Front detail of CF Martin's very popular 000-28EC model, showing the solid Sitka spruce soundboard, finely inlaid herringbone rosette and their instantly recognisable, much-copied, trademark "comma-shaped" pickguard

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Acoustic Martin

C.F. Martin & Company (Martin) is a US guitar manufacturer that was established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. more...

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Martin is renowned for its high quality acoustic guitars, and is arguably the world's pre-eminent mass manufacturer of flattop acoustics with models that retail for thousands of dollars and vintage instruments that often fetch 6 figures at resale. The company also made several models of electric guitars and electric basses.

The company has been run by the Martin family for all of its history; its current chairman and CEO, C.F. 'Chris' Martin IV, is the great-great-great-grandson of the founder. Many characteristic features of the modern flatop steel strung acoustic guitar were first introduced by the firm. Some influential creations of the company include the "Dreadnought" body style and scalloped "X bracing".

The company's headquarters and primary factory are in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, located in the Lehigh Valley region of the state.

History

Link to CF Martin's own written history.

Born in 1796 in Markneukirchen, Germany, C.F. Martin came from a long line of cabinet makers and woodworkers. By the age of 15 he was an apprentice 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. Shortly after opening he became embroiled in a controversy between two guilds.

At the time European craftsmen 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. Although the cabinet makers successfully defended their rights to build guitars, Martin decided that the guild system was too restrictive, and in 1833 he moved to New York City. Apparently uncomfortable with the pace and style of big-city life, by 1838 he had moved his operation to Nazareth.

In the 1850's Martin developed one of its major technological innovations for the guitar, the "X bracing" system. The musical and structural integrity of an acoustic guitar is a balance between the need to allow the soundboard of the guitar to resonate freely for acoustic purposes versus the compensation needed for maintaining structural integrity over the long term. By gluing struts of wood to the underside of the top of the guitar in a modified "X" brace pattern, Martin invented a design that successfully met these competing demands: the compromise being pleasing to the ear of players and listeners as well as the demands of time, with instruments of 100+ years of age still being eminently playable.

A steel-string guitar tuned to concert pitch can put tension of 180 pounds force (800 N) on the top of the guitar. The X brace 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; being scalloped and tuned in order to aid in the resonance and integrity of the guitar top, such capability being performed by skilled artisans and not readily reproducable by machine. This work is an important factor in determining the timbre or "tone" 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.