Martin GPCE Inception Maple Debuts

The innovative Martin GPCE Inception Maple breaks new ground

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Environmentally friendly woods and enhanced bracing marry with hopes for a future of sustainable, beautiful music

SEE THE FULL REVIEW WITH VIDEO HERE!

Incept Date: 01092024

Place of origin: Nazareth, PA, USA, Earth

Launched toward the future with appropriate celebration at C.F. Martin & Co., established in 1833 and boldly venturing into new territory in 2024, the Martin GPCE Inception Maple is an acoustic-electric guitar made in Martin’s Grand Performance body size with a Cutaway treble bout, representing the inception of a new Inception Series of Martin guitars that will feature domestic American tonewoods including Maple, in combination with environmentally sustainable tonewood from abroad, and the latest tone-enhancing technology inside the sold wood sound chamber.

In this case, the top is made from FSC certified European spruce. FSC standing for the Forest Stewardship Council, the world-wide entity assuring consumers that these certified natural resources were obtained from forests that are manged in an environmentally-friendly way with an eye on sustainability and with the greatest respect for the residents living within the forest.

The back and sides are made from maple grown in the USA, with a center plate of black walnut on the back that likely adds some tonal coloring to the voice of the instrument. Walnut is often described as a cross between mahogany and rosewood, but deserves its own place in the pantheon of true tonewoods that generate a pleasing sound capable of creating beautiful music. The fingerboard and bridge are also made from black walnut, as is the body binding and the decorative face plate at the front of the headstock.

This back does not have the usual alternating three-wedge shape of a Style 35 Martin. Instead, the center plate has a gentle curve to it. This is but one new aesthetic change from typical Martins.

While the back, sides, and top feature a new “amber fade” sunburst under a satin finish, the final production model retains important features of the Standard Series, like solid tonewoods throughout and the traditional, full-size dovetail neck joint. It also has the full complement of scalloped braces on the inside of the soundboard, except for a most unusual top plate that is only on the bass side of the upper bout.

However, this version of the traditional Martin-invented X-bracing is enhanced with a honeycomb of empty space, where mass was removed from the struts of the otherwise solid spruce X brace and the large traverse brace on the opposite side of the sound hole.

(click to enlarge photos)

The purpose of this laser-cut spacing is twofold. It increases the flexibility of the bracing around the sound hole while maintaining a structural integrity that keeps the top from collapsing from the pounds of tension brought to bear on the soundboard by the taught steel strings. It is an achievement of engineering both elegant and practical, invented centuries ago for weighty yet airy stone structures like the cloisters of medieval abbeys and cathedrals. But here it is brilliantly applied in miniature for a light, solid-wood soundboard of a world-class musical instrument.

Another significant enhancement is implementation of “sonic channels” cut into the solid spruce soundboard, around each brace and tone bar, and along most of the circumference of the soundboard. This allows the sold top to respond more-easily to the vibrations passing through it.

Soundboard channeling is an idea that has been explored by other guitar makers, but not nearly to this extent or in the same patterns. This feature also appears around the back braces that have been redesigned to allow the back to contribute to sonic resonance, not just passively reflect the sound waves generated by the spruce top.

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While I could go on about the development of this project based on insider tidbits, I felt it best to prevail upon the man inside Martin Guitars who knows more about it than anyone, Vice President of Product Management Fred Greene. Fred was happy to share some exclusive insight with One Man’s Guitar about the evolution of the GPCE Inception Maple in his own words, and how this exciting new Martin guitar is but the vanguard of the bold future ahead for America’s most venerable musical instrument maker.

OMG: How long has this project been in the works?

FG: The project has been in the works for about 18 months.

OMG: What were the origins of this new model?

FG:   It started with a desire to highlight the possibilities of sustainable domestic hardwoods in guitar construction. 

OMG: Martin has made some very successful models with sustainable domestic tonewoods, like maple and walnut, yet not many, and nothing with this combination of body size and tonewoods. What was behind the inception of the Inception?

FG: I knew we couldn’t simply make another maple Dreadnaught and leave it at that.  It’s been done by us and others in the past. Too often big manufacturers get lazy and stop innovating. When that happens, new models can be met with a collective yawn from guitar players. I felt we needed to make changes in how we designed this musical instrument on a deeper level.

OMG: Well, nothing is boring about this new maple model! Who was the primary designer of the GPCE Inception Maple?

Like most projects at Martin, it was a team effort. But as the leader of the product team, I instigated a change in our approach stemming from my desire to show off the potential of these woods by combining the technology we have developed over the past 190 years with innovations we developed in the twenty-first century. That was the mission I tasked the team to embark upon.  

Nate Hoffman, our R&D leader, took up the challenge and his team really dug deep and presented us with some cool concepts.  Those concepts were discussed, massaged, prototyped, and eventually agreed upon by myself, designers Tim Teel and Rameen Shayegan, and the production team.  We felt it was very important that we showed the world that Martin continues to innovate and explore the possibilities presented by a changing world of materials and technology.

OMG: How are the gorgeous, skeletonized braces created?

FG: The new braces are created using lasers.  We realize we are not the first company to put holes in braces.  Small one-off builders have done this in the past.  However, I believe Martin is the first “major” builder to do it in a true product guitar.  It was fun developing a weight-relieving pattern that was both visually appealing and strong.

OMG: How do they affect things like energy transference and tone production?

The general concept is simple.  By lightening the weight of the braces, and consequently the top, less energy is required of the strings to move the top.  Thus making the instrument more responsive and increasing sustain. 

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photo: C.F. Martin & Co.

 

Maple tends to compress sound in acoustic guitars with traditional builds so that all you hear is the fundamental notes without any pleasant overtones.  We wanted to allow the guitar to move a little more and offset some of that compression.  We wanted to open it up. This bracing in combination with the new sonic channels set into the underside of the soundboard more than accomplished that goal.

OMG:  Why the Grand Performance body size?

We saw this guitar as a stage guitar for a singer/songwriter and the GPC seemed like a natural canvas for something new.  We thought if we started with a Dreadnaught or 000 it would simply draw too many comparisons to existing models that already have a very established sound signature.  We didn’t think these traditional shapes would be the right formula or recipe for the player we were targeting. 

OMG:  Might we assume the new Marting GPCE Inception Maple is so named because this is the beginning of a new trend at Martin Guitar?  Should we expect to see other models featuring domestic American tonewoods and the new bracing and sonic channels under the top?

You are correct that the Inception is the first of several new guitars that will be coming in the future using more sustainable woods.  It’s exciting because these new guitars will allow us to offer new designs and hopefully give guitar players more options and sounds to explore.

Well, it’s been worth the wait to see the end results of this long-anticipated project. Now I have to wait a little longer to play and hear the finished product officially being released at the NAMM show on January 24, 2024.

Many More Photos Here

Check out the Martins and More podcast where Spoon Phillips and Maury Rutch share even more information about the minds and muscles that created this super cool new Martin GPCE Inception Maple, below.

Style 16 Guitars of the 1980s and Early 1990s?

A reader asks about the Style 16 guitars from the 1980s…

“Where does the 16 Series fit in? I have a 1989 D-16M that is indistinguishable in every way, including spec wise, from a traditional D-18.” — Aden in South Africa

Spoon replies:

Congratulations on your D-16M. It is one of the lesser-known but wonderful Martin models. So too are the 000-16 and 000C-16 from the same era.

But the D-16M at that time was anything but exactly like a traditional D-18, of that era anyway. It is closer to the D-18V from the Vintage Series, minus the V neck.

The D-18 in those days had a black pickguard and black binding, and white domino dots for fret position markers – and non-scalloped bracing. The 1989 D-16M had the tortoise trim and pickguard, Style 17 dots  – and scalloped braces with a smaller maple bridge plate, at a time when most Martins did not get those very excellent construction features.

1989 Martin D-16M onemanz.com

The D-16M also had the Low Profile neck shape years before the standard D-18 got it. But 1989 might have been the first year of that neck shape moving to the D-18. They had been making the D-18P (P for the new neck profile) for three years by that time and 1989 is the first year they did not. But they did make the D-28P, HD-28P and D-35P that year, so the official change from the Full Thickness profile to the Low Profile on what we now call Standard Series instruments may have taken place in 1990.

What makes them desirable to me is the scalloped bracing at a time when the D-18 had non-scalloped bracing. The same goes for the 000-16 and 000C-16. Not only that, the 000s have 1/4″ scalloped bracing, and they have a long-scale neck. So they are really more like an OM-18 than the 000-18 of the day, except for the 1-11/16″ nut width. And the version with the oval cutaway has a 22 fret neck! Clearly meant for electric guitarists. Mine is from 1991.

Martin 000C-16 T Spoon Phillips onemanz.com

But Style 16 was always changing. Some 1980s 16s were made with black binding, others have tortoise; with satin finish or with full gloss; with vintage toner on the top or not; and some were made with the light stain normally used for maple guitars.

When Style 16 first appeared in 1961, it was limited to 12-fret guitars in size 0 that were lightly built to be used with nylon or extra light steel strings, and given the suffix NY in homage to the Martins from the 1800s that were sold with a label reading New York, NY, because that was where Martin’s lone distributor did business. A 00-21NY was made at the same time. In 1962 a size 5 guitar was offered in Style 16 as well.

When Style 16 returned in the mid-1980s as a collection of 14-fret guitars, it was sort of the mahogany version of Style 21 vis-a-vis Style 28. It got slightly lower-grade wood than the 18 (even if the woods are better than what you see on an 18 today.) And they had smaller dots previously used on Style 17 instruments in the 1950s, as well as no inlay around the top or back.

But otherwise, they have the full dovetail neck joint and solid American mahogany neck block, and with all the same construction of what we now call the Standard Series, which make them ridiculously great guitars to have now, after seasoning all those years. This is especially true for mahogany lovers, since there were no mahogany Martins made with scalloped bracing at that time. And of course, it is all tropical American Big Leaf mahogany, not the stuff from Africa used on the 16 Series today.

The 16s did not appear in the Martin catalog at first. They were built for export and sold mainly in Canada. But they were also sold as NAMM Show Specials for American dealers who made the effort to attend the trade shows. They proved so popular that they were eventually added to the official price lists.

They made 660 D-16M guitars in 1989. (A total of 2,120 were made in years 1986, 1987, 1989, and 1990.) They also made the D-16A (ash back and sides, 818 total, 1987, 1988, 1990) D-16W (walnut, 100 total, 1987) and D-16K (koa, 390 total in 1986.)

D-16A ash back and sides onemanz.com

D-16A with ash back and sides

In addition, the D-16 was replaced by the D-16H which had slightly different trim each year (1,692 made between 1991 -1994.) But all have had a herringbone back strip and rosette, like Vintage Style 21. Those features would eventually become the hallmarks of Style 16 of the 1990s and the modern 16 Series instruments that followed.

Although production numbers for the 000-16  and 000C-16 (the M was not always included in the stamp) were not much less than the D models, the non-cutaway 000-16M is far more rare on the used market. I guess that speaks to how much their owners love them.

When they do show up for sale they are still priced between $1K – 1.5K. The Ds go for around the same amount. These are ridiculously good bargains for such excellent guitars.

The chief reason these gems are undervalued is because in late 1995 a certain bean counter did away with these great guitars and replaced them with the Mortise and Tenon neck joint version that had the A-Frame bracing necessary for that design. The change was all about maximizing profits on a relatively more-affordable Martin guitar. Many people assume the 16s always were that way.

For those in the know, the 16s made from 1986 until the switch sometime in 1995 are awesome and ahead of their time when it came to styling and scalloped bracing. There are various time periods when Martin was trying things out on their way to codifying this or that, and sometimes they accidentally invented an excellent if short-lived model. The D-16 built between 1986 to 1994 is definitely one of them, no matter which exact version it is.

In my opinion, today’s 16 Series guitars are greatly improved from the ones made in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and are aimed at electrified performance. They all have built-in pickup systems and the larger bodies have the reduced depth of a 000 for anti-feedback purposes. They are immensely popular with good reason. But I always tell people that if they find a pre-1995 16 in good shape, buy it!

And that is one man’s word on…

Martin Style 16 from the 1980s and early 1990s

D’Angelico New Guitars and Aged Mahogany Finish for 2021

New High End and Entry Level D’Angelico Acoustics

Retro Looks Awesome on Modern D’Angelico

Two new solid-wood models have been released by D’Angelico, each has mahogany back and sides, a Sitka spruce top with scalloped bracing and an abalone rosette, and a bound pau ferro fingerboard. They also feature the Scroll-style Excel headstock, seen for the first time on D’Angelico acoustics, and a Fishman INK-4 pickup system with controls in the treble side of the guitar, as well as an onboard tuner. Finish options include Vintage Sunburst, Walnut Stain, and Vintage Natural.

Click on Photo to Enlarge

Excel Tammany XT

The OM sized Excel Tammany XT is here seen in Vintage Sunburst.
 D‘Angelico EOXT onemanz

Excel Gramercy XT

An upgraded, all-solid version of D’Angelico’s top-selling single-cutaway grand auditorium instrument, the Excel Gramercy XT is seen here in Walnut Stain.

D‘Angelico EG200XT onmanz

Aged Mahogany Finish

D’Angelico’s Premiere Series offers affordable acoustic-electric models in various sizes and shapes made with laminated mahogany back, sides, and top, and an artistically distressed finish, equipped with an onboard preamp and tuner.

Visit D’Angelico Guitars to learn more

dangelico-premier-acoustic-aged-mahogany finish onemanz

 

dangelico-premier-series looks onemanz

Review: Gibson J-15

Mellow walnut makes the Gibson J-15 one jovial jumbo

An environmentally friendly take on the classic J-45, the J-15 is a future-forward guitar

Specifications include: Standard Jumbo body size; solid walnut back and sides; solid Sitka spruce top with scalloped braces, Antique Natural toner, abalone sound hole rosette; two-piece solid maple neck with Slim Taper profile, dovetail neck joint fitted with hot hide glue; solid walnut fingerboard with 1.725” width at the Tusq nut, mother-of-pearl position markers; solid walnut slotted rectangular bridge with compensated Tusq saddle and decorative mother-of-pearl dots; antique ivoroid binding; nitrocellulose finish; gold Gibson headstock logo on black field faceplate; Grover Mini Rotomatic tuning machines

Read the Full J-15 Review Here

Petros Guitars New Short Scale 12-Fretter!

The Walnut Creek Fingerstyle Model From Petros Guitars

I have loved every Petros guitar I have ever seen in person. And this 12-fret Claro Walnut and Redwood beauty promises to be spectacular.

Bruce Petros and his son Matt have forged a unique path as modern American luthiers. Their guitars are incredibly lush in tone, very much the opposite of the overtone-less, fundamental sound of many contemporary, small shop luthiers.

Petros guitars are not just good, they are glorious. And this one appears to fit that description once again.

As per the official Petros Guitars press notice:

This is a short scale instrument (24.5”) which makes it a joy to play. The shorter scale has much less string tension which makes it much easier to play. The Petros Walnut Creek (formerly our Ultra-Light) is a wonderfully light weight guitar with a thunderous sound. It is made from gorgeous curly Claro Walnut with a master grade Redwood top and a Butternut neck. Our arched soundboard, meticulously tuned braces and graduation creates a top that produces those full bass fundamentals while simultaneously enabling ringing trebles and lush overtones. This guitar will growl or sing softly. It will give you whatever you ask of it.

“For any of you with aging or arthritic hands, this is the answer.”

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12_fret_Walnut_Creek_FS copy

Many more mouthwatering photos of this gorgeous instrument at Petros’ Official Website

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