string...
    
     M/C heads with a gear ratio of 1:20. Some M/C heads have C.F. Martin stamped on them but look very similar to Schaller
    Schaller
    -Surname:* Barry R. Schaller, American lawyer, judge, academic, and bioethicist* Bernhard Schaller, Swiss physician and medical researcher* Biff Schaller , American baseball player* George Schaller, American biologist* Hans Schaller, German luger...
    
     heads
  • Four figure serial number
    Serial number
    A serial number is a unique number assigned for identification which varies from its successor or predecessor by a fixed discrete integer value...
    
     printed on the back (where the 'neck' enters the 'body').
  • The headstock
    Headstock
    Headstock or peghead is a part of guitar or similar stringed instrument. The main function of a headstock is holding the instrument's strings. Strings go from the bridge past the nut and are usually fixed on machine heads on headstock...
    
     has the C. F. Martin logo printed on the front. The name C. F.Martin and Co. is printed on the back

Pickup

The pickup is a DiMarzio

DiMarzio

DiMarzio, Inc. is an United States manufacturer best known for its revolutionary direct-replacement guitar pickups. The company also produces miscellaneous guitar accessories, such as cables, straps and hardware.DiMarzio became known for its Super Distortion model, which was the first after...

 DP120 (model 1) dual pole

Dipole

In physics, there are several kinds of dipoles:*An electric dipole is a separation of positive and negative charges. The simplest example of this is a pair of electric charges of equal magnitude but opposite sign, separated by some distance. A permanent electric dipole is called an electret.*A...

 type with a multicore screened lead. This contains red, white, black and green wires as well as an uninsulated ground

Ground (electricity)

In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be the reference point in an electrical circuit from which other voltages are measured, or a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth....

 wire.

Controls

The EB-18 is provided with a single volume control, one tone control, and a switch for altering the pickup wiring. The switch alters the tone from a bright to a more bassy sound by cutting one pickup coil out of the circuit.

The tone control

Tone control circuits

Tone control is a type of equalization used to make specific pitches or "frequencies" in an audio signal softer or louder. A tone control circuit is an electronic circuit that consists of a network of filters which modify the signal before it is fed to speakers, headphones or recording devices by...

 consists of a 0.1- microfarad capacitor

Capacitor

A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...

 in series with the variable resistor

Resistor

A linear resistor is a linear, passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element.The current through a resistor is in direct proportion to the voltage across the resistor's terminals. Thus, the ratio of the voltage applied across a resistor's...

 that is adjusted by the control knob. This network

Electrical network

An electrical network is an interconnection of electrical elements such as resistors, inductors, capacitors, transmission lines, voltage sources, current sources and switches. An electrical circuit is a special type of network, one that has a closed loop giving a return path for the current...

 is placed directly from the red pickup lead to ground. The volume

Volume

Volume is the quantity of three-dimensional space enclosed by some closed boundary, for example, the space that a substance or shape occupies or contains....

 control is a simple potentiometer

Potentiometer

A potentiometer , informally, a pot, is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used , it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat. Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on...

 wired between the red pickup lead and ground with the wiper being fed to the output

Output

Output is the term denoting either an exit or changes which exit a system and which activate/modify a process. It is an abstract concept, used in the modeling, system design and system exploitation.-In control theory:...

 jack

Jack (connector)

In electronics and electrical assemblies, the term jack commonly refers to a surface-mounted connector, often, but not always, with the female electrical contact or socket, and is the "more fixed" connector of a connector pair...

.

The control compartment is covered on the rear surface of the body by a polished brass

Brass

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...

 plate. The interior of the compartment is coated with a light colored conductive paint to act as a screen against unwanted pickup such as mains hum

Mains hum

Mains hum, electric hum, or power line hum is an audible oscillation of alternating current at the frequency of the mains electricity, which is usually 50 Hz or 60 Hz, depending on the local power line frequency...

.

Flight case

The EB-18 was supplied with a quality hard flight case. The EB-18 body fits into the shaped recess and the case takes account of the oddly shaped 'lizard-looking head and large tuning lugs. There is a pair of compartments inside for cable

Cable

A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...

s and other items. The inside is lined with a soft, burnt orange color, fur-like material. The case is closed with four toggle

Toggle

Toggle may refer to:*Toggle mechanism*Toggle switch*Toggling harpoon*A type of textile closure, like an elongated button*Toggle , a character in the comic strip Doonesbury...

 latches and has a centrally placed carrying handle.

Popularity

The EB-18 was not all that popular among bass players, and total production has been estimated at 874. The more expensive follow-up model, the EB-28, was even less popular with a total production of 217 units.
See also: E-18 series guitars
Martin did not resume building basses until 1989 (during the MTV Unplugged

MTV Unplugged

MTV Unplugged is a TV series showcasing many popular musical artists usually playing acoustic instruments. The show has received the George Foster Peabody Award and 3 Primetime Emmy nominations among many accolades.-Unplugged:...

era), in which their approach was more consistent with company history:

Acoustic bass

Martin's B series basses were big flat-tops with 34"-scale mahogany necks. Designed by Dick Boak, these ABGs used the same bodies as Martin's Jumbo guitars; measuring 16" wide with a depth of 4 7/8", they were large enough to produce decent acoustic volume without being ungainly like other maker's attempts. The top was solid spruce, the fingerboard was ebony, and the body was either solid East Indian Rosewood (B40) or solid flamed maple (B-65). A Fishman bridge-pickup system was available adding an "E" in the model number. Both basses were also available with fretless fingerboards.
In 1992, two more models were added, the single-cutaway BC-40 and the 5-string B-540.
Although widely admired for their high quality and lovely appointments, they proved to have limited appeal due to their $2000-plus list prices. By 1997, all four of these initial basses were dropped in favor of the B-1, a lower-priced ABG with laminated mahogany sides as part of Martin's 1 series of guitars. The BM, an even less expensive model in Martin's now discontinued Road series soon followed; it had laminated mahogany sides with a solid mahogany back. Also around this time electronics became standard on Martin basses. The most recent additions are the BC-15, a single-cutaway version with a mahogany top, the BC-16GTE, also a single-cutaway with solid Genuine mahogany back and sides with a gloss top, and the 00C-16GTAE, which is a slimmer thin-line version of the previously mentioned model. As a special edition, Martin offered the Alternative X Bass with jet black High Pressure Laminate back and sides and a Graffiti-patterned Aluminum finish top. This bass was very similar in build to the other guitars in Martin's X series. There have been two Limited Edition Martin acoustic bass models. The first, the SWB Sting Signature Model, was released in 1999 and was made with woods certified by the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program. The SWB's top is made with book matched solid Sitka spruce reclaimed from pulp logs, the back, sides and neck are solid certified cherry, and the fingerboard is certified katalox. Sting's signature is inlaid between the 18th and 19th frets, and a label inside the body states that a portion of the sale price is donated to the Rainforest Foundation International. The second and more recent Limited Edition is the B-28KV Klaus Voormann Signature model released in 2008 for the German market. It has a Sitka spruce top with Solid East Indian Rosewood back and sides and a black Ebony fingerboard. The headstock features a unique art design by Klaus as a circular inlay making each bass a one-of-a-kind. In addition to these U.S.-made instruments, Martin also markets Sigma ABGs made in Korea.

External links

• Company website
• 2006 Christian F. Martin IV Interview
• 2006 Dick Boak Interview - Boak is Martin Guitars Director of Artist and Limited Editions
• Early history of C.F. Martin & Company
• Video "Martin Guitars New Museum" WLVT Television News Show "Tempo" Episode 545, last segment, features interview with C.F. Martin IV..
• Company Information, Guitar Specifications and Famous Players
• Archive of Vintage and Custom Martin guitars by Guitarbench.com