your tenure at Martin?
[ Dick ] I guess six. I’ m working on a seventh with co-author Larry Bartram about a very famous ukulele that is part of our collection. I had also hoped to do a book about the Martin Museum, but I’ m afraid that will probably get deferred until after retirement.
[ CG ] Have you set a date for your retirement?
point where I had about fifty guitars. Because of having two daughters in college, I started to sell off some of the instruments. I still have 25 or 30 Martin guitars, and I would say my favorite is the original Eric Clapton guitar. It’ s # 2 from the very first Eric Clapton edition 000- 42EC. Eric got # 1, and there’ s an interesting story to that because I got a phone call from Eric as he was leaving for the airport in London. He was coming to New York City to record the video for“ Change the World” with Baby Face and asked me to find a 000-42EC. I said,“ I don’ t think I can because they are all sold out. He said,“ What will we do?” and I told him I’ d be happy to loan him my personal guitar. I drove the guitar to the Hoboken train station and am quite proud that my guitar appears in Eric’ s video for“ Change the World” and in the trailer for the movie Premonition. I also have a beautiful 00-37K2. It’ s all Koa wood – beautiful high flame Koa wood back, top, and sides from Hawaii that was a gift from Steve Miller of the Steve Miller Band, who over the years has become a really great personal friend of mine, and it’ s very special to have that.
[ CG ] Do you own any vintage instruments?
[ Dick ] I do have one. I’ m really fond of tiny little guitars. Did you know Marty Robbins played a tiny Martin“ Terz” guitar called a 5-18? The
Size 5 is one of the smallest guitars that Martin offered as a six-string, and we still make them in our custom shop. One of mine goes back to the late 40’ s or early 50’ s, so that’ s about the only vintage guitar I have. I could never really afford vintage guitars, though of course I love them. I really have a conscience about being honest about the value of old guitars. In my position here at Martin it would be very easy to have a conflict of interest.
[ CG ] Do you have any instruments besides Martins?
[ Dick ] I have one guitar that I commissioned from my friend Grit Laskin. William“ Grit” Laskin is a guitar maker in Canada in Toronto that is known for his work with thematic pearl inlay. He interviews each of his clients about the type of inlay that they would like and then crafts a guitar in which the inlay actually tells a story. I told him I envisioned the headstock being the glass window of a music store. Inside the window is Grit Laskin on a step ladder scraping the Martin logo off of the window and putting the Laskin logo on it. I’ ve prized that guitar all of these years, but kept it something of a secret because I think it pokes fun at Martin. At least that’ s what Grit and I intended.
[ CG ] How many books have you written during
[ Dick ] I’ m going to retire on January 8 th, 2018 and that is 1 / 8 / 18. I’ m going to have a retirement concert on January 6th with many of my musical friends. After all, it’ s all about music, isn’ t it? I’ m hoping to be involved somehow as a researcher or docent or advisor with the archives or an outside contractor for special projects with Martin. I also want to do road trips around the country, one of which would be to come down and visit you and my many friends in Nashville.
[ CG ] Your“ Martin: Images of America” book was amazing. What was the catalyst?
[ Dick ] It was actually a call from Arcadia, a publisher that has more titles than just about any other publisher. It took me about eight months back and forth with them, selecting and scanning high-resolution images from the archives. I wanted to pick images that would tell the whole story of Martin’ s 180 plus years of guitar making. We just published an ephemera book called the“ The Martin Archives,” published by Hal Leonard. It’ s a book that has pockets that contains fun memorabilia. It is similar to the“ Images of America” book, but much nicer, much bigger, in color, and beautifully laid out. It’ s written by my co-author, Jim Washburn, and is selling very well.
[ CG ] How did the Martin Guitar Museum come about?
[ Dick ] Most of the credit must go to Chris Martin. It was his idea, and his commitment financially. It was my honor to be the person
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28 Mar � Apr 2017 CollectibleGuitar. com