C.F. Martin & Company is a guitar manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. It is primarily known for its high-quality acoustic guitars. 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 acoustic guitar were first introduced by the firm. The most influential creations of the company are the "Dreadnought" body style and scalloped X bracing. The classical guitar typically has 3 nylon and 3 nickel-wound strings. ... 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... An acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the Classical guitar, but generally strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. ...

The company's headquarters are in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Nazareth is a borough located in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. ...

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. 1796 was a leap year starting on Friday. ... Artists can use woodworking to create delicate sculptures. ... This article is about the city and federal state in Austria. ... A guild is an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of morality or conduct. ...

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. Craftsman is an artisan who practices a handicraft or trade; a style of architecture and furniture arising from the Arts and Crafts movement; a military rank within the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, equivalent to a private; and a brand of tools. ... 1833 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1838 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

In the 1850's Martin developed one of its major technological innovations for the guitar, the "X bracing" system. By gluing thin strips of wood to the underside of the top of the guitar in a modified "X" pattern, the structural stability of the guitar is greatly increased. (A steel-string guitar tuned to concert pitch can put as much as 180 pounds of tension on the top of the guitar.) The X brace helps to prevent the top of the guitar from warping under this pressure. The bracing strips are usually carved at various points (or "scalloped") in order to fine-tune the resonance of the guitar top. This is an important factor in determining the timbre or "tone" of the guitar. In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. ... This article is about resonance in physics. ... In music, timbre is the quality of a musical note which distinguishes different types of musical instrument. ...

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. Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... Country music, once known as Country and Western music, is a popular musical form developed in the southern United States, with roots in traditional folk music, spirituals, and the blues. ... Catgut, the name applied to cord of great toughness and tenacity prepared from the intestines of sheep, or occasionally from those of the horse, mule and ass. ...

The company'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. However, the Great Depression quickly had a drastic effect on sales, and Martin came up with two further innovations in an attempt to regain business. Carved and round backed mandolins (front) A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument. ... Ukulele The ukulele (pronounced OO-koo-LAY-lay, or the Anglicised YOU-ka-LAY-lee), or uke, is a fretted string instrument which is, in its construction, essentially a smaller, four-stringed version of the guitar. ... --209. ...

One of these was the 14-fret neck, which allowed a greater range of notes. Most guitars at the time had only 12 frets on the neck. 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. The neck of a steel-string acoustic guitar showing the first four frets. ... The classical guitar typically has 3 nylon and 3 nickel-wound strings. ...

The second innovation was the Dreadnought guitar. Originally devised in 1916 as a collaboration between Martin and a prominent retailer, the Dreadnought body style was larger and deeper than most guitars. 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 the "standard" acoustic guitar. 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Bass (IPA: [], rhyming with face), when used as an adjective, describes tones of low frequency. ... In music accompaniment is the art of playing along with a soloist or ensemble in a supporting manner. ...

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.

In 1979 Martin opens its "Custom Shop" division.

In 1990 Martin builds its 500,000th guitar, and in 2004 they build their millionth guitar.

Construction

One of the reasons for Martin's notable reputation is the quality of the woods that it uses in its guitars.

Models

For many years Martin has used a model-labeling system that consists of an initial letter or series of zeros that specifies the body size and type 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). A pickup device acts as a detector and captures mechanical vibrations (usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar and violin) and converts them to an electronic signal which can be amplified and recorded. ...

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, Merle Haggard and Stephen Stills. Eric Clapton Eric Clapton CBE (born Eric Patrick Clapp on March 30, 1945) is a British guitarist and composer, nicknamed slowhand. ... Merle Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is a United States country music singer and songwriter. ... Stephen Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (at first it was Crosby, Stills and Nash; Young joined the group after their first album). ...

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 top, solid mahogany back, laminated mahogany sides, tortoiseshell binding, rosewood fingerboard.
• 000-28ECB: The "Eric Clapton" model. Same size as the above guitar, constructed with higher-quality woods (especially the extremely rare Brazilian species of rosewood), a different shape to the neck, and greater ornamentation.
• D-1: Dreadnought version of the "000-1".
• D-28: Dreadnought guitar, solid Sitka spruce top, solid East Indian rosewood back and sides, ebony fingerboard, black and white binding and ornamentation.
• D-45: Similar to the "D-28" with much greater and more complex ornamentation, including abalone shell inlays (also commonly known as "mother-of-pearl".)
• J-40: a "Jumbo" sized guitar, slightly larger than a Dreadnought. Woods and ornamentation similar to the "D-28."
• Backpacker: a very small guitar with a body shaped like an elongated triangle, designed to be very portable and inexpensive while still being constructed of quality woods.

Binomial name Picea sitchensis (Bong. ... Genera and Species Entandophragma - Utile or African Mahogany Guarea - Pink Mahogany Khaya - Ivory Coast Mahogany - Senegal Mahogany Swietenia - Honduras Mahogany - West Indian Mahogany Toona - Indian Mahogany - Chinese Mahogany This article is about the trees in the family Meliaceae. ... A laminate is a material constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. ... For the village of this name, see Rosewood, Florida. ... The fingerboard, also known as a fretboard, is a part of most stringed instruments. ... Species Indian and Ceylon Ebony Coromandel Ebony Black Ebony Ebony is a fine grained timber of several species of the persimmon genus Diospyros. ... A piece of abalone shell Abalone is the Spanish name used in the United States for various species of shellfish (mollusks) from the Haliotidae family (genus Haliotis), with a richly coloured (on the inside__the outside is rough and mostly brown) shell yielding mother_of_pearl. ... A piece of nacre Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an organic mixture of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of platy crystals of aragonite and conchiolin (a scleroprotein). ...

Bibliography

• Martin Guitars: An Illustrated Celebration of America's Premier Guitarmaker, Jim Washburn, Richard Johnston, and Stephen Stills, ISBN 0762104279
• C.F. Martin and His Guitars, 1796-1973, Philip F. Gura, ISBN 0807828017
• The Guitar Handbook, Ralph Denyer, pp. 36-45, ISBN 0394712579

External links

• Company website (http://www.mguitar.com/)