CF Martin Archives | One Man's Guitar

Martinfest 2025 – Under New Management

by one manJuly 28, 2025August 26, 20250

Guitar & Friends’ first annual Martinfest was a huge success

A new hotel and many new and old friends

Now under the umbrella of the new not-for-profit Guitars and Friends, Martinfest has been given a new lease on life and it looks like it will be every bit as fun and successful in the coming years as it ever was.

These collages are made up of videos captured during the nighttime song circles by Maury Rutch, interspersed with my personal phone videos, and sublimed with some phone videos from other attendees.

The Phoenix Arises

Martinfest began in 2002 as a gathering of members of the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Starting this year, the event was planned, orchestrated and successfully put on by a group of Martinfest enthusiasts, with the blessing of the UMGF administrators, who were ready to give up the reigns after more than two decades of laborious love, which set an example we continue to follow.

Under the tireless leadership of Jim Fortmuller, a small planning committee set out to create a new not-for-profit organization, Guitars and Friends, which is dedicated to perpetuating the comradery that keeps bring so many back to share their music and laughter with people they would have never encountered if it weren’t for Martinfest.

For many of us, it is like a family reunion. For others, who are relatively new citizens of Martinfest, it is a rare opportunity to indulge in their love of fine acoustic guitars, while getting a chance to play and sing for the most welcoming, accepting, and non-judgmental group of music lovers one could hope for. Jim Fortmuller is one such singer/songwriter/guitarist.

Jim came to his first Martinfest shortly before the COVID pandemic broke the 19-year streak. But it had heard about it for years from some now-former coworkers. Upon his retirement, he made the pilgrimage and had fantastic time. So much so, that when it seemed there wouldn’t be a Martinfest in 2024, Jim volunteered to help the UMGF admins give it one last go – and then by the sheer will to keep the Martinfest flame lit, Jim took it upon himself to recruit like-minded diehards, and tour some 8 hotels in Eastern Pennsylvania, to find what is clearly the best hotel Martinfest ever had.

The official days were Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, although some people arrived as early as Wednesday, and some left as late as Tuesday. There was an opening night receptions, where people at their first Martinfest were singled out for welcome. And then there were loose song circles in the two conference rooms, and looser jamming in the lobby and a suite we rented as a hospitality room. Earlier that day, many people visited the Martin Guitar factory and museum and took the tour.

On Saturday, many of us attended the Martin on Main street fair in downtown Nazareth. Others stayed in the comfortable climate control of the hotel. On Sunday, we gathered at the long pavilion in Nazareth Borough Park, were we had a memorial sing-along for dearly departed attendees, and enjoyed an open mic, as well as a fun auction to help raise money to cover a portion of our operating costs. But really, it was the all-night party at the hotel that is what we look forward to all day long.

That hotel loved us, and are eager for our return in July of 2026. For more information, please visit guitarsandfriends.org.

To learn more about Martinfest and its uniquely magical spell it casts on so many, who come back year after year after year, here is an old article from its heyday.

Grand Gathering of Martin Guitar Lovers

Martin Cherry Hill Customs

by one manMarch 6, 2024March 7, 20241

For sale only in walking distance from Cherry Hill

Modest in appearance but right at home among their flashier siblings, the Cherry Hill Customs at the Martin factory might be overlooked by some visitors. But they will be much admired by those who appreciate the natural beauty of wood on guitars with simple cosmetic appointments and pure, pretty tone.

The Martin Cherry Hill Customs Uncloaked

The Martin Cherry Hill Customs – two Factory Special models – are intriguing for many reasons. The guitars do not appear on the Martin price list. They received no official launch or lead-up announcement in the Media, so not many people have heard of them, yet. Perhaps the most interesting fact is how these under-the-radar guitars can only be purchased in person at the Martin factory.

The Cherry Hill Customs are offered as a Dreadnought and 000 and may be summarily described as a custom D-18 and custom 000-18 built with backs and sides of cherry wood and with some extra-woody upgrades. They get flamed maple for the bindings and endpiece instead of plastic, and the Old Style 18 sound hole rosette and other body trim are made from wood fiber.

The soundboards follow Martin’s current specification which says standard-grade spruce tops can be made of Sitka spruce or its natural hybrid cousin Lutz spruce, depending upon current availability. The vintage toner used on the spruce top works very well with the unstained cherry.

Not just any cherry is used, but nicely figured cherry that’s grown right there in Pennsylvania. It is fitting that local tonewood is featured on these subtly beautiful musical instruments because they can only be purchased in Pennsylvania, and only at the Martin Guitar factory.

If a visiting dealer & distributor sees a Cherry Hill Custom instrument that appeals to their design sensibilities, they may purchase it for sale to their customers. But they can only request one of each model while they’re at the factory. No phone in follow-up’s or replenishments are permitted.

These guitars are chiefly meant for those who make the pilgrimage to Nazareth for the factory tour or to see the rich history on display at the Martin Museum in the visitors’ center, and to offer them unique instruments a little different from typical Martins sold elsewhere and provide, as Martin’s Scott Sasser puts it,”… an engaging surprise for those enthusiasts that come to the factory. Hopefully they see something nice and think to themselves. . . ‘hey that’s neat – I’ve never heard of that before. What’s that all about?’”

What the Cherry Hill Customs guitars are all about is Martin’s legacy and future. Named for the gently sloping rise that starts just a stone’s throw from the parking lot of C. F. Martin & Co., Cherry Hill is a place of special, romantic significance to the Martin family, their employees, and fans of Martin history.

Along the road that traverses Cherry Hill, there once stood the first humble home and workshop of luthier C. F. Martin Sr. when he moved to Pennsylvania in 1838. It is now a five-minute walk from the current home of the world-famous guitar manufacturing company and museum that bears his name.

The choice of Pennsylvania cherry evokes all of that history but also acknowledges Martin’s continuing commitment to responsible sourcing and utilization of sustainable natural materials, and their longstanding commitment to environmental conservation. In that respect, it shares similar goals with the American maple back and sides on the adventurous new GPC Inception model. But the Cherry Hill Custom design elements and aesthetics are more in line with the venerable Standard Series Martins.

While Martin has made some lovely models out of cherry, the Cherry Hill Customs are the first cherry models offered for sale with a full-size dovetail neck joint and high gloss finish. Other Standard Series specs include scalloped bracing (forward-shifted on the Dreadnought) and a select hardwood High Performance neck with a dovetail neck joint, Modified Low Oval profile, black ebony fingerboard, and the select abalone fret position markers of the classic D-18 and 000-18. These new Cherry Hill models also have some very attractive figuring in the undyed ebony bridges.

The inspiration for the models comes from Martin’s desire to enhance the Nazareth visitor experience with an exclusive opportunity to own an upscale yet approachable Martin model with some rarity baked in due to its limited availability. A few points of inspiration for these specific Cherry Hill Custom models comes from a collaboration with a close friend of Scott Sasser during his time as manager for the Custom Shop, and Scott’s longstanding realization that cherry remained an under-appreciated domestically sourced material. . . both aesthetically and tonally.

Pleased with these results along with other occasional customs delivered through Martins Custom Shop program, he kept a few design cues in his mind for future use. Fast forward to these woody Style 18-inspired cherry guitars, made from sustainable materials that will remain available to musical instrument makers, hopefully ever after.

These new Martins are not meant to be part of their ongoing catalog. They are designed to offer a local complement to the Martins available globally without being in direct competition with them. They are also not meant to be available for long. The models will be periodically evaluated and replaced as appropriate to keep the “Factory Special” offerings fresh.

Whether they keep the name Cherry Hill Customs for future models, or decide to keep it exclusive to these two models, there will be others. New Factory Special models that take advantage of the beauty and tonality of domestic American woods and sustainable woods from other parts of the world will be forthcoming from Martin Guitars, in the new Inception Series that has been heralded with much fanfare, and in the Cherry Hill Customs after their modest, almost shy debut at the picking parlor, in Martin’s welcome center lobby.

The Factory Special concept – where these Cherry Hill Customs reside – will be present in one form or another going forward at the Martin factory. Enhancing a guitarist’s trip to the visitor’s center without distracting from its other treasures, they will for some provide the ultimate souvenir from a trip within the walls at C. F. Martin & Co., est. 1833.

And that is one man’s word on…