include a daughter. In his absence Neukirchen Street in lower Manhattan. They kept the store miles from here, in the 1800s, the Civil War
had changed its name to Markneukirchen, for a while before moving to Nazareth, PA., broke out. Americans were killing Americans,
but some things remained the same. Well the present home of C.F. Martin & Company. and we were trying to run a business. The
known for the fine instruments crafted there, Perhaps inspired by the Kuhl’s innovative spirit, one thing I will say is that the guitar seems
a war of sorts had been waging between the C.F. started to look at how he could improve to be a great equalizer. There are real stories
cabinetmakers guild and the violin makers guild the instrument structurally. In 1843* while of people finding a great deal of solace in the
over who would control the booming guitar making a pin-bridge to hold the strings better, down time of war. The sun sets and they start
market. Although the violin makers’ guild was C.F. decided he needed to develop a bracing to fire up some campfires and make dinner.
arguably right that they were far better suited to system to strengthen the body. Necessity And on both sides, someone pulls out a guitar
control who had the right to make guitars, their being the mother of invention, C.F. invented a and starts playing”. As it turns out, guitar isn’t
repeated government petitions were rejected, proprietary system of bracing called ‘X-bracing’. the only instrument from Martin that echoed
supposedly turned back the quality of the
the ‘coming to America’ theme. The mandolin
instruments that the Martin family produced. In time, C.F. II would join his father in the became wildly popular after it came over with
After his father’s death C.F. set his sights on the company business to create a network of Italian immigrants. Later, as Hawaiian music
land of the free, and free trade not controlled by dealers and distributors and started to develop became popular Martin entered that market
archaic guilds called. a consistent line of models. Just think about it, with some high-end ukes.
Martin was once a boutique builder looking for
So, C.F. made the fateful decision to pack up stores and customers who might be interested As Chris pointed out, Martin also continued
his tools and a few guitars and sail off to the in the instruments they were crafting! to evolve and innovate as a guitar builder,
New World with his family in tow. A classic
especially as steel strings became popular, “In
immigrant’s tale, his first stop was New York, As Chris repeatedly pointed out, the Martin 1915* we started making steel string guitars.
where he opened up a shop at 196 Hudson story parallels that of American history… “Fifty I have a very strong feeling about the best
sounding guitars. The best sounding acoustic
guitars are built to be durable enough to feel
like you are getting your money’s worth, but
they are also built right on the point of self-
destruction because that is where the good
sound is. So, if you want to pl