Martin acoustic guitars are some of the most popular and well-known high-end acoustic guitars in the world. They're owned and played by pop stars like Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes. In the past, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and Bob Dylan all have used Martin guitars. Martin is one of the oldest guitar brands still active, having opened in 1833 in downtown Manhattan, New York. Today, the company is based in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and is still owned by the descendants of its founder, Christian Frederick Martin.
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00:00 Carving this bracing is the most crucial step in building a CF Martin & Company acoustic
00:07 guitar.
00:08 But you won't even see it on the finished product.
00:12 This X-shaped pattern of wood under the hood is what gives Martin guitars their signature
00:17 sound.
00:18 It'll cost you at least $2,800 for Martin's most iconic American-made model, the D28.
00:27 But that's nothing compared to the priciest guitar Martin sells, a limited edition Dreadnought
00:32 that goes for $125,000.
00:36 And on the secondary market, the instruments sell for even more.
00:41 Some of the oldest in Martin's collection are estimated to be worth nearly half a million
00:45 dollars.
00:47 This is our pre-war D45.
00:49 This guitar sold for around $240 when it was new, and now it's worth six figures, well
00:54 into six figures.
00:56 And while its reputation among celebrities contributes to the brand's popularity, musicians
01:02 say there's a one-of-a-kind sound a Martin acoustic guitar makes.
01:13 So what exactly makes these guitars sound different?
01:20 And is that why they're so expensive?
01:28 My goal is to make a million-dollar Martin.
01:30 I haven't done it yet.
01:32 Chris Martin IV is the sixth generation of his family to run the company.
01:37 His namesake, Christian Frederick Martin, founded the company in 1833.
01:42 I work at a company that makes the best of its kind.
01:46 I work at a company that makes the real thing.
01:49 We're not making a commodity.
01:50 We're not making a copy of a Martin guitar.
01:53 We're still making the original Martin guitar.
01:56 Martin employs about 1,100 people across its two factories in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and
02:02 Navajo, Mexico.
02:04 The craftspeople in Nazareth work on the high-end models and custom designs.
02:10 It all starts with selecting the right wood.
02:13 Guitars and other instruments use what are called tonewoods.
02:18 These have special properties that vibrate and transmit the ideal sound for musical instruments.
02:24 Typically, spruce is used for the tops and bottoms, rosewood for the sides, and maple
02:29 or mahogany for the neck.
02:31 But Martin uses a wide variety of woods for its instruments.
02:36 These tonewoods are responsible for the clear, bell-like tone that musicians like Craig Thatcher
02:42 say is a key difference in Martin's acoustic guitars.
02:45 Every guitar has their own voice, particularly acoustic guitars.
02:51 And there is a Martin tone, a Martin voice that you can distinguish when they're hearing
02:57 it on the radio, hearing it on records, hearing it being played on movie soundtracks.
03:01 The Martin guitar really stands out.
03:04 That tone.
03:05 It's a full and rich, vibrant sound with deep and full basses, a really great mid-range,
03:12 nice high end that cuts through.
03:15 The tops and bottoms are not one piece, but actually a panel that has been carefully sliced
03:19 in half and opened like a book, then glued together at the edges.
03:25 This book-matching helps create a perfectly symmetrical pattern.
03:31 These pieces are then checked for quality in a process known as candling.
03:35 Candling is a light that shines through the wood.
03:41 And back in the old days, they used to use a regular candle and do it like that, but
03:46 now they upgraded it, thank God.
03:49 Dee has been with Martin for 21 years, and she has spent the last nine working in the
03:54 candling department looking for any imperfections before they progress any further down the
03:59 assembly line.
04:01 What we do is we grade the wood.
04:03 It goes from two to eight, and then what we do is we candle to look for any sap pockets
04:11 or pitch pockets or knots or anything like that.
04:15 Like Dee, many of the workers in Martin's factory have been with the company for a long
04:20 time.
04:21 Rodney Tashner, who currently runs the laser cutter, has been working the line for 33 years.
04:28 We are running a 400-watt laser machine here, cut out all the tops, sides, backs, most of
04:34 all, pretty much all flat stock that's run on here.
04:41 The next step is the most crucial to Martin's signature sound, the bracing.
04:47 Bracing refers to a hidden pattern of wood glued under the top of the guitar for structural
04:52 support.
04:53 All acoustic guitars require bracing, but designing effective bracing is complicated.
05:00 Because the guitar's top is the most important factor of its sound, it's crucial to not burden
05:05 it with too much wood.
05:07 One of the things when you're looking at an acoustic guitar, you want it to be structurally
05:12 sound, but you also want it to sound good, because if we brace this too heavy, the top's
05:17 not going to vibrate freely.
05:18 And if we don't brace the top strong enough, it could just implode on itself.
05:24 In the 1840s, Christian Frederick Martin invented this X-pattern, which provides plenty of structural
05:30 integrity without sacrificing tone.
05:32 The design was so successful that almost all steel string acoustic guitars made today use
05:38 the pattern.
05:39 And, you know, what's that old saying?
05:41 If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we are very flattered because we are very
05:47 imitated.
05:48 A craftsperson will glue the pieces onto the surface with fish glue and use this machine
05:54 to hold everything in place while it dries.
05:58 These thin pieces of wood are positioned and then carved into the right shape based on
06:03 each guitar model.
06:06 After I take the guitar, I'll shape down all the braces to a certain size and sand them
06:11 down and round them out.
06:13 Every model has its own particular needs.
06:16 They're all very different and we do have to memorize quite a bit of them.
06:21 There's about like 50 different patterns that I have to memorize.
06:26 I started back in September and it took me about four months, five months before I could
06:32 really start doing these myself.
06:35 There is a lot of training that goes into it.
06:37 The sides of the guitar are separate pieces of rosewood, which are steam pressed into
06:42 this curved shape and glued together to form the rim.
06:46 A perforated ribbon of Spanish cedar is attached around the edges for additional support using
06:51 clothes pins.
06:53 The ribbon adds surface area that will assist with attaching the top and bottom.
06:58 As much as we do on the outside, we try to clean up all the glue inside and make sure
07:03 all of the ribbons where it should be and, you know, braces are fit nice and snug in
07:09 their pockets.
07:11 Aluminium casting is used to attach the top and bottom to the rim and hold everything
07:16 together while it dries.
07:18 Next, either this machine or a craftsperson cuts a channel around the edge of the guitar,
07:23 a process called freezing, to make space for the binding strip.
07:32 The body is sanded and sprayed with fillers, sealers, toners and stains to protect the
07:39 wood.
07:41 And it's left to hang dry in a curing room at a high temperature until the finishing
07:46 has hardened.
07:48 Though many steps of the process are still done by hand, Martin has started to incorporate
07:52 robotics into its assembly line, some of which were built and designed in-house in its machining
07:59 department.
08:02 This giant robotic arm, for example, suctions onto the wood and is programmed to buff each
08:07 body at very specific pressures.
08:11 The necks of the guitars go through their own parallel production process.
08:15 First, they're cut separately into identical base pieces.
08:19 Then, they're sanded down into shape by hand.
08:24 Each model requires a different neck shape, so craftspeople use these metal gauges to
08:28 keep all the shapes consistent.
08:30 Then, the fingerboard, frets and nut are added at stations down the line.
08:39 But before a guitar can be glued together, a technician will perform a pre-fit to ensure
08:44 everything aligns perfectly.
08:47 Steve Miller has worked for Martin for 26 years, and for him, it's a family tradition.
08:53 Yeah, we have a lot of family.
08:56 I could sit here and go, my uncle, my aunts, my sister works here.
09:01 I had a grandfather that worked here.
09:04 Yeah, we go back way back, since 1833.
09:09 Once assembled, the guitar goes into this machine, called a pleg, which simulates the
09:14 tension of the strings and makes computerized adjustments to the frets to ensure the guitar
09:19 is perfectly intonated and playable.
09:23 But the final and most crucial step is to string up the guitar and play it.
09:29 Only a human being like Matt Hotchkiss is suitable for this task.
09:34 This is my first job in the factory, yes.
09:37 I was lucky.
09:38 I've been a musician for about eight, nine years now.
09:40 I went to school for music, came out, and then I started working here.
09:44 Just inspecting guitars has been a dream, so it's been great.
09:47 My grandfather had an old '76 D35 that I've been playing since I was very young.
09:52 And it was important to me to work here when I graduated college, just so it lived on through
09:57 my family and through me.
09:59 Matthew will make sure everything looks perfect before stringing the guitar, tuning it, and
10:05 gluing on the pickguard.
10:08 It does take a steady hand to make sure you get it right, but we do use a little bit of
10:12 a marking to make sure.
10:14 We also look for any type of defects within the guitar, like any dents or anything that
10:20 has happened throughout the process.
10:22 And last but not least, he will test it out.
10:34 And place it in the case for the customer.
10:46 Martin's guitars have evolved significantly over the 200 years of the company's existence.
10:52 Just take a look and listen to this model from 1834, the oldest guitar in its collection.
10:57 You can see it's very different from what we build now.
11:00 There's a heavy violin influence.
11:02 It has maple back and sides that figure a body shape.
11:09 The company invented the iconic extra large dreadnought style guitar, named after a World
11:14 War I battleship.
11:17 Martin saw a surge in demand for its guitars during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many people
11:22 stuck at home looking for something to do.
11:26 It's seen about 20 to 30% growth per year over the last two years.
11:32 So COVID created a guitar boom.
11:35 It wasn't a boom that was good for everyone in the music industry.
11:38 It was good for you if you made something that you could play at home or home recording.
11:43 It was not good if you made giant stadium PA systems.
11:47 But the popularity of acoustic guitars also means more trees being cut down.
11:52 So Martin says it's made a big push towards sustainability.
11:56 They're called rare exotic timbers for a reason, because they're becoming more rare and more
12:00 exotic.
12:01 So we not only have to be more judicious in how we use these traditional woods, we absolutely
12:08 positively have to look for alternatives.
12:12 While Martin guitars may be expensive, price isn't the only consideration for dedicated
12:17 guitarists.
12:19 When you put the money into a guitar, you expect it to really respond.
12:24 It becomes, it's almost like it's a part of you.
12:28 It really, it's an extension of the artist.
12:32 And why would you not want to have the best that you possibly can afford?
12:38 And though high-end guitars tend to age like wines, increasing in value and quality over
12:43 time, Chris says players shouldn't buy Martins as just a monetary investment.
12:49 Having a Martin guitar that you can play is more fun than looking at your 401k account.
12:54 And if at the end of the day your old Martin guitar was worth more than your 401k account,
13:00 bonus.
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