Martin Guitars

Christian Fredrick Martin was born in Markneukirchen, Germany around 1796. His father and grandfather were cabinet makers and wood workers. C.F. Martin became apprentice to a guitar maker in Austria when he was 15 years old. He briefly opened his own guitar making shop in Germany but immigrated to New York City in 1833 and started making guitars. In 1838 he moved to Nazareth Pennsylvania and opened up shop. His guitar labels continued to say New York up until 1898. It was in his Nazareth shop that Martin started designing guitars with the x bracing. The guitars of the day used catgut strings. These strings were made from the intestines of sheep or goats and occasionally pigs or horses but it’s my understanding they were not made from cats. Around the turn of the century steel string became popular because of their bright sound. Martin started to focus on making steel string guitars in the 1920’s. The company’s reputation continued to grow and by the mid 1920’s they were making about 5000 instrument a year. This included ukuleles and mandolins. The Martin Company was very innovative. Martin started making dreadnaught style guitars for the Oliver Ditson Company in 1916. The first Martin dreadnaughts appeared in a1931 Martin catalog. Some consider the mid to late 1930’s as the golden era of steal guitars. Martin was producing models with 14 fret necks, x bracing, a dreadnaught series and the 000- size models. Martin also made archtops but they were not commercially successful. Production slowed during WWII but interest in folk music after the war renewed the demand for guitars. Martin continues to be family owned. C.F. Martin IV is the great-great-great grandson of the companies founder and is the CEO.
You can find discount Martin Guitars on eBay.