Martin Guitars

Christian Frederick Martin trained under the Viennese guitar maker Johann Georg Stauffer before leaving Europe's restrictive guild system behind and setting up shop in New York in 1833; the company moved to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, in 1839 and has stayed there ever since. Martin's X-bracing system and the dreadnought body shape, both developed in the following decades, became the template most steel-string acoustic guitars still follow today. It remains family-owned six generations later, building roughly 193 guitars a day alongside a museum holding over 170 historic instruments. New signature acoustics for artists across country, folk and rock, plus the occasional anniversary or heritage reissue, are what we cover most. Here's what we've written.