ENJOY ABOUT
THE C.F. MARTIN & COMPANY

C.F. Martin & Company (Martin) is an American guitar manufacturer that was established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin.

Martin has always been renowned for its high quality acoustic guitars, and is now 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 six figures at resale. Martin also made several models of electric guitars and electric basses.

Martin Company History

Martin 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.

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

Martin's Founder

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. Obviously uncomfortable with the pace and style of big-city life, by 1838 he had moved his operation to Nazareth, PA.

The Martin Company

In the 1850's the Martin company developed one of its best technological innovations for the guitar, the X bracing system on the N20. 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.

The growing popularity of the guitar in the early 1900s, fueled by the growing popularity of folk music and country and western music, led to a demand for louder and more percussive guitars. This led to many companies beginning to string their guitars with metal instead of catgut. These became known as steel-string guitars, and Martin began concentrating on this type of guitar by 1921.

Martin's reputation and production continued to grow. Forays into mandolin making in the late 1890s and ukulele making in the 1920s greatly contributed to their expansion, and by 1928 they were making over 5000 instruments per year. Remaining a family-owned business, the company employed 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 long as three years. In 1964 they opened a new plant which is still the primary Martin production facility.

Martin Innovations

The Great Depression 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 neck, which allowed a greater range of notes, and which was meant to appeal to banjo players. Most guitars at the time had only 12 frets where the neck joins the body. This idea 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, although classical guitars retained the 12-fret neck. Some recent electric guitars go well beyond 14 frets.

The second innovation was the Dreadnought guitar.  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. This led to its name; at about the same time the British Navy shocked the world by launching a battleship that was considerably larger than any in service. From the idea that a ship that big would have to fear nothing, it was christened "HMS Dreadnought." Martin recognized a perfect marketing tie-in when they saw one, and 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 instrument for singers. Poorly received at the time of its introduction, when Martin reintroduced the style in 1931 it quickly became their best-selling guitar. Again, the rest of the industry soon followed, and today the "Dreadnought" size and shape is considered one of the "standard" acoustic guitar shapes.

The 1960s

During the late 1960s, Martin manufactured hollow-body electric guitars that were similar to those manufactured by Gretsch. Martin's electric guitars were not popular and the company has since continued to concentrate on the manufacture of a wide range of high quality acoustics. They also brought back the famous D-45 in 1968.

During the 1960's, many musicians preferred Martin guitars built before World War I to more recent guitars of the same model. The pre-War guitars were believed to have internal bracing carved more skilfully than later instruments, producing better resonance. Although Martin continued to make all these models and continually added innovations, musicians liked the old ones better, and they gladly paid premium prices for vintage Martins. This trend has continued...

At present, almost any 'old' guitar is valuable to collectors, if not to musicians.

Christie's Auction House sets new records every year, as it does with paintings. One suspects that scarcity, new wealth, and the psychology of speculation are behind these prices, more so than musical quality...