BG: What is the average edition size?
DB: There is no average size. The Grand Old Opry edition is approaching 500 units with the maximum being 650. The Elizabeth Cotton edition was much less with 76 guitars. The Keb Mo model did 252; the Kenny Wayne Shepherd did 198; David Crosby was oversold by 100 units. We went to the most recent show with a whole lot of different models. The DVM, which is the Veterans Model, is a pretty neat guitar, and we have taken orders for about 275 of them so far --which is a huge success.

BG: How many of them do you expect to sell?
DB: That is a special edition, which is not closed out, so we expect to sell more than 500. The Lonnie Donnegan model, which we weren't too sure about because he was known mostly in England, has sold 92 units, which is pretty significant. The Lawrence Juber model we weren't too sure about either because he isn't widely known (even though he has played with Paul McCartney and Wings) is going to sell over 110. It's a beautiful guitar. And yes, it sold partly on Lawrence Juber's reputation, but it sold primarily on the merits of the guitar itself.

BG: How do you go about designing the guitars?
DB: It's mostly common sense. If it's a person like Hank Williams who played a Martin guitar his whole career, it's easy. We just fashioned the guitar after the Brazilian D-28 that he played. Steven Stills had a D-45 from the pre-war era that was clearly spectacular and we wanted to replicate it. For a lot of the artists, we'll start with a size and then they'll want focus on tonal details with tone woods or bracing patterns. Other times they will focus on cosmetics, such as inlay patterns and things of that nature. It is important for the guitar to appear special and to be special on lots of different levels. I would say that we design the instruments specifically in keeping with what we and the artist feel to be critical aspects for that specific person and guitar. It's never the same. Sometimes we land on a model that we feel needs to be kept in the line as a standard model. For example, the Steve Howe model was clearly something that there is a market for, a vintage style OO-18. The Elizabeth Cotton model was virtually the same guitar. The same thing with the Woody Guthrie model.

BG: Does most of the design come from you or the artist?
DB: It depends on how much the artist wants to be involved. In the case of Paul Simon, he wanted to be involved with every detail and that makes it a little easier for me. In other cases, the artist really leaves it pretty much up to me. David Crosby knew that he wanted to do a guitar that was kind of like a D-18. He didn't know exactly what he wanted, so I suggested a number of things. The Crosby model is the logical extension of the Gordon Lightfoot model. We took something that we knew was successful, but we didn't have that much quilted mahogany (which is very rare), so we had to limit it. In David's case he said, "you know I like boats, here's my signature, and can you do something like a D-18 that I am going to like." He is very finicky when it comes to tone. What I tried to do was give it special wood, quilted mahogany, some special bracing, some vintage styling and keep it simple at the same time.

BG: How did you change the bracing?
DB: The bracing is forward shifted which takes the braces off of the bridge a little bit and usually contributes to a really good sound. Forward shifted is not prevalent throughout the whole Martin line and is something special that I like to do if it is possible.

BG: Any particular models that are favorites of yours?
DB: I certainly love the Jimmy Rodgers guitar, which I spent a lot of time on. We only sold 50 of them; it wasn't a huge success in terms of quantity, but in terms of prestige and the sheer love of a project, I think it was a very special replication of a really neat guitar. I have liked all of the Clapton projects. Those guitars sound so good. Peter Rowan's guitar I love from an artistic point of view -- the notion of creating a midnight moonlight guitar and illustrating the moon and the clouds on the headstock.

BG: How about the Dion guitar?
DB: Oh, I love that guitar. I love the looks of it. Paying tribute to someone like Dion with a guitar that is so pure and has so much style to it is really special.

BG: How many will it sell?
DB: The Dion model will probably sell in the 60 range and I think that's very respectable. It is perhaps an obscure size and shape. The fact that it is all black might have limited it. It is not a cheap guitar and it's got some very specific inlay and sometimes that will turn someone away from it. Same thing with Judy Collins. There is not a huge market for 12 string guitars. We will probably sell 33 of the twelve strings and 50 of the six strings, roughly, and that's not a tremendous amount, but that makes the guitar edition more special. The people that do have them will have something very special and very rare. The projects do serve to stake our claim historically with these artists, which is a good thing. The only risk is building the prototypes and we like to make more than 100 if possible because it makes it efficient production-wise, but it is fine to have a project that doesn't make 100. It could make them very collectable.

BG: How about something like the DVM (Veteran's guitar)?
DB: We weren't sure how that model was going to do. I really did not think that it was going to be a huge success. I didn't necessarily make the connection between Veterans and guitar players. Obviously, there are a lot of music dealers that think that the Veterans model will sell enough so that they are ordering them. We planned it in a way that if there is more of a market for them, then we will be able to make more. Interestingly enough, we found out about American Legion magazine, which has a subscriber list of more than two million, and we thought this would be a great way to get the word out. We were going to take a full-page ad in the magazine until we saw the ad rates; it costs $55,000 to run a full-page ad so I guess we aren't going to do that. It would chew up all of the revenue of the entire project! Everybody had an American Flag guitar at the trade show. There were so many people that had stuff like that, that it almost reeked of crass commercialism; like they were trying to capitalize on the September 11th thing. We felt good about the DVM because we started the project about two years ago. We went through all of the legalities, got permission from the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, which took a lot of time, but we did it right. We probably could have gone to market with it a year ago had it not been so complete and carefully put together.

BG: How long does it usually take to do a guitar?
DB: It depends. For the Clarence White guitar, I waited six or seven years until the estate was free and clear of any encumbrances and the time was right. Mark Knopfler we did in about six months. Paul Simon probably about a year and a half. The Crosby guitar took one or two years. I have been working on Neil Young for five or six years -- and it still hasn't happened. I have been working on Bob Dylan forever! Ten years and it probably won't happen. It depends on the artist.

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