Grand Auditorium with a Cutaway and Four-Piece Top
The latest edition in the Taylor Builder’s Edition series has elegant styling and ergonomic features like the beveled arm rest on the bass side of the lower bout, and a bevel built into the cutaway. The Builder’s Edition 914ce has 800 Series specs including an East Indian back has an attractive burst shading and no center seam, wood bindings and wood fiber purling, and a pearl sound hole rosette.
The soundboard on the Taylor Builder’s Edition 914ce made with four panels of Adirondack spruce. This seems to take a page from Chris Martin’s playbook of putting non-traditional woods or construction techniques on a showcase special edition guitar, as if to say, “Would we put this on such an important, expensive instrument if there was something wrong with it?” Mr.s Taylor and Martin are passionate about responsible management of natural resources and this new Builder’s Edition furthers that cause by showing how four-piece soundboards can look lovely and help create beautiful music.
The long awaited Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe arrives in splendor
Regal and refined, extravagant and divine
Specs for D-45 Modern Deluxe include: All solid wood construction; Indian rosewood back and sides; Vintage Tone System torrefied Sitka spruce top with Golden Era scalloped, forward-shifted, VTS torrefied Adirondack spruce bracing attached with natural protein glue; composite bridge plate of carbon fiber/torrefied Adirondack spruce; Genuine mahogany neck with Vintage Deluxe profile, two-way adjustable titanium alloy support rod, hand-fitted dovetail neck joint and solid mahogany neck block; ebony fretboard with High Performance Taper, 1-3/4” width at nut, 2-1/8” at 12th fret, abalone fret position markers, EVO Gold frets, solid bone nut; ebony bridge with Liquidmetal bridge pins, compensated solid bone saddle and 2-5/32” string spacing; European flamed maple binding; high gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the body, satin neck finish; ebony headstock faceplate with polished gloss finish, 1920s-style torch inlay; golden Waverly open back tuners with butter bean knobs.
“The piano-like report of the fundamental notes is solid and immediate, igniting astonishing natural resonance. The voice is huge and rich but never muddy or harsh. Every inch of this guitar earns the right to be called the Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe.”
The 000-16 StreetMaster brings Adirondack spruce to the 16 Series
First use of VTS on an “affordable” Martin guitar
Specs of the 000-16 StreetMaster include: Auditorium 000 size; all-solid tonewoods including Indian rosewood back and sides, Adirondack spruce soundboard with Vintage Tone System torrefaction, and 5/16″ scalloped braces; short-scale High Performance neck with Modified Low Oval profile; Indian rosewood fingerboard with 1-3/4″ width at nut, 2-1/8th at 12th fret, short pattern Diamond and Squares position markers; Indian rosewood bridge with 2-5/32″ string spacing at the bone saddle; StreetMaster distressed satin finish; open gear Golden Age Relic tuning machines with cream buttons; soft shell case.
“The VTS Adirondack spruce helps make the 000-16 StreetMaster sound bright and expressive to the point of effervescent, yet it has a warm heart, thanks to the rosewood back and sides.”
D-18 Authentic 1937 specs include: All-solid tonewoods with hot hide glue construction; tropical American mahogany back and sides; Vintage Tone System torrefied Adirondack spruce top with scalloped, forward-shifted VTS Adirondack spruce bracing, pre-war style tucked tone bars and tucked maple bridge plate; one-piece mahogany neck with 1937 V shaping unique to this model, T-bar neck reinforcement; 1-3/4″ width at the bone nut and 2-1/4″ string spacing at the long, glued-in bone saddle; ebony fingerboard and 1930s-style belly bridge; ebony bridge pins; faux tortoise body binding and pickguard; open-back Waverly tuning machines; Martin’s Authentic Series thin finish in Vintage Gloss sheen.
Keeping busy the best way he knows how, Dana Bourgeois and his small company of dedicated craftspeople are putting out some stunning one of a kind instruments. Here is a small sampling.
Click on Photos to Enlarge
Bourgeois Nova
Made with “Panama Red” rosewood and aged Adirondack spruce
*** Update on Bourgeois – Eastman Joint Venture***
It has been over a year ago that Eastman announced a joint venture partnership with luthier Dana Bourgeois, (link to jan 2020 post) to create a line of guitars more affordable than the high-end boutique guitars made by Bourgeois in Lewiston, Maine. The global pandemic has disrupted the timing of that new business arrangement, just like everything else. But I do look forward to seeing one of those instruments eventually.
The arrangement will create guitars similar to Martin’s old Shenandoah Series, which had the guitar parts made in Asia, before being assembled and finished in Nazareth, PA. In this case, much of the woodworking is done in Maine, before the guitars are assembled and finished in China, and then given their final setup in the USA.
This isn’t the first time Bourgeois partnered with outsiders to make a play for wider market presence. But it resulted in him being unable to market guitars under his own name for some years.
This time, he retains greater control over the quality of the final product, while gaining a serious overseas presence, and offering a line of guitars considerably more affordable than the $4K – $10K guitars currently available from Bourgeois Guitars.
Martin Modern Deluxe Series Breaks New Ground for 2019
Debuting at Winter NAMM – Four New Models: D-28 Modern Deluxe, D-18 Modern Deluxe, OM-28 Modern Deluxe, 000-28 Modern Deluxe
Combining modern takes on vintage Martins with ultra-modern design specs, Martins newly announced Modern Deluxe Series breaks new ground by offering revved up versions of their Standard Series models with features previously only available on select Limited Editions.
VTS Top and Bracing
With the same tonewoods for the back, sides and top of the Standard Series, these Modern Deluxe Series models get Sitka spruce soundboards that have the extra benefit of Martin’s Vintage Tone System, their propriety torrefaction treatment, adding considerable depth to the voice of a brand new guitar that makes it sound “opened up” right out of the box.
Unlike Standard Series Martins, these new models get top bracing made from Adirondack spruce with the VTS treatment. They are shaped with Golden Era style scalloping that removes more wood via carving angles different from the Standard Series scalloped bracing, allowing the denser Adirondack spruce extra flexibility and responsiveness while having greater stiffness along and across the grain compared to Sitka spruce bracing.
This is a feature I have longed for on Sitka-topped Martins, particularly on the short-scale 000s. And while I was aware these guitars were approaching release, I did not know they were treating these Adirondack spruce braces with the Vintage Tone System! That had been previously reserved exclusively for the Authentic Series of high-priced vintage Martin recreations.
Another vintage Martin feature is the use of natural protein glues, which bond with wood, and more deeply into it, for joinery even better than what is on most Martin guitars.
This is also a new specification for Martin, as the glue on the Modern Deluxe models is different from the traditional animal Hide Glue they use on Authentic Series instruments. This new glue is derived from fish protein primarily, and is already being used elsewhere in the high-end guitar making industry.
I have since learned that this new-to-Martin glue is being used to secure the top braces, but is not being used on the other joinery.
Modern Metals
For the first time, Martin is using three ultra-modern Limited Edition specifications as standard features. A two-way adjustable titanium rod supports the neck with greater strength than a steel rod, but with less weight. And an ultra-light carbon fiber bridge plate, made from composite layers of wood and carbon fiber pressed together, contributes to an overall instrument weight closer to a vintage Martin, while reputedly increasing resonance as well. So too do the bridge pins, which I have found to noticeably increase the initial sustain of fundamental notes.
New Look Appointments
The Style 28 instruments show off flamed European maple for the binding, heel cap, and end piece, while Style 18 gets dark and woody Indian rosewood. All of the Modern Deluxe Series instruments get gold frets that are more sturdy than typical Martin frets, and the position markers and script logos are inlaid with colorful abalone. The 18s also get gold bridge pins with red dots, and the Style 28 bridges sport Liquidmetal pins that look like vintage red dot pins made of bleached white bone.
The prototypes I have seen all have matching gold Waverly tuners. But the published spec sheets do not mention this, so the brand may be subject to change by the time they get to the NAMM show, which opens Thursday, January 24.
New Neck Shape
The new Vintage Deluxe neck profile is publicly referred to as “slightly skewed.”
Rather than having the apex of the carved profile running straight and directly at the center of the neck, with identical shaping on either side, this new neck shape is slightly asymmetrical, to fit the shape of the human hand in a more-natural way.
Or rather, it is a new neck shape inspired by old Martin neck shapes from the 1920s and 1930s. This is special shaping was discovered in 2014, and I happened to be visiting my friends in the Martin Custom Shop offices the moment that discovery was made.
Martin purchased at auction a priceless 1930 OM-45 Deluxe, and they were beginning to investigate it for their upcoming Authentic Series version of that rarest of vintage Martin guitars. After spending some 30 minutes with such a mouthwatering vintage Martin masterpiece, I had remarked that they should use that very neck shape for every OM they made from that day forward, as it was marvelously comfortable.
So began the discussion of why and what made that neck different from other necks. It seemed to my hand that the apex of that V neck wasn’t directly centered, so the mass and grade of the slope on the bass (thumb) side and the treble (fingers) side were slightly different. But it was quite subtle and difficult to tell for certain.
So, they had an employee fetch a proprietary gadget and took a convex mold from a section of the neck.
To everyone’s surprise, I was correct. But no one was prepared for just how asymmetrical the factory workers had shaped necks at that important time in the Company’s history. And yet, once we saw the mold, it became quite obvious when in the hand.
A 1931 OM-28 was sent for, and it had an even more extreme difference between the two slopes of the barrel, while having a similarly “skewed” apex.
Martin applied this new knowledge in the making of the OM-45 Deluxe Authentic 1930. But to date, that $99,999.00 wonderment has been the only modern Martin to take advantage of this discovery – despite my repeated lobbying to the contrary.
Now, at long last, they have applied that knowledge in the creation of the new Modern Deluxe Series, which feature the new neck shape they are calling the Vintage Deluxe profile. Most interesting to me is the fact they are using it in combination with their modern High Performance Taper, which narrows the width of the fretboard faster than on traditional Martin necks, giving the entire neck a faster, sleeker feel.
The only new model that does not get the High Performance Taper is the OM-28, which has the Standard Taper, meaning it measures 2-1/4″ wide at the 12th fret, like actual vintage Martin OMs!
And so the instruments in Martin’s oh-so-Modern Deluxe Series combine vintage Martin aspects with modern day know-how and high-tech advancements in a most exciting way.
A 1953 000-28 converted by the Martin factory to 1939 000-42 specs
Old Brazilian rosewood retopped with torrefied Adirondack spruce and solid abalone pearl
*This instrument is currently for sale. Inquire at oneman@onemanz.com*
Specs include: All-solid wood with hide glue construction throughout; Brazilian rosewood back and sides originally constructed as a 1953 000-28; highest grade Adirondack spruce top, torrefied with level M1 of Martin’s proprietary Vintage Tone System; Vintage Style 42 appointments including period correct solid abalone pearl rosette ring, top purfling, and snowflake fret markers; grained ivoroid binding with ebony borders at end pin box; aggressively-scalloped 1/4″ Golden Era style bracing with period correct rear-shifted X brace; genuine Big Leaf mahogany neck with full vintage V profile supported by an internal steel T-bar, 1-11/16” width at nut and 2-1/8” at the 12th fret; ebony fingerboard and Golden Era style bridge; bone nut and glued in saddle with 2-1/8” string spacing; open-back Grover tuning machines; period-correct gold foil headstock logo on Brazilian rosewood face plate grained; ivoroid binding; thin high gloss nitrocellulose finish with faux tortoise shell pickguard under the finish.
“This converted 000-28 has my favorite kind of Brazilian/Adirondack tone, warm and richly colored, with a bass that is plump but not woofy, spawning a rich undertone that at times hugs but never smothers the higher registers, and trebles of fine purity that are precise but solid, yet radiating shimmery harmonic overtones.”
The Compass to a Koa Wonderland is Found in Martin’s 2016 CS-OM
Elegant marquetry graces a classic Martin Orchestra Model from the Custom Shop
CS-OM True North-16 specs include: Top Shelf all-solid wood construction, including exceptionally-figured koa back and sides, a master grade Adirondack spruce top with 1/4” Adirondack spruce braces and high color paua shell purfling; unique True North motif with marquetry of a compass rose on the back in flamed Claro Walnut, flamed jarrah and waterfall bubinga with paua pearl accents; genuine mahogany High Performance neck with high gloss finish, Modified Low Oval profile, High Performance taper to the ebony fingerboard with four-point star outline fret markers; ebony bridge with 2-5/32” string spacing; ebony binding on body, neck, headstock; waterfall bubinga rosette with outline star inlay; high color paua pearl top and rosette purfling; ebony headstock face plate with figured koa “parchment” and compass rose, C.F. Martin script logo in paua pearl.
“I love how the True North’s crystalline lens of Adirondack spruce etches such fine detail into the warm koa undertone and shimmery high harmonics, as they sustain, fluctuate, and slowly fade, with each undulating glimmer as languid as lamplight on a tropical lagoon.”
by 
