March 13, 2023 • 55 mins
Welcome to the Martins and More PODCAST! Today, we'll be discussing some of our favorite Martin Guitars that are no longer in production. This topic was suggested by one of our loyal listeners; thank you, Jeff - we appreciate your input! Long-forgotten Martins like the D-18VS, 000-28VS, OM-28 Marquis - these guitars and more, coming right up in this episode. Sit back & relax as Maury & Spoon get their out-of-production Martin Guitar chat on.
This podcast features the conversation and opinions of musician T Spoon Phillips. A writer by trade, Spoon's longtime association with professional musicians, luthiers, and music historians affords him a richly unique perspective on all things acoustic guitar. This includes decades of close friendship with executives and employee at C. F. Martin & Company, past and present, and the host of this podcast, Maury Rutch of Maury’s Music. Visit Spoon at http://TSPguitar.com AND at http://onemanz.com/ Check out Maury's Music at https://www.maurysmusic.com This podcast features the conversation and opinions of musician T Spoon Phillips. A writer by trade, Spoon's longtime association with professional musicians, luthiers, and music historians affords him a richly unique perspective on all things acoustic guitar. This includes decades of close friendship with executives and employee at C. F. Martin & Company, past and present, and the host of this podcast, Maury Rutch of Maury’s Music.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
foreign [Music]
(00:09):
welcome back to Martins and more my name is Maury Rutch and I'm spoon Phillips
and we have some very cool things to talk about they're not popular anymore but we're going to talk about them anyway how you doing today spoon
I'm doing very well speaking of something or someone who's not very popular even though he used to be
(00:32):
you talking about me I wasn't going to say anything but you brought it up
dang this is off to a beautiful start [Laughter]
well don't talk about yourself like that that's my job it's a bad sign that people are using self-deprecating humor and you're
assuming they're talking about you I'd like an order of self-esteem please coming right up
(00:56):
um do you want a high chair with that now you wonder why I have no self-esteem
God gosh where's my gosh at gosh
let's try to get a little bit of content going here just in case we have time yes you told me that you had another uh
listener suggestion for a a show topic what is it I certainly did and it's a good one Jeff
(01:21):
Smith says much love from this New York native in Osaka Japan the show is great
I love it thank you what's your take on out of production Martins are there any that you think should have been kept on
the roster he says I think the Marquee guitars are the best I've played and very much regret selling the three that
I had and then he used the word gentlemen I wonder who he was talking about laughs
(01:45):
perhaps he was listening to a program and we had a special guest or two
um but yes wow that is a fascinating topic that I found it's a great suggestion so thank you very much and uh
and a native New Yorker but a long way away so yes so models that have gone out
of production it does remind me one thing you got you have to be sort of careful with this topic because all over the guitar forums
(02:12):
you will see these a particular sort of person that will get on a high horse and
say that Martin should have never gotten rid of this guitar this was such a great guitar and you know what why would they
get rid of the blah blah blah and you would say oh great well yes they should bring them back and you're going to buy
one right laughs
(02:37):
exactly and you know or they've already already owned one so uh by no means is
this uh podcast today uh supposed to uh be taken as any kind of criticism of CF
Martin and Company and what guitars they get rid of or what guitars they keep and all that
um however we have all certainly had uh models that we really liked a lot or
(03:00):
thought were very cool whether we bought one or not and either we're surprised they got rid of them or or think they
you know they would have a place in the Martin catalog so so why don't we begin
uh where he suggested Maury they uh where the Marquis around when your shop
opened or did they come in after for people who don't know the Marquis were based on the old Golden Era series but
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when Chris Martin drew a line in the sand about never buying Brazilian rosewood that couldn't be absolutely
proven by paperwork all the way back to its source that it was legal and within
the societies treat treaty guy lines all of a sudden they couldn't make
golden era guitars anymore uh that had Brazilian rosewood so they decided to rename the Marquee guitars and make them
(03:53):
with Indian Rosewood instead so but otherwise they the 28 Marquee was
identical to the D28 Golden Era except it had Indian Rosewood and the d18 Golden Era became the d18 Marquee
because uh The Binding stopped being Brazilian rosewood and so forth so
anyway were the Marquis around when you opened in 2003 I don't remember the
(04:19):
dates of when that all happened that's the only danger of doing this podcast off the cuff we're going to give
you our impressions of this topic but I'll tell you the truth I haven't done enough research to narrow down exactly
which dates certain guitars debuted the one they came and went I seem to remember that in 2003
if they hadn't already been on the scene it was right around that time so I I don't remember ironically I don't
(04:42):
remember having a lot of Golden Era guitars so I think around 0304 might have been where you started to see the
switch and maybe somebody listening to this show on YouTube can add in the comments or the chat maybe you know better than
we do without looking some stuff up I was going to say it might be as late as 206 but I think I'm getting it mixed
up with it with the Lawrence Jupiter signature model the Brazilian signature model I think that was 2006 but anyway yes the Marquee guitars this was at a
(05:08):
time when the standard series dreadnoughts still had uh for the most part uh the D28 and v18 had straight
bracing and the black pick cards and and the d18 had black binding in the and and
they had white dots on the fretboard so they did not look very much like uh
pre-war Martens from the 30s and the uh and the d18 still had a uh Indian
(05:32):
Rosewood bridge and fingerboard so the Avengers series first came out we're going to talk about those in a minute
the Marquee series of the vintage series had Sitka Spruce bracing and Sitka Spruce tops and
v-necks but the dreads with 1 11 16 inch nut width the ge's and Marquees give you
dreadnoughts that have a one and three quarter inch width nut at the neck at the not um at the end of the neck and
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you know what they call the standard taper and wider string spacing and a
bigger rounder v-neck than the vintage series because of the the 1930s heel
that makes the neck a little more rounder and and bulbous I guess it kind
of made the hand fill out more but wonderful appointments wood fiber inlays
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you know all the herringbone and rosette and stuff are all done with with Maple
and and uh guide black with fiber you have the
diamonds and squares you know fingerboard and style 28 and um and you had Adirondack screws for the
tops and the bracing and that introduced The Golden Era Adirondack Spruce bracing
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you can get custom order with Sitka but they're originally designed for Adirondack because of its cross grain
stiffness so they removed more wood while they were scalloping the braces which still would you know would
make them more like pre-war Martin bracing and so it had more flexibility than the standard series and vintage
series pricing so they're a very special guitars with really uh wonderful sound I think the d18 Marquee and slash Golden
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Era the uh om-28 Marquis uh people just absolutely love them uh they have the
wider genuine two and three eighth inch string spacing which some people uh may
have some problem with but really magnificent instruments and the triple o
18 Golden Era slash Marquee all-time favorite and we basically have that in
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the modern uh triple o18 now except that it's sick instead of Adirondack and it
has the modern neck but um but it's definitely the descendant of the Triple O 18 Golden Era slash Marquee
because they didn't make a Triple O 18 in the vintage series but yeah wonderful
guitars uh what do you what what Memories do you have of Marquis or golden Eros that you can recall I was
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going to ask you if this was a time for me to ask you are you going to name all the old Martin guitars before I get to
tell you which of them were my favorites for this list no that's fine no well I was stopping at
the the triple 18 d18 and the OM 28 were like the ones that really that I really
loved a lot only because I don't want to sound like I didn't think about anything but after
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you've named them yeah that's what I was gonna say um but my memory of the of the Golden Era series isn't as big as the uh the
Marquis I for whatever reason uh whether it was timing popularity or the fact that we might be right thinking that
when we became a dealer in O3 the golden eras were beginning to be phased out and I um if I can go back in time like
Martin McFly I would find these dates but please bear with us I think the Golden Era series
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never did take off as fast as the Marquis series with our specific store and when I say that I recognize we're
probably the outlier here at marismusic.com but we did really really well with the Marquis and I if I
remember correctly there was an om-28 Marquee that belonged to and I'm gonna get this order wrong it
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was our friend Bruce Atkins and then he eventually sold it to L mcmean our other friend and either between that situation
or immediately after one of those two gentlemen were kind enough to say listen Mari I know you've always gushed over
this guitar at Martin Fest if one of us sells this guitar again you get first dibs and I made the mistake of saying
yeah I'll think about that and I let it slip through my hands but the om28 Marquee
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is undoubtedly the first guitar on my list today of guitars that aren't in production anymore and still should be
if not for any other reason I want an opportunity to buy that again because that guitar I mean Bruce Atkins and Elle
McBean they're both great players I got to hear that guitar so many times at nasfest I got to play it so many times
myself and I really do think that the Adirondack top on what is otherwise I
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know I'm 28v really really sounds magical and of course since then we've
had a lot of things like the om28 Authentics the om-28 modern deluxes and
I'd love I'd really love to hear in ohm 28 today in 2023 against some of these
newer Martins because my memories of the Marquee are really really good and I that was one of the guitars that has
(10:23):
stuck with me all through my my life as being a shop owner that guitar has not left my mind
well I I totally agree and we have a friend I'm not sure if he if he's the kind of person who wants his name
mentioned on the on the airwaves like this uh but our friend Tom will just say
that he has probably still has I haven't seen it in several years but he had a a
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wonderful uh om28 uh Marquee and I think
for some people they slightly chunk your neck and The Wider string spacing uh was
a you know put them off but I think most people didn't feel that way about it and
um I had that string spacing on my om18v the 2 and 3 8 inch swing spacing and
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that was ultimately one of the reasons I sold it when I was starting to have tendonitis issues and and some of my you
know old football injuries and stuff kicking in and that wider string spacing is really good for the fretting hand but
for my picking hand it actually did give me some problems and it forced me to probably much closer to the fretboard
than uh I necessarily like tone wise but um and and they had the same spacing on
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the Marquis for people who don't know the OMS from the 1930s began with two
and three eighth in string spacing but for some reason they're not all in that
way and that's why I always wondered why the om-28v which is a another of these
wonderful guitars that now basically exists as the standard series om28 just
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doesn't have the The Wider fretboard and the v-neck it had two and five sixteenth interesting spacing well the om45 5V and
the om18v had 2 and 3 8 and no one and Martin could ever answer why at the time
well it turns out when they go to the om-28 authentic 1931 they happen to use
Mike Seger's 1931 om28 and it had oh it
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had two and five sixteenths inch string spacing so it's entirely possible when they made that v-model that was the same
guitar they had looked at when they were trying to you know spec out some of the Vintage specs so um for whatever reason
and at that time of somebody's Martin that maybe a dealer had ordered a batch
with that string spacing or or for whatever reason they just uh switched to
(12:50):
that but only on certain guitars so it's it's interesting how that happened back in the day so anyway we have and for a
long time that was the only guitar the om28v was the only guitar with 2 and 5 16 inch string spacing basically
available they eventually added that to some dreadnoughts all right all right
beg your pardon non-dread knots and then they added that that string spacing here and there to to certain other models but
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yeah those are really wonderful guitars and now I'm going to mention what I thought was the most special Marquee of
all which I gave a glowing review for Maurice music website back in the day
when we first hooked up and they had asked me to do some writing for their website before I started my own website
and that is the triple 042 Marquee now this has the 2 and 5 16 string
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spacing that was my favorite string spacing in the back in the day short scale one and three quarter inch width
nut it has the 1930s heel that was used on the triple o 18 GE uh one of my
all-time favorite neck shape in terms of feel and it had the high color of
(14:02):
Abalone that you would want in in a fancy guitar like that and the grain
diveroid binding and all that and I really loved it and uh yeah I was you
know I was waiting for them to come out with a Madagascar version of this right around this time they they started
offering special Marquee models in Madagascar Rosewood which had a pretty big up charge to them and
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um including the om-28 Madagascar Marquis and the D28 Madagascar Marquee
and so I was waiting for the Triple O 4 42 Marquis Madagascar
and it was basically in production it was up into the prototypes
and then the political crisis in Madagascar struck
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and they canceled it and it didn't come out and without telling anybody in America
what they did is they took the ones they had completed they slapped Eric Clapton signature on the fretboard and they sold
them as an air Clapton model exclusively in Japan no so highly collectible Martin if
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people are into speculation on what Martins in the future are going to be worth a lot of money the triple o 42
Madagascar model aircraft and model that was sold in Japan that actually has the
string spacing and neck of a marquee not a typical Clapton model I have no idea
how many they made but I recently saw one for sale on a website in Japan for
(15:33):
75 to jillion gazillion dollars so they clearly knew what they had that's not
that bad though for that yeah I mean when you consider everything
um but anyway yes Marquis fabulous guitars um can you think of something else
that's not a marquee GE that that we would like to bring up in this favorite
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Martins that aren't available anymore I can but does it have to be six strings
not at all well first of all before I go into that I want to thank you when Jeff asked us
not to talk about guitars that are no longer in production you went one step further and talked about a guitar that
never even got to production so kudos to you
(16:20):
now I'm intimidated but I'm going to keep talking anyway let me know if you remember this guitar I'm going to
describe it uh East Indian Rosewood back and sides uh style 45 back purpling it
had forward shifted bracing Sitka Spruce bold herringbone modified V and oh yeah
seven strings so this is a a quick Interruption by the
(16:44):
Mario's music show Mystery guitar welcome to the Maury's music podcast and
today's mystery guitar so you said it's a Indian Rosewood guitar with style 45
multi-color backstrip forward shifted scallop racing did you say
I did yep I don't remember if you said that what else did you say okay but it
(17:08):
has seven uh circus Bruce top seven strings
why am I blanking out on Martin's seventh string guitar
all right I have to say I have actually been stumped now if you come out and say
for April fools there really wasn't such a guitar I'll feel a lot better no what is it what is it I'm curious to know
(17:31):
oh oh it's it's the Roger McGuinn hd7 remember that
I do now I completely forgot about that now who do I know that owned one of
those was it Marshall just Marshall Roger McGuinn yeah the seven string I totally
forgot about that no I mean Roger mcguin owns one
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oh uh yes but they they took the idea of
the uh Rickenbacker 12 string with the G string that had the highest you know the
extra high string flipped differently than other people's 12 strings that was flipped you know so the the
treble string was on the other side than it is on typical 12 strings and they applied it and I think it was mcguin's
(18:23):
idea I think he came to dick and said what do you think of this and uh and
they made it and it was a very cool guitar so it gave you that extra high Harmony but just on the G string so uh
really fascinating I was thinking seven strings I think you know I was picturing Bucky pizzarellis you know Pizzeria
seven string guitars that have the extra bass string at the top and it was like did Martin do that did they put that on
(18:49):
Pete Seeger's baritone I was like what guitar what guitar yeah you told me something that's great good government
good job good job I had for an all about that and a fun fact I don't know if I've told
you this on camera before but I I got to meet Roger McGuinn I think it was that time you came to The NAMM Show with us
and I got to meet him um you were probably off talking shop with Lawrence Juber or somebody but uh
(19:10):
Roger moon was such a nice guy he's sitting at a table with his wife and they're you know shaking hands and and they opened the Martin sounding board
magazine but instead of just signing the book he wasn't like just looking down at the book he's actually interacting with
you and giving you his time and it was so beautiful to spend a couple seconds you know shaking his hand and thanking
him for the music and he was more interested in saying hello and seeing you than actually signing the book so I
(19:33):
walked away from The Martin booth at Nam and I looked and like wait a minute he signed his name on Steven Stills page
uh that's pretty funny well now let's see talking about collect Martin collector's items there you go you know
they won off yeah I'll just tell you with that Nam show just briefly I'd say yeah it was very different than my experience with
Andy summer who had come in because his signature model was going up which was a very cool signature model it was one of
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the only uh short scale tripolos available at that time and and it had
very interesting like a yin and yang and other sort of spiritual inlays on it but
Rosewood and it had what is now the modern uh modified low oval profile but
um but he came in I I must say he was probably extremely jet lagged but he was
(20:22):
completely humorless not having a good time at all the Martin Booth's kind of waiting for whatever he was going to be
expected to do and I came over and you know and and what I happened to be playing the guitar at the time so I came
over and said you know can we get a photograph whatever and he looked at me with words said like not really but I
turned and he just kind of looked right when somebody took the camera so there he is kind of glowering at the camera but uh
(20:47):
but anyway uh but I think he looked exactly somebody who probably just flew in from Over the pole from London to L.A
or something like that but anyway um that was a cool uh signature model two I mean there's been some really cool
signature models that they just don't keep signature models around forever like the d45 Roy Rogers and things like
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that that um you know they they put him out as limited editions for a reason but
there have been some really uh cool ones that the Jimmy Buffett d18 uh I think it's a hd18 Jimmy Buffett with a with a
very nice Pearl palm tree on the headstock and um basically it's uh you know mahogany
back and sides but but with the scallop racing of a of a HD 28 from that era you
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know there's some there's lots of those cool guitars but ones that used to be in production
um you brought up that very cool guitar um I will bring up the d18 VS
the 12 fret a big 12 fret Dreadnought from the vintage series and I love those guitars
really nicely balanced our our friend the late Dave kokeski had a wonderful one with a Sunburst that that many
(22:01):
people coveted and huge sound big guitars but very different from 14 fret
guitars in that they're very balanced almost like a giant om so you're very good for finger picking and finger style
guitar but still giving you that you know big Mammoth round base so those were lovely I would be uh really uh
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curious to see if those would sell again without the v-neck if Martin would come out with a standard series 12 fret uh
d18 I'd be very curious to see if those would sell and I'll tie that together with the
short scale the briefly lived uh lived short scale d18 do you remember those I
don't remember what the model was called I do they were only around for about a year they had yeah they came and went
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like as fast as anything else I think one of the reasons they came and went
um and that may have been around the same era of that seven string guitar is because they put a v-neck on it and they
it was basically a d18v short scale and I think if they hadn't met left it with the uh the low profile they might have
sold more of them and as I get older and like the short scale more and more I
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have even considered a custom Martin Short scale Dreadnought but um maybe
sometime in the future but those were very cool guitars too and uh okay let's go down into
um maybe below the standard series um what or below the stamp Series in terms of you know the style numbers and
stuff is there anything that stands out to you uh from the 16 17 15s that's uh
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you think they should bring back or or surprise they don't have yeah there is one that I I have on my
mind but before I get there can I throw a trivia question your way absolutely
it's actually tied together I'm going to talk about a 16 Series guitar and my memory is a little bit fuzzy but there
was a version of this guitar that I'm not going to pick as the model I speak about but it had electronics that wasn't
(24:03):
LR bags it wasn't Fishman it wasn't detar what was it what was the very very
short-lived company electronics that Martin used in the 16 series for a very
brief time I want to say around 2007 to 2010 and again if my memory is missing a date
by a little bit you know forgive me but it was the late 2000s it was in the 16th series and it was a company not named a
(24:29):
moment ago which company had Electronics in some 16 series Martin guitars as a
brief experiment that never really caught on I will I will think about that
um while we move forward okay so what's uh 16 uh 17
15s uh can you think of that that fit today's topic
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well the one I'm thinking of is a 16 series and let me know if this rings a bell HD 16
are Adirondack absolutely absolutely these get
mentioned a lot to this day when people are are wisfully having this kind of conversation or are looking for uh to
(25:14):
buy a Martin but don't have the money in or thinking of the used market and that's a good thing to point out is a lot of these models can be found in the
used markets if you if they sound interesting to you you may want to seek them out and the D16 are
Adirondack would be a very good choice now this goes back to around the same
era of the Triple O 42 Marquee I mean this was back I remember playing that in the
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lobby prior to my arrangement with Martin to shoot one man's guitars videos back in
The Sound Room where I would just show up at the factory and uh and you know shoot uh my videos in the
lobby and I think I think so I think I A friend of mine
bought one of those too though I think I might be mixing it up with the D16 large
(26:05):
sound hole which was also a very cool model and I don't remember the exact
name of that model other than it ended in LS but um yes that's very cool Adirondacks
uh on a 16 is the first time Martin used Adirondacks Bruce on a more affordable
uh guitar that actually costs less than a standard series instrument rather than
(26:31):
more so very good call the D16 large Sound Hole I'm afraid I don't remember in the full moniker
another one very cool to look for on the used Market as is the do you remember
the the wasn't technically standard series but standard series level build large Sound
Hole guitar I think it's the D28 lsv oh the hd28 lsv
(26:57):
yes are you serious that was going to be my next one oh was it really well there we go great
minds think alike because that that's a very cool guitar what do you remember about that guitar I remember that guitar was just enormous
in tone and I'll take you back to maybe the third or fourth Naz Fest where our friend Daryl I forget his last name but
it began with a k um he actually played that guitar tuned down a whole step with mediums and if
(27:24):
you walk past it it like knocked you off balance it was so big sounding anyway and then to drop it down to like you
know D instead of e it was one of those things where he was always playing with the Capo and the second fret in song
circles but when he got to play by himself it was like why don't I buy that guitar in a heavy pick and just be like
Mr muscle and that guitar had such a voice when I described this you know on
(27:47):
this podcast you might be thinking wow that was probably so bass heavy it was but it wasn't muddy and it wasn't
lacking you know the the upper mid-range and trebles that you want to hear I've I'd love to hear one of them again and
in the true Spirit of this podcast you know where Jeff's asking us which guitars do we wish Martin either still
made or would bring back like I'm not just saying it's a fill content I would love to see them bring that back even if
(28:11):
it was a special limited run but the hd28 lsv it had a large sound haul it
was a vintage series guitar and it was basically a really powerful maybe I want
to say precursor to the D28 modern Deluxe but that's not even fair because so many things are different about it
but maybe what I mean to say is I bet you those two guitars would compete well against each other well that was uh very
(28:34):
well said and I think it was as people will probably guessed it was inspired by the Clarence white uh guitar
um that ended up in Tony Rice's hands after Clarence white passed away and
um but that was a 1930s D28 1935 D28 and the you know the sound hole had gotten
broken probably from a you know magnetic pickup or something and and somebody whether it was Clarence white or
(28:57):
somebody before Clarence white just hollowed it out to make a much bigger sound hole out of it and um that Martin
couldn't do a clearance white D28 model at the time because I had his family had already
it had it you know with some other company and I think Santa Cruz and then uh maybe that was no Tony Rice was the
Santa Cruz one but anyway they did do a d18 Clarence white but they took that idea and made the lsv and uh yep super
(29:24):
powerful guitar a friend Tony Phillips had one you might still have one I don't remember and um
the Lord found the Lord said the whole thing uh is is true and I have one on my
uh you know my custom audition that was done for mori's music uh to help get uh
a bigger sound out of a short scale tripolo and it certainly does that everybody constantly comments on how
(29:50):
loud my guitar is and uh but I don't even realize because I'm behind it if I'm sitting there rehearsing with the
Highland chapters or or whoever um you know they always kind of look at you know sitting there with their big
dreadnoughts look down at my little guitar relatively little guitar and yeah those are very cool guitars I think
Martin would do well to try to bring uh back a large soundhole model they have a
(30:12):
tendency to recycle either certain Concepts or models there will be models
that are gone for a while and then bring them back for instance right now the only m is the
um M36 uh they had an M38 for a while it went away the fm36 went away it's come
back um we've had other M's coming go Chris Martin is adamant at least he told me
(30:35):
that he will always keep an m in the lineup for legacy reasons and
that he it's one of the reasons they kept the double o21 the 12 little 12 fret double at 21 for so many years and
bring that back occasionally was is for legacy reasons and I was relieved to see
that the triple o 15 M speaking of 12 fret guitars is in the catalog it went
(31:01):
missing from the website in 2022 and that was completely because they were just doing website work but it for
anybody who noticed that thought oh no they're not going to have that model anymore and they never did stop making
it it just wasn't on the website for a while but now it's back so there is a 12 fret Martin in the
lineup um I would love to see more I'd love to see a 12 fret d18 and see uh what people
(31:26):
thought of that so speaking of M's again these are signature models with the late
witty man um principal guy uh who died recently uh
his signature model was an m with cutaway mahogany M with cutaway was it yorma about Bromberg I forget how
this works Bromberg that's what it was it's bromberg's signature model is an m and of course he's famous for being the
(31:52):
most famous of the musicians in the 60s that had a pre-war Martin F size
Arch top converted to a flat top and I think his he took his to Matt
humanoff's uh I think John Lundberg out in Berkeley also was doing this for people but that's uh led to Martin
Bromberg literally took that guitar to Fred Martin and that led to the first m
(32:17):
but bromberg's uh signature model is fancies Pearl pearly and uh he uh gave
one to Jorma Cochran as a present I believe is how the story goes and that led to jorma's and I think one of those
two I think it's yorma's has a large Sound Hole speaking of light sound holes one of those 3M I just mentioned has a
large sound home afraid I don't remember which one it is so those are very cool guitars but I think my favorite
(32:43):
unusual M guitar was the George Martin signature model Fame
it is a mahogany M with the three piece back so it looks
really cool and it has a European Spruce top and so it has a you know a
(33:04):
and it may be a technically Italian uh top but it's time Spruce but it's uh it
has a very unique sound you don't usually see Europeans Spruce match with
mahogany and it had this I don't know creamy quality to the uh to the background uh
undertone and um really quite lovely and a very cool looking guitar and the M uh and the
(33:31):
three piece back actually has a wedge coming down from the neck so it looks like a big m
on the back so it's not just like it's style 35 it's a three piece back but
it's the the center stripes the two stripes come up and then slant down and basically make a Big M on the back so
check that out for listeners at home when I look at the George Martin signature model online and see what I'm
(33:56):
talking about it's a very cool design so uh yes very cool guitars and from the
M's um to go back to the M's what about an M15 you know they uh
M15 the j15s were very popular and our friend Johnny's uh j15 sounds
(34:19):
magnificent I would love to see the uh you know I would love to see the 12 fret D15 the D15 SM uh that was a magnificent
guitar and that may be what I think Johnny has one of those too that's what I think of when I think of Johnny yeah
yeah yes he really likes the 12 foot much I'm sorry so maybe he didn't own the JM maybe that was somebody else from
(34:40):
Martin fast from that era maybe scooter oh quite so I'm sorry yeah I'm getting
I'm getting those two guys mixed up actually um so um they were speaking of people who are people with facial hair who at
Martin Fest at the same time 10 years ago or so um and uh
so you know those guys all those old hippies look alike to me um even me but um
(35:05):
but yes those are those I know we're kind of uh really streaming Consciousness here as we remember these
fine guitars but let's say you were going to Martin and you could pick I don't know let's just start with three
if if you had Tim Teal's ear or Chris Martin's ear and say
why don't you bring these three back and see how how they do what would you pick I mean even among the ones you already
(35:30):
mentioned well I would probably use this platform to start talking about my next guitar
the tripolo 28vs would be one of them I really liked your idea about the d18vs
and podcast aside I think if we were talking on a regular phone call and you brought that guitar up it would make me
think wow I really wonder why Martin wouldn't think that could have a healthy place in the lineup I mean right now in
(35:54):
2023 they're they're all hands on deck to just build enough guitars for last year's order so I know right now is not
the time to add models but I think the d18vs would be great the triple o28vs
and if I had to pick another one I was going to say maybe something else in the 15. I don't know if it would have been
the DSs 15 but but I'm actually caught off the cuff thinking that Martin could
(36:17):
use some more 12-foot models including the D's so I think I think the d18vs of
everything we've spoken about so far but it does make me think of the tripolo 28vs and the triple o 20 ABS is
interesting a little bit of a fun trivia that some of you guys might not know spoon talked
about fact that a lot of Triple O guitars from Martin's catalog had been long scale in some podcasts before when
(36:42):
mori's music first opened its doors in 2003 it didn't take us long to want to design our own signature model or our
own you know custom Edition uh celebrating the fact that we're a store and I remember telling Bob Fair who used
to work in the custom shop why don't we take a triple low 28vs and make it a double O and all you know all the while
I think that'd be a great idea only after the first 10 were delivered did he remind me that the triple o 28vs is long
(37:07):
scale and that ended up being a a quick Side Story we had to do 10
0028 vs Mario's music guitars and then 10 correct ones with the short scale being the the specs so the very first
time we came out with our the only time we came out with our own mari's music model the first run was long scale the
second run was short scale but it was built off of the popularity of the triple low 28vs and my introduction to
(37:33):
that guitar more so than being a dealer and having inventory was playing gigs with our friend Jim Monahan way back in
the day back in the early 2000s it wouldn't be unusual for me to take a
trip to New Jersey with Tim and back then our uh our Conga player bobka rest in peace and we would do some pickup
gigs in a couple of places in near Denville New Jersey with Jim and Jim had a really nice triple low 28 vs if you're
(37:57):
old enough to remember when Jim Monahan used to go to Martin Fest and that's dating you that guitar really impressed
me the times I heard it and I think that's a model maybe the v-neck's going to be a turn up for some people but I think that model has an interesting
place in both past and present well that's interesting you put it that
way because I I would think they would be more interested in doing a standard
(38:21):
series one with a with the a 12 foot version of the modified low oval and maybe even the high performance taper
which they now have in the modern Deluxe series so they've introduced you know
their first 12 fret model into the modern Deluxe series and so I could see them possibly doing something with
standard series build which is technically what the vintage series was except for the v-neck so but maybe they
(38:46):
would do both I you know I think we see I bet you if we went into Martin's brain
by that I mean the company brain and actually saw what's what I would guess that dreadnoughts
absolutely massively outsell anything else no matter how well OMS sell and triple o
(39:07):
cell that dreadnoughts are are just the king of sales that Martin and will
always be that way so non Dreadnought 12 fret guitars
probably don't sell very well the double 017 that they came out with when they
revamped 17 series was the first one to disappear they just people just didn't buy them and um I think a lot of people
(39:34):
either thing 1200 guitars look too old-fashioned or they need more Frets somebody like me that you know and that
could get us into the Merle Haggard signature model which was a which was a 12 fret uh Rosewood tripolo with a
cutaway um and that was pretty cool um but yeah these are you know it would
(39:55):
be very curious you know it's a kind of a dice roll when they come out with these models to see which ones capture the public imagination but I bet you
they will tell you that no matter how many 12 fret models they make none of them ever sell nearly as many as the 14
Frets which is you know probably too bad but people who never played a Triple O
28 vs have no idea what in big full wonderful magnificent sound they have on
(40:21):
the 12th fret body shape definitely just gives you an enhanced tone and we do get
some of that in CEO 7 which is has the slope shoulders to it and it's similar
in the shape of the Sound Chamber and it is longer than the normal 14 fret double
O but not as long as a low in terms of the body size so I think
(40:45):
instead of going 12 fret Chris Martin has decided to go slopes shoulder and that's where we get these new slope
shoulder Dreadnought models rather than having a 12-foot model but um but I like the way you think I mean I like the way
you think there rich well now you're making me wonder what
would a triple load 12 fret version sound like of the CEO 7. oh
(41:10):
now we're getting somewhere yes well now we're talking about uh you know future models now I have to correct you I
realize you said that was your only official Moore's music model but I want to say here is a to go back to our the
original a suggestion for this here's something that was never in production but Mary's music ordered it it was uh
(41:32):
basically a triple o 35 it was the om-35
which had a very good run of its own but with a short scale neck all right we get
to see one yeah we get to see one of those and our friend Reese's hands at Martin Fest every year and often if I
have anything to say about it it ends up in my hands um
(41:56):
chocolate icing off the neck and and beer but uh but um
Resort your car lights are on oh I'll use that
yeah yeah that's a very good guitar too you know basically it was a a quarter
(42:18):
inch scallop priced om um and uh but this is back before the high performance taper and all that but
uh with a really cool three-piece back and in the same style as a d35 in terms
of the Cosmetic styling so that was a very cool guitar as well so Road Series you know the road Series has
changed over the years and I think one of the coolest things uh they've done is
(42:42):
these new SC models I thought it was a brilliant stroke that they introduced it into the road series and have yet to
start offering regular produced uh more expensive ones with solid woods and you
know and and you know close to stand series specs so these are guitars that
are newly introduced and I think that the sc10e
(43:07):
is such a cool guitar that if that doesn't last very long people having
these kind of discussions just a few years from now are going to say why would Martin get rid of that guitar and
for a while I felt that way about the entire Road Series when it kind of disappeared for a while and you know it
was Martin's first attempt to make make not first attempt the one series of Martin's first attempt to put their own
(43:31):
brand on a very affordable guitar and the road series takes that even a step
further and I knew people who had those those classic Road Series
um back in the day guitars to take into bars where they wouldn't want to risk taking in their D28 or
their course would be 45 and they sold very well as a result of that and I
(43:55):
think the uh the old one series which has slightly different specs uh same
idea and I'm glad Martin's continuing to do this but I I would love to see them bring
back guitars that I'm not sure how to put this I would
like to see them look through all of those series from back in the day and see if they don't have niches available
(44:22):
now where those that model would fit in and for example the D12 the D12 has
traditional Martin looks to it it looks different than the rest of the road series and that was to please Chris
Martin who wanted to keep something that looked a little bit like the old road series that looked on stage like a
(44:43):
Martin guitar the modern Road Series have more modern stuff because some of
the people at Martin are obviously trying to appeal to younger players they are trying to get a you know have a
little more creativity and the designs and stuff and I guess I'm just now pining for the the old the old ones and
and Road series based on my own personal attachment to them so like I said this
(45:08):
these are personal opinions if there's anything that's missing from the roads I mean the standard is right now I would
have to agree with you that it's 12 rep models and maybe they will look into that coming up try one test the waters
I'm all for an om18 as you've always known they've rarely
uh had om18s available only once in the standard series well I guess they did a cutaway version too but they didn't they
(45:33):
lasted like for a blink of time and I don't think they gave them a chance and uh and maybe they felt it was too
similar to the triple o 18 I don't know I thought that was going to be your first one well I was kind of saving it but the M18
that was around in the 70s back right at the very beginning the M18 was uh in
fact the guy that was my guitar tech for many years basically retired now Bob Jones he had an M18 uh he had he played
(46:01):
in any statsman's klezmer Orchestra back in the day and his M18 somebody called
him up and said do you have any guitars that we could borrow
um and he was like what do you mean what are you talking about well I said they're doing the show down in DC or maybe it was in Philadelphia I'm pretty
sure it was in DC and they you know they they want to borrow some guitars well he only known them three guitars that were
(46:24):
used by by Ron Wood Keith Richards and Bob Dylan at Live Aid or whatever that
was wow hang on so um and I rich I think it's Richards who's playing Bob's M18
and so and he claims that Dylan uh when they were warming up uh they did blown
in the wind backstage and that Dylan played his M18 played blown in the win on his M18 so he's always claimed but
(46:48):
anyway the M18 was very cool guitar didn't make very many of them and they weren't around for long but I think that would be something when Martin's ready
to bring back another M um that they should look at the M18 a modern version of it
very cool well if I told you that our friend Jack Wickwire down in Maryland who comes to
lots of Martin fests and I don't know how this happened but this whole episode is just Martin Fest so apologies there
(47:12):
but good memories good memories uh he's got a really great pearly guitar that's not in production anymore it's not in
the standard series it's a special if I remember it was like 0.607 and if you
listen really carefully it's a previous podcast that you were part of and I do hope you listen to those while you're
doing them you'll remember that we talked about this guitar really briefly there is a guitar in current Martin
(47:35):
production in the standard series that's very similar if I gave you seven seconds
would you be able to tell me which guitar this is no but you said that it's pearly yes
yep okay is it a j41 special it is wow listen to you
[Applause]
(48:04):
remember I recorded this podcast with a group of people behind me right yes indeed and I admire their discipline
of not you know crackling their candy wrappers but yeah the j41 special they
uh some people may remember when the triplo 42 came out it was basically exactly the same thing
(48:26):
as the triple o28 Eric Clapton except it was in style 40 modern style 42 so it
looks like a pre-war triple o45 from the front with no Pro on the back and it had
you know I think the Clapton's had slightly elevated Woods back then anyway but but it had you know level of wood
commensurate with style 42. so it was a v-neck modified v-neck um they had never done a Triple O 41 and
(48:50):
they had never done really anything other than uh the d41 and so they came out with
this j41 special which had a v-modified v-neck so it didn't really fit into the
standard series because it didn't have a low profile but it didn't fit into the vintage series because they never made
j40 J anything let alone a style 41 in the old days so very very cool Guitar
(49:18):
Pro around the edge of the top but not around the front and board Peninsula but you know the the beautiful fingerboard
inlays and rosettes and uh and Justin usually from I remember they always had
really really cool Sitka tops very uh very beautiful sit guitars and and what
a uh you know kick the doors off the barn uh sound so yeah very cool that's
(49:43):
great good I'm I'm pleased I could tweezer that out of my memory and that you uh and that you put it on your list
so um should I say j41 that'd be a great idea you know when when Martin's ready
like you said when they're when they're getting caught up and and don't have to
just focus on making d28s uh that might be another great guitar to introduce
(50:08):
and I know what you guys are thinking at home you're listening to this program and you're hearing spoon talk about his ideas you're hearing mari's music talk
about their ideas why doesn't Mari just build anything he wants he can use the custom shop to make anything come back
to production and we do there are a couple of guitars I didn't want to put on this list because we did bring them
back if you're one of those people that love the triple o 28 the triple o 18 the
(50:31):
D28 and the d18 back before 2018 where those instruments had one in 11 16 inch
narrow nuts we thought that idea was good enough to do it so you can find in regular production now at marismusic.com
we do stock those four guitars through the custom shop with the only difference
being the narrow old style nut and of course the string spacing that comes along with it so we did find those four
(50:56):
instruments were important enough that we spoke with our wallet we built them they're in stock right now as we're
taping this show and I think those four guitars cater to at least a small portion of Martin's fan base who did not
like the change when everything went one and three quarter that's very cool that's very cool indeed
and I'm glad you thought to bring that up um I will just have to I guess close my portion of the show saying if money was
(51:22):
not an object and I could have any of those guitars um and I'm going to Discount the
Brazilian rosewood models right now because that's not what I'm talking about here if uh these kind of cool guitars that Martin made either
temporarily or used to make and if I could just buy one I'd buy two I would
love to own and I say if Money Was No Object because these are not practical guitars I would use every day I would
(51:47):
love to have a matte set of the Pete Seeger signature model this were made for uh people may remember the Sing Out
magazine models every every so often they would come out with a sing out oh yeah um thing on model that we're not
we're always a little different from uh from anything else in production the Pete Seeger model is a baritone 12
(52:08):
string guitar inspired by the guitar that's made by a British luthier for him back in the day
that has a square a triangular upside down triangular sound hole and but they
also did a six string version of it these are baritone guitars they have an extra long scale and they're designed to
have uh heavier strings in medium you can get it tuned down to C but you can
(52:33):
buy you know extra heavy strings for baritone guitars but you can get them down into B flat or even B which I think
is where Peter played his 12 string most of the time but really super cool Mammoth sounding
guitar Sitka Indian rose with guitars I would love to have a matched pair of them just to play at home for fun
because they just uh similar to some other guitars that you mentioned like
(52:59):
the uh the seven string uh Roger McGuinn they're just they're rapturous to just
sit there and play them and just be in enveloped by the very cool tone these
kind of guitars make so so I would say I would love to have a match to that so I know my birthday just passed everyone
but you know uh you know Christmas will be coming up and said
(53:21):
so a match set of uh Pete Seeger six string and 12 string I would be uh I
would be in six and Twelfth heaven um
so this was fun I hope other people enjoyed uh us reminiscing we would love to read people's comments on the YouTube
version of this podcast of fabulous guitars Martin no longer makes
(53:45):
that we forgot and should have included or your own thoughts about which guitars should Martin bring back
yes I agree please let us know in the comments what you disagreed with on our list and what you think we missed
because I'm sure you have something in mind that we didn't think about and let us know what you're thinking in the
comment section below really quickly I'll give you my trivia question answer which electronics company was featured
(54:08):
on some specific 16 series models back in the mid-2000s but I have one quick question was this
uh something that required the big Square thing on the side with the with the EQ levers
yes it does have a barn door and I that's as far as I can get but I
don't remember what it was so I'm all at ears
(54:33):
Roland Electronics had a brief love affair with Martin guitars back in the day and you can find them on certain
select 16 series Martens I forget what this system was called but it was made by Roland
wow now very good that is that is trivia indeed I uh I had completely forgotten
about that thank you very much guys don't forgotten all about us we're going to be back next week with another great
(54:57):
topic we don't know what it is yet but we can guarantee it's going to be a fun one you know what the music means but we
got to get out of here absolutely so this has been great fun I look forward to more suggestions from
our listeners for uh future shows from all of us at mari's music thanks
for listening hear you later [Music]
(55:21):
this has been a presentation of mauri's Music your trusted source for Martin and Blue Ridge guitars
find Us online at maurysmusic.com foreign foreign
foreign [Music]
(00:09):
welcome back to Martins and more my name is Maury Rutch and I'm spoon Phillips
and we have some very cool things to talk about they're not popular anymore but we're going to talk about them anyway how you doing today spoon
I'm doing very well speaking of something or someone who's not very popular even though he used to be
(00:32):
you talking about me I wasn't going to say anything but you brought it up
dang this is off to a beautiful start [Laughter]
well don't talk about yourself like that that's my job it's a bad sign that people are using self-deprecating humor and you're
assuming they're talking about you I'd like an order of self-esteem please coming right up
(00:56):
um do you want a high chair with that now you wonder why I have no self-esteem
God gosh where's my gosh at gosh
let's try to get a little bit of content going here just in case we have time yes you told me that you had another uh
listener suggestion for a a show topic what is it I certainly did and it's a good one Jeff
(01:21):
Smith says much love from this New York native in Osaka Japan the show is great
I love it thank you what's your take on out of production Martins are there any that you think should have been kept on
the roster he says I think the Marquee guitars are the best I've played and very much regret selling the three that
I had and then he used the word gentlemen I wonder who he was talking about laughs
(01:45):
perhaps he was listening to a program and we had a special guest or two
um but yes wow that is a fascinating topic that I found it's a great suggestion so thank you very much and uh
and a native New Yorker but a long way away so yes so models that have gone out
of production it does remind me one thing you got you have to be sort of careful with this topic because all over the guitar forums
(02:12):
you will see these a particular sort of person that will get on a high horse and
say that Martin should have never gotten rid of this guitar this was such a great guitar and you know what why would they
get rid of the blah blah blah and you would say oh great well yes they should bring them back and you're going to buy
one right laughs
(02:37):
exactly and you know or they've already already owned one so uh by no means is
this uh podcast today uh supposed to uh be taken as any kind of criticism of CF
Martin and Company and what guitars they get rid of or what guitars they keep and all that
um however we have all certainly had uh models that we really liked a lot or
(03:00):
thought were very cool whether we bought one or not and either we're surprised they got rid of them or or think they
you know they would have a place in the Martin catalog so so why don't we begin
uh where he suggested Maury they uh where the Marquis around when your shop
opened or did they come in after for people who don't know the Marquis were based on the old Golden Era series but
(03:27):
when Chris Martin drew a line in the sand about never buying Brazilian rosewood that couldn't be absolutely
proven by paperwork all the way back to its source that it was legal and within
the societies treat treaty guy lines all of a sudden they couldn't make
golden era guitars anymore uh that had Brazilian rosewood so they decided to rename the Marquee guitars and make them
(03:53):
with Indian Rosewood instead so but otherwise they the 28 Marquee was
identical to the D28 Golden Era except it had Indian Rosewood and the d18 Golden Era became the d18 Marquee
because uh The Binding stopped being Brazilian rosewood and so forth so
anyway were the Marquis around when you opened in 2003 I don't remember the
(04:19):
dates of when that all happened that's the only danger of doing this podcast off the cuff we're going to give
you our impressions of this topic but I'll tell you the truth I haven't done enough research to narrow down exactly
which dates certain guitars debuted the one they came and went I seem to remember that in 2003
if they hadn't already been on the scene it was right around that time so I I don't remember ironically I don't
(04:42):
remember having a lot of Golden Era guitars so I think around 0304 might have been where you started to see the
switch and maybe somebody listening to this show on YouTube can add in the comments or the chat maybe you know better than
we do without looking some stuff up I was going to say it might be as late as 206 but I think I'm getting it mixed
up with it with the Lawrence Jupiter signature model the Brazilian signature model I think that was 2006 but anyway yes the Marquee guitars this was at a
(05:08):
time when the standard series dreadnoughts still had uh for the most part uh the D28 and v18 had straight
bracing and the black pick cards and and the d18 had black binding in the and and
they had white dots on the fretboard so they did not look very much like uh
pre-war Martens from the 30s and the uh and the d18 still had a uh Indian
(05:32):
Rosewood bridge and fingerboard so the Avengers series first came out we're going to talk about those in a minute
the Marquee series of the vintage series had Sitka Spruce bracing and Sitka Spruce tops and
v-necks but the dreads with 1 11 16 inch nut width the ge's and Marquees give you
dreadnoughts that have a one and three quarter inch width nut at the neck at the not um at the end of the neck and
(06:00):
you know what they call the standard taper and wider string spacing and a
bigger rounder v-neck than the vintage series because of the the 1930s heel
that makes the neck a little more rounder and and bulbous I guess it kind
of made the hand fill out more but wonderful appointments wood fiber inlays
(06:24):
you know all the herringbone and rosette and stuff are all done with with Maple
and and uh guide black with fiber you have the
diamonds and squares you know fingerboard and style 28 and um and you had Adirondack screws for the
tops and the bracing and that introduced The Golden Era Adirondack Spruce bracing
(06:48):
you can get custom order with Sitka but they're originally designed for Adirondack because of its cross grain
stiffness so they removed more wood while they were scalloping the braces which still would you know would
make them more like pre-war Martin bracing and so it had more flexibility than the standard series and vintage
series pricing so they're a very special guitars with really uh wonderful sound I think the d18 Marquee and slash Golden
(07:14):
Era the uh om-28 Marquis uh people just absolutely love them uh they have the
wider genuine two and three eighth inch string spacing which some people uh may
have some problem with but really magnificent instruments and the triple o
18 Golden Era slash Marquee all-time favorite and we basically have that in
(07:37):
the modern uh triple o18 now except that it's sick instead of Adirondack and it
has the modern neck but um but it's definitely the descendant of the Triple O 18 Golden Era slash Marquee
because they didn't make a Triple O 18 in the vintage series but yeah wonderful
guitars uh what do you what what Memories do you have of Marquis or golden Eros that you can recall I was
(08:03):
going to ask you if this was a time for me to ask you are you going to name all the old Martin guitars before I get to
tell you which of them were my favorites for this list no that's fine no well I was stopping at
the the triple 18 d18 and the OM 28 were like the ones that really that I really
loved a lot only because I don't want to sound like I didn't think about anything but after
(08:25):
you've named them yeah that's what I was gonna say um but my memory of the of the Golden Era series isn't as big as the uh the
Marquis I for whatever reason uh whether it was timing popularity or the fact that we might be right thinking that
when we became a dealer in O3 the golden eras were beginning to be phased out and I um if I can go back in time like
Martin McFly I would find these dates but please bear with us I think the Golden Era series
(08:51):
never did take off as fast as the Marquis series with our specific store and when I say that I recognize we're
probably the outlier here at marismusic.com but we did really really well with the Marquis and I if I
remember correctly there was an om-28 Marquee that belonged to and I'm gonna get this order wrong it
(09:12):
was our friend Bruce Atkins and then he eventually sold it to L mcmean our other friend and either between that situation
or immediately after one of those two gentlemen were kind enough to say listen Mari I know you've always gushed over
this guitar at Martin Fest if one of us sells this guitar again you get first dibs and I made the mistake of saying
yeah I'll think about that and I let it slip through my hands but the om28 Marquee
(09:36):
is undoubtedly the first guitar on my list today of guitars that aren't in production anymore and still should be
if not for any other reason I want an opportunity to buy that again because that guitar I mean Bruce Atkins and Elle
McBean they're both great players I got to hear that guitar so many times at nasfest I got to play it so many times
myself and I really do think that the Adirondack top on what is otherwise I
(10:01):
know I'm 28v really really sounds magical and of course since then we've
had a lot of things like the om28 Authentics the om-28 modern deluxes and
I'd love I'd really love to hear in ohm 28 today in 2023 against some of these
newer Martins because my memories of the Marquee are really really good and I that was one of the guitars that has
(10:23):
stuck with me all through my my life as being a shop owner that guitar has not left my mind
well I I totally agree and we have a friend I'm not sure if he if he's the kind of person who wants his name
mentioned on the on the airwaves like this uh but our friend Tom will just say
that he has probably still has I haven't seen it in several years but he had a a
(10:45):
wonderful uh om28 uh Marquee and I think
for some people they slightly chunk your neck and The Wider string spacing uh was
a you know put them off but I think most people didn't feel that way about it and
um I had that string spacing on my om18v the 2 and 3 8 inch swing spacing and
(11:09):
that was ultimately one of the reasons I sold it when I was starting to have tendonitis issues and and some of my you
know old football injuries and stuff kicking in and that wider string spacing is really good for the fretting hand but
for my picking hand it actually did give me some problems and it forced me to probably much closer to the fretboard
than uh I necessarily like tone wise but um and and they had the same spacing on
(11:35):
the Marquis for people who don't know the OMS from the 1930s began with two
and three eighth in string spacing but for some reason they're not all in that
way and that's why I always wondered why the om-28v which is a another of these
wonderful guitars that now basically exists as the standard series om28 just
(11:59):
doesn't have the The Wider fretboard and the v-neck it had two and five sixteenth interesting spacing well the om45 5V and
the om18v had 2 and 3 8 and no one and Martin could ever answer why at the time
well it turns out when they go to the om-28 authentic 1931 they happen to use
Mike Seger's 1931 om28 and it had oh it
(12:25):
had two and five sixteenths inch string spacing so it's entirely possible when they made that v-model that was the same
guitar they had looked at when they were trying to you know spec out some of the Vintage specs so um for whatever reason
and at that time of somebody's Martin that maybe a dealer had ordered a batch
with that string spacing or or for whatever reason they just uh switched to
(12:50):
that but only on certain guitars so it's it's interesting how that happened back in the day so anyway we have and for a
long time that was the only guitar the om28v was the only guitar with 2 and 5 16 inch string spacing basically
available they eventually added that to some dreadnoughts all right all right
beg your pardon non-dread knots and then they added that that string spacing here and there to to certain other models but
(13:15):
yeah those are really wonderful guitars and now I'm going to mention what I thought was the most special Marquee of
all which I gave a glowing review for Maurice music website back in the day
when we first hooked up and they had asked me to do some writing for their website before I started my own website
and that is the triple 042 Marquee now this has the 2 and 5 16 string
(13:40):
spacing that was my favorite string spacing in the back in the day short scale one and three quarter inch width
nut it has the 1930s heel that was used on the triple o 18 GE uh one of my
all-time favorite neck shape in terms of feel and it had the high color of
(14:02):
Abalone that you would want in in a fancy guitar like that and the grain
diveroid binding and all that and I really loved it and uh yeah I was you
know I was waiting for them to come out with a Madagascar version of this right around this time they they started
offering special Marquee models in Madagascar Rosewood which had a pretty big up charge to them and
(14:27):
um including the om-28 Madagascar Marquis and the D28 Madagascar Marquee
and so I was waiting for the Triple O 4 42 Marquis Madagascar
and it was basically in production it was up into the prototypes
and then the political crisis in Madagascar struck
(14:49):
and they canceled it and it didn't come out and without telling anybody in America
what they did is they took the ones they had completed they slapped Eric Clapton signature on the fretboard and they sold
them as an air Clapton model exclusively in Japan no so highly collectible Martin if
(15:10):
people are into speculation on what Martins in the future are going to be worth a lot of money the triple o 42
Madagascar model aircraft and model that was sold in Japan that actually has the
string spacing and neck of a marquee not a typical Clapton model I have no idea
how many they made but I recently saw one for sale on a website in Japan for
(15:33):
75 to jillion gazillion dollars so they clearly knew what they had that's not
that bad though for that yeah I mean when you consider everything
um but anyway yes Marquis fabulous guitars um can you think of something else
that's not a marquee GE that that we would like to bring up in this favorite
(15:58):
Martins that aren't available anymore I can but does it have to be six strings
not at all well first of all before I go into that I want to thank you when Jeff asked us
not to talk about guitars that are no longer in production you went one step further and talked about a guitar that
never even got to production so kudos to you
(16:20):
now I'm intimidated but I'm going to keep talking anyway let me know if you remember this guitar I'm going to
describe it uh East Indian Rosewood back and sides uh style 45 back purpling it
had forward shifted bracing Sitka Spruce bold herringbone modified V and oh yeah
seven strings so this is a a quick Interruption by the
(16:44):
Mario's music show Mystery guitar welcome to the Maury's music podcast and
today's mystery guitar so you said it's a Indian Rosewood guitar with style 45
multi-color backstrip forward shifted scallop racing did you say
I did yep I don't remember if you said that what else did you say okay but it
(17:08):
has seven uh circus Bruce top seven strings
why am I blanking out on Martin's seventh string guitar
all right I have to say I have actually been stumped now if you come out and say
for April fools there really wasn't such a guitar I'll feel a lot better no what is it what is it I'm curious to know
(17:31):
oh oh it's it's the Roger McGuinn hd7 remember that
I do now I completely forgot about that now who do I know that owned one of
those was it Marshall just Marshall Roger McGuinn yeah the seven string I totally
forgot about that no I mean Roger mcguin owns one
(17:56):
oh uh yes but they they took the idea of
the uh Rickenbacker 12 string with the G string that had the highest you know the
extra high string flipped differently than other people's 12 strings that was flipped you know so the the
treble string was on the other side than it is on typical 12 strings and they applied it and I think it was mcguin's
(18:23):
idea I think he came to dick and said what do you think of this and uh and
they made it and it was a very cool guitar so it gave you that extra high Harmony but just on the G string so uh
really fascinating I was thinking seven strings I think you know I was picturing Bucky pizzarellis you know Pizzeria
seven string guitars that have the extra bass string at the top and it was like did Martin do that did they put that on
(18:49):
Pete Seeger's baritone I was like what guitar what guitar yeah you told me something that's great good government
good job good job I had for an all about that and a fun fact I don't know if I've told
you this on camera before but I I got to meet Roger McGuinn I think it was that time you came to The NAMM Show with us
and I got to meet him um you were probably off talking shop with Lawrence Juber or somebody but uh
(19:10):
Roger moon was such a nice guy he's sitting at a table with his wife and they're you know shaking hands and and they opened the Martin sounding board
magazine but instead of just signing the book he wasn't like just looking down at the book he's actually interacting with
you and giving you his time and it was so beautiful to spend a couple seconds you know shaking his hand and thanking
him for the music and he was more interested in saying hello and seeing you than actually signing the book so I
(19:33):
walked away from The Martin booth at Nam and I looked and like wait a minute he signed his name on Steven Stills page
uh that's pretty funny well now let's see talking about collect Martin collector's items there you go you know
they won off yeah I'll just tell you with that Nam show just briefly I'd say yeah it was very different than my experience with
Andy summer who had come in because his signature model was going up which was a very cool signature model it was one of
(19:58):
the only uh short scale tripolos available at that time and and it had
very interesting like a yin and yang and other sort of spiritual inlays on it but
Rosewood and it had what is now the modern uh modified low oval profile but
um but he came in I I must say he was probably extremely jet lagged but he was
(20:22):
completely humorless not having a good time at all the Martin Booth's kind of waiting for whatever he was going to be
expected to do and I came over and you know and and what I happened to be playing the guitar at the time so I came
over and said you know can we get a photograph whatever and he looked at me with words said like not really but I
turned and he just kind of looked right when somebody took the camera so there he is kind of glowering at the camera but uh
(20:47):
but anyway uh but I think he looked exactly somebody who probably just flew in from Over the pole from London to L.A
or something like that but anyway um that was a cool uh signature model two I mean there's been some really cool
signature models that they just don't keep signature models around forever like the d45 Roy Rogers and things like
(21:08):
that that um you know they they put him out as limited editions for a reason but
there have been some really uh cool ones that the Jimmy Buffett d18 uh I think it's a hd18 Jimmy Buffett with a with a
very nice Pearl palm tree on the headstock and um basically it's uh you know mahogany
back and sides but but with the scallop racing of a of a HD 28 from that era you
(21:34):
know there's some there's lots of those cool guitars but ones that used to be in production
um you brought up that very cool guitar um I will bring up the d18 VS
the 12 fret a big 12 fret Dreadnought from the vintage series and I love those guitars
really nicely balanced our our friend the late Dave kokeski had a wonderful one with a Sunburst that that many
(22:01):
people coveted and huge sound big guitars but very different from 14 fret
guitars in that they're very balanced almost like a giant om so you're very good for finger picking and finger style
guitar but still giving you that you know big Mammoth round base so those were lovely I would be uh really uh
(22:22):
curious to see if those would sell again without the v-neck if Martin would come out with a standard series 12 fret uh
d18 I'd be very curious to see if those would sell and I'll tie that together with the
short scale the briefly lived uh lived short scale d18 do you remember those I
don't remember what the model was called I do they were only around for about a year they had yeah they came and went
(22:48):
like as fast as anything else I think one of the reasons they came and went
um and that may have been around the same era of that seven string guitar is because they put a v-neck on it and they
it was basically a d18v short scale and I think if they hadn't met left it with the uh the low profile they might have
sold more of them and as I get older and like the short scale more and more I
(23:13):
have even considered a custom Martin Short scale Dreadnought but um maybe
sometime in the future but those were very cool guitars too and uh okay let's go down into
um maybe below the standard series um what or below the stamp Series in terms of you know the style numbers and
stuff is there anything that stands out to you uh from the 16 17 15s that's uh
(23:39):
you think they should bring back or or surprise they don't have yeah there is one that I I have on my
mind but before I get there can I throw a trivia question your way absolutely
it's actually tied together I'm going to talk about a 16 Series guitar and my memory is a little bit fuzzy but there
was a version of this guitar that I'm not going to pick as the model I speak about but it had electronics that wasn't
(24:03):
LR bags it wasn't Fishman it wasn't detar what was it what was the very very
short-lived company electronics that Martin used in the 16 series for a very
brief time I want to say around 2007 to 2010 and again if my memory is missing a date
by a little bit you know forgive me but it was the late 2000s it was in the 16th series and it was a company not named a
(24:29):
moment ago which company had Electronics in some 16 series Martin guitars as a
brief experiment that never really caught on I will I will think about that
um while we move forward okay so what's uh 16 uh 17
15s uh can you think of that that fit today's topic
(24:53):
well the one I'm thinking of is a 16 series and let me know if this rings a bell HD 16
are Adirondack absolutely absolutely these get
mentioned a lot to this day when people are are wisfully having this kind of conversation or are looking for uh to
(25:14):
buy a Martin but don't have the money in or thinking of the used market and that's a good thing to point out is a lot of these models can be found in the
used markets if you if they sound interesting to you you may want to seek them out and the D16 are
Adirondack would be a very good choice now this goes back to around the same
era of the Triple O 42 Marquee I mean this was back I remember playing that in the
(25:40):
lobby prior to my arrangement with Martin to shoot one man's guitars videos back in
The Sound Room where I would just show up at the factory and uh and you know shoot uh my videos in the
lobby and I think I think so I think I A friend of mine
bought one of those too though I think I might be mixing it up with the D16 large
(26:05):
sound hole which was also a very cool model and I don't remember the exact
name of that model other than it ended in LS but um yes that's very cool Adirondacks
uh on a 16 is the first time Martin used Adirondacks Bruce on a more affordable
uh guitar that actually costs less than a standard series instrument rather than
(26:31):
more so very good call the D16 large Sound Hole I'm afraid I don't remember in the full moniker
another one very cool to look for on the used Market as is the do you remember
the the wasn't technically standard series but standard series level build large Sound
Hole guitar I think it's the D28 lsv oh the hd28 lsv
(26:57):
yes are you serious that was going to be my next one oh was it really well there we go great
minds think alike because that that's a very cool guitar what do you remember about that guitar I remember that guitar was just enormous
in tone and I'll take you back to maybe the third or fourth Naz Fest where our friend Daryl I forget his last name but
it began with a k um he actually played that guitar tuned down a whole step with mediums and if
(27:24):
you walk past it it like knocked you off balance it was so big sounding anyway and then to drop it down to like you
know D instead of e it was one of those things where he was always playing with the Capo and the second fret in song
circles but when he got to play by himself it was like why don't I buy that guitar in a heavy pick and just be like
Mr muscle and that guitar had such a voice when I described this you know on
(27:47):
this podcast you might be thinking wow that was probably so bass heavy it was but it wasn't muddy and it wasn't
lacking you know the the upper mid-range and trebles that you want to hear I've I'd love to hear one of them again and
in the true Spirit of this podcast you know where Jeff's asking us which guitars do we wish Martin either still
made or would bring back like I'm not just saying it's a fill content I would love to see them bring that back even if
(28:11):
it was a special limited run but the hd28 lsv it had a large sound haul it
was a vintage series guitar and it was basically a really powerful maybe I want
to say precursor to the D28 modern Deluxe but that's not even fair because so many things are different about it
but maybe what I mean to say is I bet you those two guitars would compete well against each other well that was uh very
(28:34):
well said and I think it was as people will probably guessed it was inspired by the Clarence white uh guitar
um that ended up in Tony Rice's hands after Clarence white passed away and
um but that was a 1930s D28 1935 D28 and the you know the sound hole had gotten
broken probably from a you know magnetic pickup or something and and somebody whether it was Clarence white or
(28:57):
somebody before Clarence white just hollowed it out to make a much bigger sound hole out of it and um that Martin
couldn't do a clearance white D28 model at the time because I had his family had already
it had it you know with some other company and I think Santa Cruz and then uh maybe that was no Tony Rice was the
Santa Cruz one but anyway they did do a d18 Clarence white but they took that idea and made the lsv and uh yep super
(29:24):
powerful guitar a friend Tony Phillips had one you might still have one I don't remember and um
the Lord found the Lord said the whole thing uh is is true and I have one on my
uh you know my custom audition that was done for mori's music uh to help get uh
a bigger sound out of a short scale tripolo and it certainly does that everybody constantly comments on how
(29:50):
loud my guitar is and uh but I don't even realize because I'm behind it if I'm sitting there rehearsing with the
Highland chapters or or whoever um you know they always kind of look at you know sitting there with their big
dreadnoughts look down at my little guitar relatively little guitar and yeah those are very cool guitars I think
Martin would do well to try to bring uh back a large soundhole model they have a
(30:12):
tendency to recycle either certain Concepts or models there will be models
that are gone for a while and then bring them back for instance right now the only m is the
um M36 uh they had an M38 for a while it went away the fm36 went away it's come
back um we've had other M's coming go Chris Martin is adamant at least he told me
(30:35):
that he will always keep an m in the lineup for legacy reasons and
that he it's one of the reasons they kept the double o21 the 12 little 12 fret double at 21 for so many years and
bring that back occasionally was is for legacy reasons and I was relieved to see
that the triple o 15 M speaking of 12 fret guitars is in the catalog it went
(31:01):
missing from the website in 2022 and that was completely because they were just doing website work but it for
anybody who noticed that thought oh no they're not going to have that model anymore and they never did stop making
it it just wasn't on the website for a while but now it's back so there is a 12 fret Martin in the
lineup um I would love to see more I'd love to see a 12 fret d18 and see uh what people
(31:26):
thought of that so speaking of M's again these are signature models with the late
witty man um principal guy uh who died recently uh
his signature model was an m with cutaway mahogany M with cutaway was it yorma about Bromberg I forget how
this works Bromberg that's what it was it's bromberg's signature model is an m and of course he's famous for being the
(31:52):
most famous of the musicians in the 60s that had a pre-war Martin F size
Arch top converted to a flat top and I think his he took his to Matt
humanoff's uh I think John Lundberg out in Berkeley also was doing this for people but that's uh led to Martin
Bromberg literally took that guitar to Fred Martin and that led to the first m
(32:17):
but bromberg's uh signature model is fancies Pearl pearly and uh he uh gave
one to Jorma Cochran as a present I believe is how the story goes and that led to jorma's and I think one of those
two I think it's yorma's has a large Sound Hole speaking of light sound holes one of those 3M I just mentioned has a
large sound home afraid I don't remember which one it is so those are very cool guitars but I think my favorite
(32:43):
unusual M guitar was the George Martin signature model Fame
it is a mahogany M with the three piece back so it looks
really cool and it has a European Spruce top and so it has a you know a
(33:04):
and it may be a technically Italian uh top but it's time Spruce but it's uh it
has a very unique sound you don't usually see Europeans Spruce match with
mahogany and it had this I don't know creamy quality to the uh to the background uh
undertone and um really quite lovely and a very cool looking guitar and the M uh and the
(33:31):
three piece back actually has a wedge coming down from the neck so it looks like a big m
on the back so it's not just like it's style 35 it's a three piece back but
it's the the center stripes the two stripes come up and then slant down and basically make a Big M on the back so
check that out for listeners at home when I look at the George Martin signature model online and see what I'm
(33:56):
talking about it's a very cool design so uh yes very cool guitars and from the
M's um to go back to the M's what about an M15 you know they uh
M15 the j15s were very popular and our friend Johnny's uh j15 sounds
(34:19):
magnificent I would love to see the uh you know I would love to see the 12 fret D15 the D15 SM uh that was a magnificent
guitar and that may be what I think Johnny has one of those too that's what I think of when I think of Johnny yeah
yeah yes he really likes the 12 foot much I'm sorry so maybe he didn't own the JM maybe that was somebody else from
(34:40):
Martin fast from that era maybe scooter oh quite so I'm sorry yeah I'm getting
I'm getting those two guys mixed up actually um so um they were speaking of people who are people with facial hair who at
Martin Fest at the same time 10 years ago or so um and uh
so you know those guys all those old hippies look alike to me um even me but um
(35:05):
but yes those are those I know we're kind of uh really streaming Consciousness here as we remember these
fine guitars but let's say you were going to Martin and you could pick I don't know let's just start with three
if if you had Tim Teal's ear or Chris Martin's ear and say
why don't you bring these three back and see how how they do what would you pick I mean even among the ones you already
(35:30):
mentioned well I would probably use this platform to start talking about my next guitar
the tripolo 28vs would be one of them I really liked your idea about the d18vs
and podcast aside I think if we were talking on a regular phone call and you brought that guitar up it would make me
think wow I really wonder why Martin wouldn't think that could have a healthy place in the lineup I mean right now in
(35:54):
2023 they're they're all hands on deck to just build enough guitars for last year's order so I know right now is not
the time to add models but I think the d18vs would be great the triple o28vs
and if I had to pick another one I was going to say maybe something else in the 15. I don't know if it would have been
the DSs 15 but but I'm actually caught off the cuff thinking that Martin could
(36:17):
use some more 12-foot models including the D's so I think I think the d18vs of
everything we've spoken about so far but it does make me think of the tripolo 28vs and the triple o 20 ABS is
interesting a little bit of a fun trivia that some of you guys might not know spoon talked
about fact that a lot of Triple O guitars from Martin's catalog had been long scale in some podcasts before when
(36:42):
mori's music first opened its doors in 2003 it didn't take us long to want to design our own signature model or our
own you know custom Edition uh celebrating the fact that we're a store and I remember telling Bob Fair who used
to work in the custom shop why don't we take a triple low 28vs and make it a double O and all you know all the while
I think that'd be a great idea only after the first 10 were delivered did he remind me that the triple o 28vs is long
(37:07):
scale and that ended up being a a quick Side Story we had to do 10
0028 vs Mario's music guitars and then 10 correct ones with the short scale being the the specs so the very first
time we came out with our the only time we came out with our own mari's music model the first run was long scale the
second run was short scale but it was built off of the popularity of the triple low 28vs and my introduction to
(37:33):
that guitar more so than being a dealer and having inventory was playing gigs with our friend Jim Monahan way back in
the day back in the early 2000s it wouldn't be unusual for me to take a
trip to New Jersey with Tim and back then our uh our Conga player bobka rest in peace and we would do some pickup
gigs in a couple of places in near Denville New Jersey with Jim and Jim had a really nice triple low 28 vs if you're
(37:57):
old enough to remember when Jim Monahan used to go to Martin Fest and that's dating you that guitar really impressed
me the times I heard it and I think that's a model maybe the v-neck's going to be a turn up for some people but I think that model has an interesting
place in both past and present well that's interesting you put it that
way because I I would think they would be more interested in doing a standard
(38:21):
series one with a with the a 12 foot version of the modified low oval and maybe even the high performance taper
which they now have in the modern Deluxe series so they've introduced you know
their first 12 fret model into the modern Deluxe series and so I could see them possibly doing something with
standard series build which is technically what the vintage series was except for the v-neck so but maybe they
(38:46):
would do both I you know I think we see I bet you if we went into Martin's brain
by that I mean the company brain and actually saw what's what I would guess that dreadnoughts
absolutely massively outsell anything else no matter how well OMS sell and triple o
(39:07):
cell that dreadnoughts are are just the king of sales that Martin and will
always be that way so non Dreadnought 12 fret guitars
probably don't sell very well the double 017 that they came out with when they
revamped 17 series was the first one to disappear they just people just didn't buy them and um I think a lot of people
(39:34):
either thing 1200 guitars look too old-fashioned or they need more Frets somebody like me that you know and that
could get us into the Merle Haggard signature model which was a which was a 12 fret uh Rosewood tripolo with a
cutaway um and that was pretty cool um but yeah these are you know it would
(39:55):
be very curious you know it's a kind of a dice roll when they come out with these models to see which ones capture the public imagination but I bet you
they will tell you that no matter how many 12 fret models they make none of them ever sell nearly as many as the 14
Frets which is you know probably too bad but people who never played a Triple O
28 vs have no idea what in big full wonderful magnificent sound they have on
(40:21):
the 12th fret body shape definitely just gives you an enhanced tone and we do get
some of that in CEO 7 which is has the slope shoulders to it and it's similar
in the shape of the Sound Chamber and it is longer than the normal 14 fret double
O but not as long as a low in terms of the body size so I think
(40:45):
instead of going 12 fret Chris Martin has decided to go slopes shoulder and that's where we get these new slope
shoulder Dreadnought models rather than having a 12-foot model but um but I like the way you think I mean I like the way
you think there rich well now you're making me wonder what
would a triple load 12 fret version sound like of the CEO 7. oh
(41:10):
now we're getting somewhere yes well now we're talking about uh you know future models now I have to correct you I
realize you said that was your only official Moore's music model but I want to say here is a to go back to our the
original a suggestion for this here's something that was never in production but Mary's music ordered it it was uh
(41:32):
basically a triple o 35 it was the om-35
which had a very good run of its own but with a short scale neck all right we get
to see one yeah we get to see one of those and our friend Reese's hands at Martin Fest every year and often if I
have anything to say about it it ends up in my hands um
(41:56):
chocolate icing off the neck and and beer but uh but um
Resort your car lights are on oh I'll use that
yeah yeah that's a very good guitar too you know basically it was a a quarter
(42:18):
inch scallop priced om um and uh but this is back before the high performance taper and all that but
uh with a really cool three-piece back and in the same style as a d35 in terms
of the Cosmetic styling so that was a very cool guitar as well so Road Series you know the road Series has
changed over the years and I think one of the coolest things uh they've done is
(42:42):
these new SC models I thought it was a brilliant stroke that they introduced it into the road series and have yet to
start offering regular produced uh more expensive ones with solid woods and you
know and and you know close to stand series specs so these are guitars that
are newly introduced and I think that the sc10e
(43:07):
is such a cool guitar that if that doesn't last very long people having
these kind of discussions just a few years from now are going to say why would Martin get rid of that guitar and
for a while I felt that way about the entire Road Series when it kind of disappeared for a while and you know it
was Martin's first attempt to make make not first attempt the one series of Martin's first attempt to put their own
(43:31):
brand on a very affordable guitar and the road series takes that even a step
further and I knew people who had those those classic Road Series
um back in the day guitars to take into bars where they wouldn't want to risk taking in their D28 or
their course would be 45 and they sold very well as a result of that and I
(43:55):
think the uh the old one series which has slightly different specs uh same
idea and I'm glad Martin's continuing to do this but I I would love to see them bring
back guitars that I'm not sure how to put this I would
like to see them look through all of those series from back in the day and see if they don't have niches available
(44:22):
now where those that model would fit in and for example the D12 the D12 has
traditional Martin looks to it it looks different than the rest of the road series and that was to please Chris
Martin who wanted to keep something that looked a little bit like the old road series that looked on stage like a
(44:43):
Martin guitar the modern Road Series have more modern stuff because some of
the people at Martin are obviously trying to appeal to younger players they are trying to get a you know have a
little more creativity and the designs and stuff and I guess I'm just now pining for the the old the old ones and
and Road series based on my own personal attachment to them so like I said this
(45:08):
these are personal opinions if there's anything that's missing from the roads I mean the standard is right now I would
have to agree with you that it's 12 rep models and maybe they will look into that coming up try one test the waters
I'm all for an om18 as you've always known they've rarely
uh had om18s available only once in the standard series well I guess they did a cutaway version too but they didn't they
(45:33):
lasted like for a blink of time and I don't think they gave them a chance and uh and maybe they felt it was too
similar to the triple o 18 I don't know I thought that was going to be your first one well I was kind of saving it but the M18
that was around in the 70s back right at the very beginning the M18 was uh in
fact the guy that was my guitar tech for many years basically retired now Bob Jones he had an M18 uh he had he played
(46:01):
in any statsman's klezmer Orchestra back in the day and his M18 somebody called
him up and said do you have any guitars that we could borrow
um and he was like what do you mean what are you talking about well I said they're doing the show down in DC or maybe it was in Philadelphia I'm pretty
sure it was in DC and they you know they they want to borrow some guitars well he only known them three guitars that were
(46:24):
used by by Ron Wood Keith Richards and Bob Dylan at Live Aid or whatever that
was wow hang on so um and I rich I think it's Richards who's playing Bob's M18
and so and he claims that Dylan uh when they were warming up uh they did blown
in the wind backstage and that Dylan played his M18 played blown in the win on his M18 so he's always claimed but
(46:48):
anyway the M18 was very cool guitar didn't make very many of them and they weren't around for long but I think that would be something when Martin's ready
to bring back another M um that they should look at the M18 a modern version of it
very cool well if I told you that our friend Jack Wickwire down in Maryland who comes to
lots of Martin fests and I don't know how this happened but this whole episode is just Martin Fest so apologies there
(47:12):
but good memories good memories uh he's got a really great pearly guitar that's not in production anymore it's not in
the standard series it's a special if I remember it was like 0.607 and if you
listen really carefully it's a previous podcast that you were part of and I do hope you listen to those while you're
doing them you'll remember that we talked about this guitar really briefly there is a guitar in current Martin
(47:35):
production in the standard series that's very similar if I gave you seven seconds
would you be able to tell me which guitar this is no but you said that it's pearly yes
yep okay is it a j41 special it is wow listen to you
[Applause]
(48:04):
remember I recorded this podcast with a group of people behind me right yes indeed and I admire their discipline
of not you know crackling their candy wrappers but yeah the j41 special they
uh some people may remember when the triplo 42 came out it was basically exactly the same thing
(48:26):
as the triple o28 Eric Clapton except it was in style 40 modern style 42 so it
looks like a pre-war triple o45 from the front with no Pro on the back and it had
you know I think the Clapton's had slightly elevated Woods back then anyway but but it had you know level of wood
commensurate with style 42. so it was a v-neck modified v-neck um they had never done a Triple O 41 and
(48:50):
they had never done really anything other than uh the d41 and so they came out with
this j41 special which had a v-modified v-neck so it didn't really fit into the
standard series because it didn't have a low profile but it didn't fit into the vintage series because they never made
j40 J anything let alone a style 41 in the old days so very very cool Guitar
(49:18):
Pro around the edge of the top but not around the front and board Peninsula but you know the the beautiful fingerboard
inlays and rosettes and uh and Justin usually from I remember they always had
really really cool Sitka tops very uh very beautiful sit guitars and and what
a uh you know kick the doors off the barn uh sound so yeah very cool that's
(49:43):
great good I'm I'm pleased I could tweezer that out of my memory and that you uh and that you put it on your list
so um should I say j41 that'd be a great idea you know when when Martin's ready
like you said when they're when they're getting caught up and and don't have to
just focus on making d28s uh that might be another great guitar to introduce
(50:08):
and I know what you guys are thinking at home you're listening to this program and you're hearing spoon talk about his ideas you're hearing mari's music talk
about their ideas why doesn't Mari just build anything he wants he can use the custom shop to make anything come back
to production and we do there are a couple of guitars I didn't want to put on this list because we did bring them
back if you're one of those people that love the triple o 28 the triple o 18 the
(50:31):
D28 and the d18 back before 2018 where those instruments had one in 11 16 inch
narrow nuts we thought that idea was good enough to do it so you can find in regular production now at marismusic.com
we do stock those four guitars through the custom shop with the only difference
being the narrow old style nut and of course the string spacing that comes along with it so we did find those four
(50:56):
instruments were important enough that we spoke with our wallet we built them they're in stock right now as we're
taping this show and I think those four guitars cater to at least a small portion of Martin's fan base who did not
like the change when everything went one and three quarter that's very cool that's very cool indeed
and I'm glad you thought to bring that up um I will just have to I guess close my portion of the show saying if money was
(51:22):
not an object and I could have any of those guitars um and I'm going to Discount the
Brazilian rosewood models right now because that's not what I'm talking about here if uh these kind of cool guitars that Martin made either
temporarily or used to make and if I could just buy one I'd buy two I would
love to own and I say if Money Was No Object because these are not practical guitars I would use every day I would
(51:47):
love to have a matte set of the Pete Seeger signature model this were made for uh people may remember the Sing Out
magazine models every every so often they would come out with a sing out oh yeah um thing on model that we're not
we're always a little different from uh from anything else in production the Pete Seeger model is a baritone 12
(52:08):
string guitar inspired by the guitar that's made by a British luthier for him back in the day
that has a square a triangular upside down triangular sound hole and but they
also did a six string version of it these are baritone guitars they have an extra long scale and they're designed to
have uh heavier strings in medium you can get it tuned down to C but you can
(52:33):
buy you know extra heavy strings for baritone guitars but you can get them down into B flat or even B which I think
is where Peter played his 12 string most of the time but really super cool Mammoth sounding
guitar Sitka Indian rose with guitars I would love to have a matched pair of them just to play at home for fun
because they just uh similar to some other guitars that you mentioned like
(52:59):
the uh the seven string uh Roger McGuinn they're just they're rapturous to just
sit there and play them and just be in enveloped by the very cool tone these
kind of guitars make so so I would say I would love to have a match to that so I know my birthday just passed everyone
but you know uh you know Christmas will be coming up and said
(53:21):
so a match set of uh Pete Seeger six string and 12 string I would be uh I
would be in six and Twelfth heaven um
so this was fun I hope other people enjoyed uh us reminiscing we would love to read people's comments on the YouTube
version of this podcast of fabulous guitars Martin no longer makes
(53:45):
that we forgot and should have included or your own thoughts about which guitars should Martin bring back
yes I agree please let us know in the comments what you disagreed with on our list and what you think we missed
because I'm sure you have something in mind that we didn't think about and let us know what you're thinking in the
comment section below really quickly I'll give you my trivia question answer which electronics company was featured
(54:08):
on some specific 16 series models back in the mid-2000s but I have one quick question was this
uh something that required the big Square thing on the side with the with the EQ levers
yes it does have a barn door and I that's as far as I can get but I
don't remember what it was so I'm all at ears
(54:33):
Roland Electronics had a brief love affair with Martin guitars back in the day and you can find them on certain
select 16 series Martens I forget what this system was called but it was made by Roland
wow now very good that is that is trivia indeed I uh I had completely forgotten
about that thank you very much guys don't forgotten all about us we're going to be back next week with another great
(54:57):
topic we don't know what it is yet but we can guarantee it's going to be a fun one you know what the music means but we
got to get out of here absolutely so this has been great fun I look forward to more suggestions from
our listeners for uh future shows from all of us at mari's music thanks
for listening hear you later [Music]
(55:21):
this has been a presentation of mauri's Music your trusted source for Martin and Blue Ridge guitars
find Us online at maurysmusic.com foreign foreign
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