CENTURY OF PROGRESS
The X-braced, steel-string, 14-fret neck, large-bodied American flat-top is an icon of modern times. It is the people’s guitar – the genre-spanning voice of generations. But it took many years of experimentation and ingenuity before Martin finally evolved the instrument in the late 1920s and 30s into what many consider to be the pinnacle of acoustic guitar building. For that reason, the basic design hasn’t changed much since then. Indeed, there has long been a common emphasis on looking back to the pre-war period of production as a benchmark for quality.
The story of Martin guitars begins in 1796 with the birth of company founder Christian Frederick Martin Sr in Markneukirchen, Germany. Around this time, the instrument as we know it today with six single strings was just becoming established in Europe as luthiers increasingly shifted away from building the earlier-style double course-stringed baroque guitars during the latter half of the 18th century.
“When CF Martin Sr was born, the six-string guitar was a rather new development,” CF Martin & Co’s museum and archives specialist, Jason Ahner, tells us. “At some point in the 1700s, they figured the guitar should have six strings and the idea eventually stuck.
“CF Sr’s grandfather
