November 18, 2024

Category: Acoustic Guitars

Reviews, essays, and articles relating to acoustic guitars, and related accessories.

Acoustic Guitars

Martin 00L Earth Announced for 2021 NAMM

one manby one man0

C. F. Martin’s commitment to combating Climate Change embodied in the 00L Earth

New slope shoulder Grand Concert size acoustic guitar made from Forest Stewardship Council certified woods, the 00L Earth is 100% plastic free

Martin 00L Earth One Man's Guitar onemanz art

00L Earth Specs Include

14-fret Slope Shoulder 00 (Grand Concert size) body; FSC*-certified all-solid tonewoods, including sapele back and sides, Sitka spruce top with artwork by Robert Goetzl, scalloped 1/4″ bracing, wood fiber trim; 24.9″ short-scale sipo neck with Modified Low Oval Profile, Simple Dovetail neck joint; ebony fingerboard with High Performance Taper (1-3/4″ width at bone nut, 2-1/8″ at 12th fret,) sapele position markers in 1955 Style 18, aluminum side dots; ebony belly bridge with bone saddle and 2-5/32″ string spacing; Flamed European maple bindings; satin finish; comes with environmentally-friendly hemp gig bag

List Price: $2,249.00

*Forestry Stewardship Council certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits for the forest and its local inhabitants.

NAZARETH, Pa. – January 12, 2021 – C. F. Martin & Co.® (Martin®) will introduce the 00L Earth guitar

Martin 00L Earth full One Man's Guitar onemanz

On March 15, 2019, artist Robert Goetzl watched the news in awe as a million students, across 125 countries, took part in the School Strike for Climate, an international movement of students who skip Friday classes in protest to demand action from political leaders against climate change. The movement started in 2018, when Greta Thunberg, a then 16-year-old activist from Sweden, staged a lone protest outside the Swedish Parliament holding a sign that read “School strike for climate,” inspiring students across the globe to stand together to fight for the future of the planet.

The movement fanned a flame in Goetzl that had been slowly burning for many years. He wanted to use his talent to become part of the solution, so he immediately dropped what he was doing and painted a watercolor of the earth. His hope was that it would one day adorn the top of a Martin guitar that could be used to bring awareness to the urgent need for climate action.

Upon completing the painting, Goetzl wasted no time, driving to Nazareth to share his idea with Martin Chairman and CEO Chris Martin. Like Goetzl, the sixth-generation leader has a deep passion for fighting climate change and preserving the earth for future generations. This shared passion, reignited by the energy and perseverance of this new generation of activists, put into motion the plans to develop what is now being introduced as the Martin 00L Earth guitar—the first acoustic guitar that is 100% FSC® certified AND 100% plastic-free.

Robert Goetzl_One Man's Guitar onemanz

“When I first heard this eloquent young woman, Greta Thunberg, speak so passionately about climate change, I was immediately inspired and thought, why not design a guitar with a visual element as a tool to promote the message ‘Save the Earth,’” said Goetzl. “Perhaps this is a way to help raise awareness of resource sustainability and our society’s failure to take action against the global crisis that this troubled planet is facing.”

With CEO Chris Martin’s blessing, Goetzl set about doing what he does best—turning his initial ideas into refined art—and he later presented several variations to the Martin team. The final design featured the earth and stars with a beautiful light burst peaking over the horizon.

While Goetzl was finalizing the artwork, Martin Lead Instrument Designer Tim Teel and former Martin Green Team Leader Chris Thomas began working on building out the model that would ultimately become the master canvas for Goetzl’s artwork. Teel and Thomas decided to use the framework from the Martin 17 Series and then went on to collaborate with many colleagues throughout the company to select and source only materials that are 100% FSC certified and free of all man-made plastics. Even the gig bag was specially sourced and made with hemp, a fast-growing and highly sustainable material, another first for the company.

“I respect working for a company that takes environmental issues seriously,” said Teel. “This project illustrates the importance of our planet and is depicted in this amazing graphic by Robert Goetzl. By using responsibly harvested materials, we will ensure the next generation of musicians and luthiers will have great tonewoods to choose from when designing, building, and playing stringed instruments of the future.”

Martin chose to go plastic-free with this model because single-use plastic is destroying entire ecosystems and greatly contributes to global warming. The world urgently needs to reduce single-use plastic, and Martin hopes  this guitar will be another vehicle for spreading the message.

“There’s so much that we can do as individuals to fight climate change in our daily lives,” said Chris Martin. “Yet we are continually looking for ways that our company can inspire musicians and their fans to take action. Not just on Earth Day, but every day. Music has always been a powerful tool for bringing people together for change.”

The guitar is priced at $2,249.

In honor of the 00L Earth guitar, Martin will make a charitable donation to the Rainforest Alliance.

FSC Certified Logo One Man's Guitar onemanz

If you would like to learn more about this or any of the 2021 Martin guitars, drop us a line at oneman@onemanz.com.

Due to COVID-19 Restrictions I will be unable to make my annual visit to C. F. Martin & Co. for a hands and ears on review of the Winter NAMM Martins.  I shall however be sharing as much information as I am permitted to, as soon as I can.

I hope to get my usual videos of many new Martins created once Martin feels it is safe for me and them to have me pay a visit to Nazareth, PA.

Full 00L Earth Spec Sheet Here

Acoustic Guitars

Martin Guitar in the New York Times

one manby one man0

The New York Times Feature on Martin Guitar

How Martin combines hand-worked craftsmanship and modern robotics to create “America’s guitar.”

There is a feature article in today’s New York Times, originally created for their kids supplement, that goes through the step-by-step process of making an acoustic guitar, at C. F. Martin & Co. in Nazareth, PA.  And it has some nicely composed photos to go with it.

The article on Martin Guitars is probably only available to subscribers. But if you are familiar with Martin and their factory, you probably already know everything mentioned.

How to Build a Guitar

The buffing machine pictured above sits right next to the Martin sound testing room where I make my annual guitar review videos. If you turn up the volume and listen closely when I am not playing a guitar, you can sometimes hear the buffer whirring away.

The More Times Change…

As I read this human interest piece, I was reminded me just how many things have changed since I first started visiting the Martin factory, when it comes to the automation. For example, there is a photo of a large side mending machine, where steam heat and high pressure bend the thin solid-wood plates into the shape needed to create guitars of different sizes. Each size has its own machine. Not long ago, that was all accomplished by hand, taking much longer to make a certain number of usable sides.

When I first toured the factory some twenty years ago, the sides for every guitar made at Martin was still being bent by the hands of a man using a curved electric iron (also invented and made at Martin.) He soak the wood in water before molding it on the hump of super-heated steel, holding it in place long enough to change its shape while being very careful not to scorch it. Before electricity, the humped irons would have been heated in burning coals. On my second visit, they had just invented (and made on site) the first experimental side bending machine, to make the Dreadnought size guitars. But all other sides were still bent by hand.

Later, only the sides requiring a “cutaway” on the treble side of a guitar were being bent by hand for guitars of common sizes. Today, that man and his side-bending counterparts have retired, and almost every Martin guitar made in Nazareth has its sides bent by a machine.

But while the article and photos focus on automation involved in guitar making in the twenty-first century, they also make clear how the actual construction of a guitar is done by human hands, the most important parts anyway. And it is enough so that Martin can proudly claim their guitars are still handmade.

C. F. Martin Sr. invented what is now considered the American guitar, at roughly the same time Antonio de Torres Jurado was working to develop what became the Spanish guitar. In fact, Martin developed what became the American acoustic guitar by combining luthiery techniques he learned in Vienna, Austria with elements of contemporary guitars from Spain that he encountered once he emigrated to America in 1833. By the early 1840s he had invented the X-bracing pattern to support the spruce soundboard, which turned out to be the ideal design for getting the most tone out of the steel guitar strings that came into use in the early twentieth century, decades after Mr. Martin died in 1872. But many of the techniques used by Martin craftspeople today would be familiar to old C. F. Sr.

A photo in the article shows a woman hand carving the braces that support the spruce soundboards. Another shows a collection of soundboards clipped to a large paddle wheel, as the glue binding the two halves together dries in the open air, before they have their bracing attached. Martin has two or three of those in-house invented paddle wheels, made of metal, with various adjustable joints. But it was only in the past decade that they retired the wooden paddle wheel invented in the 1800s.

While Martin and other guitar makers use modern technology to speed up the process, and save their workers from considerable repetitive stress wear and tear, the Martin guitars themselves are still made very much they were all along, from the hand-fitted dovetail neck joints to the hand-buffed nitrocellulose lacquer so thin it is measured in mils, that being one-thousandths of an inch.

This factory, one of the oldest family businesses in America and the oldest musical instrument maker, may produce upwards of 200 guitars a day in modern times, but it still takes a month more or less, to make one Martin guitar. And that is with all the mechanical streamlining.

As has been the case since before the America Civil War, an old Martin sales slogan remains true to this day. More people own or want to own a Martin than any other guitar in the world. And with good reason, too.

Acoustic Guitars

Review: Gibson J-15

one manby one man0

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

events

C. F. Martin IV Announces Retirement

one manby one man2

Chris Martin Announces Retirement as C.E.O of Martin Guitars

Will remain as Chairman, following in the footsteps of his grandfather C.F. Martin III

Jackie Renner to retire as President

On July 16, C. F. Martin & Co. announced that an executive succession plan is being put in place for the
company. Christian Martin IV has decided that at the conclusion of his NAMM Chairmanship in July
2021, he will step into the role of Executive Chairman of C.F. Martin & Co. He will remain Chairman of
the Board and family ownership of the company will continue.

“I’ve spent over 40 years in my family business and what a ride it’s been,” said Chris Martin, Chairman
and CEO of C.F. Martin & Co., Inc. “Now I’ve reached the point where it’s time for me to move into the
role of Executive Chairman. I am confident in the current leadership team because I know they love the
company as much as I do and I will be working closely with them through this transition.”

Jacqueline Renner, President of C.F. Martin & Co. also announced her plans to retire on October 1, 2021.
She feels with Chris’ change, it is the right time for her to transition as well. She is committed to
working with Chris on a smooth executive transition process. “I have truly enjoyed working with Chris
and all our co-workers over the last five years to strengthen Martin Guitar. I look forward to continuing
to do so through the executive transition process. I appreciate Chris’ planned approach for a smooth
transition for the company which benefits our customers, co-workers and ultimately the musicians that
Martin Guitar seeks to inspire.”

“I am very grateful for the support and leadership that Jackie has shown as President over these past
five years.” said Chris.

Martin will be doing a search for a CEO-President who will embrace and augment our unique culture and
continue to enhance the Martin brand around the world. Hudson Gain Corporation has been retained to
conduct this search.

Chris Martin Retires Jackie Renner

Acoustic Guitars / Indie Artists

T Spoon Phillips – Music for a Socially Distant Audience – May 6

one manby one man0

Live from Brooklyn, It’s T Spoon Phillips with his Martin Guitar

Edited for Length, and With a Bonus Song from the Afternoon Set

May 6, 2020

Every Wednesday, 8 PM Eastern Daylight Time on YouTube Live onemanzguitar channel.

With a run through at 3:30 PM for those across the sea (8:30 British Summer Time, 9:30 Central Europe Summer Time)

Acoustic Guitars

Dick Boak Interview – Aaron Short Music Hangout

one manby one man0

Wonderfully entertaining and informative talk between Aaron Short and Dick Boak

Stories about great artists, guitar making, and of course Martin Guitars.

A great way to spend a Social Distancing day or night. All of 111 minutes in length, former Martin Guitar employee Dick Boak opens up about so many interesting topics.

I have had many sit down talks with Dick and always wished others could have been there. Well now you can be.

events / Indie Artists

Distant Arts for Socially Distancing Audiences

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Musicians, Comics, Writers, and Readers to Perform Social Distancing Show

I am organizing a collective of performing artists to stream live to a Facebook Group

Check back here for more information soon.

If you are interested in taking part, drop me a line. oneman@onemanz.com

I am expecting the new Group (not yet public) will work like a public access TV station, with a calendar that participating artists share and the collective “friends” of all the artists can visit the group to see Facebook Live streaming performances, typically up to 20 minutes in length.

But I also want to organize shows on specific evenings where a succession of artists take their turn doing a 20 minute set. This would be similar to some of the long-running avant garde variety shows I have taken part in here in NYC since the 1980s, like Dog & Pony NYC, and Blow Hole Theater.

Audience members will not need to have a Facebook account to visit the page and watch the performances. But they will need an account to leave comments or live emote reactions.

Spoon