By Bob Goldman

When looking to buy an acoustic guitar there are a few main points that I look for. The first one would be the sound of the guitar. After all with an acoustic guitar, you don't plug them in to amplifiers and sound effects pedals and doctor up the sound. You want your acoustic guitar to sound right for you acoustically. The next thing you look for is workmanship, which kind of ties in with the sound. You do not want a guitar that was poorly made, since with acoustic guitars you usually have a heavier gauge string and the wound G string thrown in to the fact that it is all on a thin piece of wood and not a thick slab like on an electric. This also leads in to the warranty. How well do they stand behind their guitars? What are they willing to do for your guitar after you bought it? Then finally the next tie in would be customer service. Do they answer your questions about your guitar or one you are looking to purchase? Can you get them on the phone. Do they take care of you immediately or do the ignore you? Last criteria, is it a good investment? If I sell it in two, five, ten, twenty or even thirty years, will I get back what I paid for it, less than what I paid for it, or the ultimate, more than I paid for it. Well, I found a guitar that gives me all of this and more. That company as you all might know is Martin Guitars.

Let's start off with the sound of the guitars. Martin makes numerous sizes and shapes for you to choose from. They have a beautiful sound to them. You get the many years of meticulous craftsmanship to give you that natural woody sound that they give you. You start off with that beautiful mellow sound that gets even better with age and then you go to the Dreadnought and the Jumbos and they are so loud, you need earplugs. You can play a coffee house without miking your guitar and nothing sounds better than the natural sound of the guitar. Look at who plays Martin Guitars. Everyone.

Now let's move on to the workmanship. How does flawless sound? Ever see a Martin second? There is no such thing. No matter what the guitar is worth and no matter how minor the flaw, if there is a flaw, the guitar is cut in half. They allow nothing but perfection to leave the factory. I have looked at many Martin guitars to see if I could find even the slightest imperfection and it just does not exist. Different craftsmen specialize in certain areas of assembly of the guitars so that they can put out the finest instruments available. I have read articles where someone says that a guitar is made by one person, but when you think about it, if you specialize in a specific part of assembling a guitar, you would be much better at that than at making an entire guitar. There are certain areas of making a guitarthat are totally different. It is very hard to be an expert at everything.

Now here is a real winner for you. Imagine this. An acoustic guitar with a lifetime warranty. What does it cover? How about what doesn't it cover? Don't smash your guitaror throw it in a lake and you are in pretty good shape. They basically cover everything from normal wear. If you abuse your guitar, then that's on you. They even do set-ups for free at the factory, but when they do a set up, it's not like most places do. Usually you just drop your guitar off. I brought in two of my guitars to them and had Richard Starkey do the set up for me. I took my guitars in to his work station and he checked them out a little bit and then came the questions.

How do you want me to set it up for you? OK can you lower the action a little for me, but without the cost of buzzing or sound of the guitar. Sure, can you play a little bit so I can see how hard you play. I hit a few chords and then he even checked and asked me what type of picks I use. Richard then discussed with me which type strings I would like on the guitar. He then called in Dick Boak and Lon Werner to hear my J-40. He said I should have it done by the end of the tour. One more thing he asked me. To show you what they think of their guitars. If you ever want to sell this guitar, give me a call. I told him, no problem, but not to hold his breath waiting because I don't think I will be selling this one. During the tour we walked by him and he called me over to check out my D-35, which he finished first, and it was perfect. After the tour was over, he brought out both of my guitar so that I could check them out and they were both perfect. Just what I asked for. They weren't set up for him or anyone else. He set them both up just for me. Then I asked how much. The response. You're the original owner, right. Yes. Then there is no charge. Try to beat that. To quote Dan Erlewine's book, Guitar Player Repair Guide, on page 42 Ithink the Martin company is too generous to their customers offering them a lifetime warranty on an object made out of wood. Many owners take advantage of the warranty by expecting Martin to repair problems that are caused by nature or neglect. Martin, is however unfailing about taking care of their customers. Give them a word of thanks sometime-they deserve it! I have heard some ridiculous stories about what they will do for their customers covering things that no one else would even consider covering. They just refuse to give you a chance to complain about them. Martin Guitars will keep their customers satisfied no matter what ittakes, they do it.

Now let's talk about the customer service department. There are four people there that must be fighting over phone calls or the chance to take care of their customers. Sometimes I feel like writing to George Carlin to get a ridiculous question to ask them and to see if they actually go to look up the answer. They are the best customer service department that I have ever dealt with. Musical instruments, electronics or just anything. I called them up recently and gave them a serial number of a guitar I bought. In less than fifteen minutes I get a call back and I think he was a little out of breath from running to get the information from their archives. He told me my O-18 was made on January 9, 1929 in a lot of seven guitars and the last one in the lot had a straight bridge (not the belly bridge) with rosewood binding. Then the next week I decided I wanted guitars made the same month as my parents birthday which is February 1926 and October 1929. That day I had the E-mail with all the serial numbers for those guitars. I have never called them without getting them on line immediately and I have never had anything but total satisfaction to what I was asking. It probably is a little easier to work there, since they probably don't ever get any complaints from their customers. It kind of seems like they are the Maytag repair men waiting for a phone call to take care of you.

The last thing I look for is also how well is my guitar going to hold its value. When I first started lookingfor a Martin Guitar, I wanted to get a used one so that I could save some money. I found out it was almost impossible to find a used Martin from within the past ten years and the most I could actually save was maybe $100.00, which is nothing on a guitar that sells new for $1400.00. I decided that the lifetime warranty and getting a guitar without a scratch was worth $100.00. I have bought three new Martins within the past two years. If I sold any of them, I would not lose any money on them and the one, I would make moneyon and it is only one year old. They are only going to go up in value as long as I take care of them. They are the most proven investment among acoustic guitars.

When people ask me about buying acoustic guitars, I only will talk to them about Martins. Out of all of the criteria in purchasing a guitar, they rank number one in every single category. When you buy a Martin Guitar, you become part of a family. As soon as someone else tells you that they have a Martin, they are automatically your friend. There is a certain bond among Martin owners. If you want something inexpensive, they have the 15 series,which is all Mahogany. These guitars are an absolute steal for the money. They have a great sound to them. They just aren't as loud as the their top end guitars. We can next move to their Standard Dreadnought series which set the standard for all other guitars. They start with the D-18 which is their Mahogany bodied guitar and then move up to the D-28 which is the Rosewood bodied two piece back guitar. This is probably the most well known acoustic guitar. The D-35, which I like the cosmetics a little more and is not very much more expensive adds to it the three piece back and neck binding. I think the cosmetic difference is worth the little extra money. Then as you move up the line with the D-40, D-41, D-42, and the top of the line which is the D-45, they are pretty much start with the D-28 and then add to them the scalloped bracing to allow the top to vibrate more freely and then the cosmetics of the inlays and the abalone binding. All of these guitar sound great. If you like the Jumbo body, which I do, the J-40 is an excellent choice. It is a cannon. Big, loud, and each string has a perfect balance to it. Just a great sounding guitar.

They have also come out with a herringbone series which brings back the old herringbone binding and the scalloped bracing. There are also vintage guitars and the Golden Era Guitars which go back to copy the older Martin Guitars as they were in the beginning of the 20th century. For fingerpickers there are the smaller bodied OO sized and OOO sized guitars. Martin has a two part designation for naming each of their guitars. The first part is the size of the guitar. These measurements are for the lower bout of the guitar. The OO sized guitars are 14 1/8" for the 12 fret guitars and 14 5/16" for the 14 fret guitars. The OOO has a 15" lower bout and the Dreadnought, which is a Martin design that has been copied by everyone has the more squared off body and a 15 5/8" lower bout. The biggest Martin is the Jumbo which has a 16" lower bout and is 4 7/8" deep. The second part of the model number will be a number like 18, 28, 35, 40, 41, 42, or 45. This will tell you the type of wood, inlays, binding and all of the cosmetics that the guitar will have. Then there are some other abbreviations that can be added to tell you if it is the Herringbone model, vintage model or anything additional added to them. Martin has recently added to their line commemorative guitars which are made to either honor an artist or someone involved in the musicindustry. In addition they donate money from the sale of these guitars to a charity.

Martin's factory is located in Nazareth Pennsylvania and they give a free tour. The tours start at 1:15 on weekdays and they show you everything from string making to the complete construction of the guitars. The employees of Martin seem to look forward to the tours since they are always willing to show you and explain to you their part in the construction of the guitars. You can see the great care that goes in to every aspect of making a guitar and then at the end you get the famous sound hole souvenir. Martin also has a custom division where you can have a guitar custom made for you. To do this you can go to your dealer and work with them and Martin on making your dream guitar exactly as you would like it to be made. We will have another article on their custom division in the future.

In my opinion if you are looking for the finest guitar that money can buy, the best warranty in the business, top quality workmanship and an investment piece, there is no other choice, but to buy a Martin Guitar. Although I am pretty new to the acoustic guitar field, the more I learn about Martin, the more I tell myself, I will never buy another acoustic guitar unless it is a Martin. So when it comes to buying an acoustic guitar, the first thing to look for is the name on the headstock. If it doesn't say Martin then it can't be any better than second best.

For Information:
Martin Guitar Co.
510 Sycamore St.
Nazareth, PA 18064-9233
610-759-2837
www.martinguitar.com

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