Symposium Compares and Contrasts the Iconic Martin Dreadnoughts
To scallop or not to scallop, that is the bracing question
Aaron Short Music, February 8, 2021, featuring Aaron Short, NYC, Maury Rutch of Maury’s Music, in Coaldale, PA and T Spoon Phillips of Brooklyn, NY
Here are better examples of the difference physical differences between scalloped bracing used on the HD-28 and most other modern Martins, and non-scalloped bracing used on the D-28 and D-35.
Exaggerated relief showing the “suspension bridge shaping of scalloped braces and tone bars used on a 14-fret Martin Dreadnought
Specs Include: All-solid tonewoods, Auditorium size body with hide glue construction throughout; Venetian cutaway; Guatemalan rosewood back and sides; Adirondack spruce top with Large Sound Hole, scalloped 1/4″ Adirondack spruce braces; short-scale Big Leaf mahogany neck with Low Profile shape; ebony fretboard with 12″ radius, 1-11/16″ bone nut; abalone Diamonds and Squares position markers; ebony bridge with compensated bone saddle and 2-1/8″ string spacing; Martin’s Authentic Series Thin Finish package; Vintage Style 21 appointments including 1940-era rosette, purfling and fret markers, 1910-era rosewood bindings, ebony bridge pins with ivoroid dots; Gotoh nickel open-back tuners; faux tortoise pickguard
While this guitar was designed to have the fastest, sleekest neck ever put on a Martin acoustic guitar, Maury’s Music will accept orders for this exact same short-scale 000C-21 TSP with the neck shape, nut width, fretboard taper, and string spacing of your choice. In the words of the artist who designed it, a guitarist should be able to have whatever neck best suited their comfort or desire.
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I could not possibly offer an objective review of this Martin guitar. I am the man who designed it to be just so, according to my likes and needs.
But I also designed it with an eye and, more importantly, an ear and a hand toward creating a unique musical instrument that would appeal to and be genuinely useful to artists who pick up acoustic guitars for many reasons beyond providing background rhythm for singing songs.
So I will leave further information about this instrument to Maury’s Music, who is offering this Martin guitar for sale as a Custom Artist Edition, designed by me, your humble Spoon, and made in Martin’s Custom Shop. It will officially be announced at Maury’s on the 25th, along with the rest of the new Martins available for sale at Maury’s Music.
And there is also the notice I put on my personal website, tspguitar.com for those who wish to learn more about this guitar in my own words. Here below is an excerpt.
Forty Years in the Making
It has been over 40 years since the Jackson Browne album, For Everyman, made its initial impact upon my young, impressionable ears. More to the point, it was the never flashy but always evocative guitar work provided by David Lindley on that record that schooled me in how a sideman can so enhance a song without overdoing it with superfluous fireworks. And it has been less than 40 years since I read the interview with where Lindley mentioned that his favorite recording acoustic guitar was a 000-21 from the early ’40s.
If I wasn’t already drawn to Martin’s Style 21 instruments because of their esoteric status and utilitarian yet beautiful aesthetics, with rosewood a bit too wild and woolly in its looks for the staid Martin Company’s ship-of-the-line 28s, Mr. Dave’s endorsement sealed the deal.
It has long been my dream to create a guitar that would prove genuinely versatile for a musician who played as much Jazz and Rock on their acoustic guitar as folk or fingerstyle, while having a tonal heart that would have been right at home at the Martin Guitar Company of the 1930s and ’40s.
And this instrument has exceeded my every expectation.
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