December 22, 2024

Tag: sipo

Acoustic Guitars

Martin 00L Earth Announced for 2021 NAMM

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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 / NAMM

Summer NAMM Martins – Newness Everywhere You Look!

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A new President, a new 12-string guitar, a new “mahogany” are among Summer NAMM Martin offerings.

When the doors open Thursday morning at the Summer NAMM show in Nashville, Tennessee, a new era will officially begin at C.F. Martin & Co., the oldest guitar producing entity in America, and one of the nation’s oldest family-owned businesses.

Jacqueline Renner

On June 2, 2015, Martin announced the appointment of Jacqueline Renner as their new President, after a two-year search. It is presumed she will be present at Summer NAMM to meet and greet dealers and journalists in person.

According to CEO and Chairman C.F. Martin IV, “Jacqueline is an outstanding business leader whose strategic thinking and brand-building experience will serve us well as we continue to grow our brand while maintaining unparalleled business and manufacturing standards expected by our customers worldwide… We warmly welcome Jackie to the Martin Guitar family.”

It is expected that Ms. Renner will use her extensive expertise in the markets of international luxury items to strengthen and expand Martin’s global presence in much the same way Amani Duncan used her youth-market savvy to develop Martin’s image and presence among the youthful Gen Xers and Milleniums when she was hired in 2012 as Vice President of Brand Marketing. Read the full press release announcing Renner’s appointment HERE.

The New Martins with the New Woods

*A full review of each new Martin models will appear on One Man’s Guitar beginning in a few days.*

Every one of these new instruments matches up traditional designs with progressive features and materials, including exotic, non-traditional (for Martin) woods like Guatemalan rosewood, Asian siris, South American gonçalo alves, and African utile aka sipro mahogany, which has now replaced South American mahogany on the 15M series of Martin guitars.

SS-0041-15

SS-0041-15_x Summer NAMM Martin

The show-stopper is clearly the limited edition NAMM Show Special.

This guitar takes the specs of the modest yet phenomenally popular CEO-7 to create a high-end stunner by adding a torrefied Vintage Tone System Adirondack spruce top with a unique “Cinnamon Teardrop Burst” shading, ultra-fancy pearl inlays, and gorgeous Guatemalan rosewood, which Martin only began using on certain exclusive models a year ago. It also comes with on-board Fishman Aura VT electronics.

Although the custom shop has been receiving a great many orders that use the CEO-7 as the starter for unique instruments, this is Martin’s first official model using the CEO-7 body with different appointments and tonewoods. And this one has a modified V neck. It is certainly an impressive instrument and hopefully the first of many new models to use this body size, which was inspired by a vintage Gibson design that was itself inspired by some earlier Martin designs.

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HD-35 CFM IV 60th

HD-35_CFM_IV_60th_x Summer NAMM Martin

Chris Martin turns 60 this year and to celebrate, the venerable guitar company has produced a special limited edition of 60 instruments. A dreadnought made in a unique version of Style 35 to likewise commemorate the 50th anniversary of the D-35, this guitar has the outline hexagon fingerboard markers originally designed by Mr. Martin decades ago, and the pearly herringbone trim that also first appeared on a limited edition during the early years of his reign over the family business.

What makes it most interesting to me is the use of siris for the back and sides, with a top of torrefied European spruce. Siris has lovely tonal properties that work very well large bodies like the dreadnought. I look forward to hearing what influence the European top and the Indian rosewood center wedge on the style 35 three-piece back has on the overall voice.

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D12-35 50th Anniversary

D12-35_50th_Anniversary_x Summer NAMM Martin

Like the 6-string version released in January, this new 12-string 12-fretter released to celebrate a half century of Style 35 is made with Indian rosewood back and sides, and it has a torrefied European spruce top. Unlike the 6-string version, it has Sitka spruce bracing rather than Adirondack, and unlike the original 1965 edition this modern one has a slightly narrower 1-13/16” width at the nut and a modified low oval profile. I am looking very forward to seeing how this baby feels and sounds when I test drive it later this week! They are only making 183, the same as the original 1965 run.

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LE-Cowboy-2015

LE-Cowboy-2015_x Summer NAMM Martin

Martin’s occasional series of cowboy guitars has taken a major step up with the latest edition. The entire guitar is made from solid tonewoods and the artwork was created by William Matthews, a celebrated painter of western motif art.

The previous Martin cowboy guitars were basically budget guitars inspired by the budget guitars of the 1930s and 40s that had various western scenes stenciled onto the tops. They were the sorts of things acquired from mail order catalogs and sold as novelty items. The Martin versions were rather cute and kitschy, often featuring caricatures of Martin executives among the cartoon cowboys. The guitars themselves were made with the X Series specs that uses high pressure laminates to create a modern budget Martin model.

The LE-Cowboy-2015 is a traditional Martin 12-fretter similar to guitars made during the late 1800s. And it is made out of solid tonewood, including a genuine mahogany neck, ebony bridge and fingerboard, and a torrefied Sitka spruce top to go along with the solid gonçalo alves back and sides. Native to South and Central America, gonçalo alves has been used for years by independent luthiers and has been available from the Martin custom shop for some time. Otherwise, this limited edition is built to the same level of specs as the 000-15SM.

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00-15E Retro

00-15E_Retro_x Summer NAMM Martin

The Retro Series at Martin features on-board Fishman F1 Aura plus electronics, which allows the player to blend their pickup signal with high-tech “images” that apply special tonal effects derived from recording a similar guitar with high end microphones. In the Retro series, the images were made from recording vintage Martins, in this case a pre-war 00-15.

Otherwise the guitar is basically today’s 00-15M with the extra electronics and Tusq saddle that comes with them. It also has the special “15-Style Burst” on the top, previously only available in the D and 000 sizes.

It provides the looks of a vintage 14-fret 00-15 from the prewar era, with many twenty-first century specs. While it has a short-scale neck with the short pattern diamonds and squares fingerboard markers, the neck is carved in their modern modified low oval shape, with the Performing Artist taper and corresponding 2-13/16” string spacing.

It is a fine crop of new Martins to be sure, bringing together the old Martin with the new, just as the new President takes over and the CEO starts to look toward a well-earned retirement from daily operations.

And it also establishes the fact that Martin’s Vintage Tone System of wood torrefaction is front and center of the modern Martin world, as is the increased used of alternative tonewoods. I am pleased to see torrefaction appearing on Sitka spruce, and a return of siris and Guatemalan rosewood to Martin back and sides. But it is the change to sipo on the entire 15 Series line that is the real big news from Martin, even as it goes unmentioned in their press releases.

African sipo, the New “Mahogany”

The least assuming of the new Martin models, the 00-15E Retro represents a quiet change of considerable significance. At C.F. Martin, the term “mahogany” no longer refers to South American mahogany, as it has since company’s founding. The term now officially refers to an African wood called sipo, also known by its scientific name utile.

The term “genuine mahogany” will remain in use at Martin when referring to, well, genuine mahogany.

Sipo is a close genetic relative to sapele. Both are members of the botanical mahogany family, but where Martin always listed sapele as its own type of wood, and referred to it as “African mahogany,” sipo is only referred to as “mahogany”.

All Martins in the 15 Series, including all 15M guitars, are now made with sipo. This is a clear sign of the limited availability of instrument-grade South American mahogany. It is also a sign of Martin’s embracing sipo as a suitable replacement for genuine mahogany as that wood drawers nearer and nearer to possible extinction, at least when it comes to wide availability in international trade.

In general, the timber industry considers sipo to be much more like South American mahogany in its physical properties than any other alternative. But when it comes to guitar making, one industry insider described it this way: “It looked, worked and had a tap tone like Mahogany… I do think out of all the “cousins” of mahogany… (Spanish) Cedar, Sapele, African Mahogany (Khaya)… Sipo has the most similar tonal qualities to genuine Mahogany.”

One owner of a sipro 00-15 recently arrived from the custom shop with a full gloss body, simply said his guitar “looks and sounds great.”

It is indeed a new era beginning at C.F. Martin & Co., and I join with millions of guitarists around the world in wishing President Jacqueline Renner good luck and great success to her and everyone at Martin Guitars.