A PIECE OF HISTORY

Author: Edward Castelow, Guitar Specialist

“All the greats have them, all the up and comers dream of having one: we’re talking about CUSTOM GUITARS.
Whether it’s Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Bic Runga or Jeff Tweedy, if you’re at the top of your game, chances are you’ve got a guitar with your name on it. Or, in this case, if you are an iconic music business turning the ripe old age of 140!
What better way to commemorate such an incredible milestone than getting our very own Martin Custom Shop guitar?”

One day, John (the GM) and I were gasbagging over a coffee at the guitar counter as we often do, when talking became ideas and ideas became design and so on and so forth. Soon, we were jimmying up different options on the Custom Shop Guitar Designer on the Martin website. This should be the first port of call if you want to design your own guitar, but we must warn you - this is very addictive.

We took into account many factors when designing this piece of history - top of that list was, of course, sound. A big sounding guitar definitely piqued our interest, so we went for a dreadnought guitar, and added a nod to the past by giving it a slotted headstock. The slotted headstock doesn't get enough air time these days. Sure, it takes a bit longer to restring, but they look darn cool, especially when it's bound in antique white! It also allows more string break angle at the nut, giving this guitar so much sustain - each note rings out loud and long. And for such a special guitar, we couldn't resist a bit of gold hardware, aka BLING!

Every aspect of the guitar is taken into account for a custom shop order, even the glue that holds it all together! Now, I've played a few guitars in my time with a hide glue construction. Hide glue was frequently used in the 'old days' but eventually surpassed by white glue for its ease of clean up and general usability. However, those hide glue guitars just seemed to resonate differently, which prompted me to add this spec to our Custom Shop order. The result? Defined tone and clarity and the ability to handle vast dynamic ranges with ease. The non-scalloped forward shifted X bracing (the same as a D-28, see here) gives the solid spruce top breathing space around the lower bout, allowing those beefy bass tones to come to the fore.

And last but not least, to celebrate our proud Kiwi heritage, we just had to have some paua shell inlays! The rosette around the soundhole and the fingerboard features a stunning paua inlay, and the fret markers are also in paua. The pièce de résistance is the fifth fret, adorned with the Lewis Eady crest lettering in, you guessed it, the stunning paua. These masterfully executed details prove just how talented the Custom Shop team at Martin really are.