“ WE STILL THINK OF OUR GUITARS AS ART . THEY ’ RE FUNCTIONAL , BUT DEEP DOWN WE STILL THINK OF EVERY GUITAR AS A WORK OF ART .”
are cast . Had these materials been available to Martin craftsmen in 1938 , you can be sure they would have used them .” The same can be said of Martin ’ s innovative titanium truss rod .
About those bridge pins ... Liquidmetal ® is an acoustically intriguing amorphous material developed by NASA and Caltech . It exhibits a remarkable ability to conduct sound energy across a wide range of audible frequencies . ( To get a sense of just how reflective it is , check out this video .) The physics of bridge pins is actually quite simple : string energy is transferred directly into the pin and then reflected into the soundboard where its vibrational response moves the soundwaves into the air . Wooden bridge pins tend to absorb energy , resulting in a quicker decay and less sustain . Bone pins improve matters , reflecting more energy into the top , but the Liquidmetal pins really ratchet things up , reflecting essentially all the string energy . It ’ s quite remarkable .
Likewise , centuries of woodcraft have seen a natural progression in the tools used , advancing from handsaws to bandsaws to today ’ s CNC machines . Even so , Martin maintains an ideal mix between man and machine : the irreplaceable human touch is really what makes a Martin a Martin , while modern machinery can offload some of the more mundane tasks . What ’ s more , many
COLLECTIBLE GUITAR |
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