Martin Celebrates Eric Clapton’s 80th Birthday with the 000-42EC 30th Anniversary Model

The 000-EC 30th Anniversary also announced

C.F. Martin & Co. aka Martin Guitar has seen fit to release even more Eric Clapton signature models. But these new Claptons set themselves apart in their specifications and in debuting on Sunday, March 30 2025, Clapton’s 80th birthday, while also commemorating the 30th anniversary of the first EC model.

You can learn about the many previous Martin Eric Clapton Models, with exclusive insider info HERE. (coming soon.)

000-42EC 30th Anniversary

The limited edition 000-42EC 30th Anniversary combines the aesthetic appointments of the Martin’s original Eric Clapton signature model with an “Authentic 1939” neck specifications, likely borrowed from the 000-42 Authentic 1939. With premium grade Adirondack spruce and Guatemalan rosewood, this 2025 signature model is truly a premium level guitar and an instant collector’s item, had at the premium price of $10,999 and limited to 300 guitars.

More photos HERE.

See the full specs of the 000-42EC 30th HERE.

000-EC 30th Anniversary

The more-affordable 000-EC 30th Anniversary is made with Indian rosewood and comes with a Sitka or Lutz spruce top. It does get the 1939 neck shape model like its pricier sibling. Both have a 1-11/16” nut and 2-/18 string spacing, but the 1939 heel and fuller barrel will make the hand feel less cramped than recent Martins with the 1-11/16” nut width, and a Low Profile shape, like the OMJM John Mayer model. The 000-EC retails for $4,999 and has no production limit for this special edition instrument. But Martin dealers may only order it through March 2026.

The 000-EC has no style indicator in the name, because it combines the herringbone top trim and sound hole rosette of the popular 000-28EC with colorful Golden Era Style 42 position markers at frets 5, 7, 9, 12 and 15, just like a 1939 000-42. This may cause some confusion since modern Style 42 models use a vintage Style 45 fingerboard pattern that has markers on frets 1 and 3, including the Standard Series 000-42 and the original 000-42EC model.

More photos HERE.

See the full specs of the 000-EC 30th HERE.

At various times over the decades, Eric Clapton has had enormous influence on popular music. But none more so than his 1992 appearance on the hugely popular program MTV Unplugged, where he performed with a rare 1939 000-42 (SS #72234,) and sideman Andy Fairweather Lowe played Clapton’s 1966 000-28 (serial #208511) converted to Style 45 Mike Longworth. That one evening’s performance, and its hugely popular soundtrack album, single-handedly set off a seismic shift in the popularity of the acoustic guitar.

Martin received so many requests for a guitar like the ones featured on MTV Unplugged that it led to the first of many Eric Clapton signature models, 1995’s  000-42EC, a limited edition that was followed the next year by the special edition 000-28EC. The latter remains one of the best-selling Martin models of all time.

Watch my pal Dick Boak tell his tale of designing the original Eric Clapton models

It may be hard for some people to remember just how highly-regarded Eric Clapton was during the first decades of his career, starting with the electric British Blues band the Yardbirds. He left that band to form the first “super group” with bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker, who boldly declared themselves to be “The Cream,” eventually shorted to just Cream. He left that band to return to the Blues in Delaney and Bonnie, before collaborating with Duane Allman on the album Layla by Derek and the Dominoes, and finding time to perform with George Harrison, and John Lennon a short time later. But in all of this, Clapton was playing electric guitars.

In 1995, at age 50, the venerable rock legend garnered countless new fans after he switched his electric guitar for acoustic guitars that resulted in the phenomenal success of his Unplugged performance. At a time when acoustic guitar sales were at an all time low, the  most famous electric guitarist in the world reminded us just how awesome acoustic guitars can be, especially in the right hands.

Happy birthday, Eric. Or as they say in France, joyeux anniversaire!

John Mayer NAMM Set 2021

John Mayer plays Martin guitars with Engelmann spruce tops

Winter NAMM Mini Set for Martin’s Jam in Place Series

Here’s a decent opportunity to hear what Engelmann spruce sounds like after it has some time to mature and get played in. It is paired with East Indian rosewood on the OM-28JM, the original John Mayer signature model from 2002 (released January 2003,) and it can be heard matched with Guatemalan rosewood on his 2016 D-45JM later in the set. In between the two can be heard Sitka spruce, backed by cocobolo rosewood on the 12-fret 00-42SC Stagecoach model released on 2013.

 

Martin Modern Deluxe Series Announced

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.

Maritn 000-28 Modern Deluxe VTS Sitka NAMM 2019

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.”

Maritn 000-28 Modern Deluxe glamour1 NAMM 2019Rather 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.

D-18 Modern Deluxe Detail NAMM 2019

Related Reading

OM-28 Modern Deluxe Review

000-28 Modern Deluxe Review

D-18 Modern Deluxe Review

D-28 Modern Deluxe Review

Vintage Deluxe Neck Compared to Actual Vintage Martin