Martin Guitar Company
“For a few years I worked as a clinician for the Martin Guitar Company. My picking buddy Dix Bruce and I toured up and down the #westcoast doing in-store clinics. It was a blast, getting to play the finest guitars in the world–a dream job.
The Martin Guitar sound matches my sound perfectly. What I look for in a guitar is a sound that can respond to what I give, so when I play harder it responds well and doesn’t give out. It keeps a sweet rich tone when played quiet or loud. There is a reason you see them with nearly every #bluegrass ensemble.
One of the benefits of being a clinician was being able to buy guitars from them at an employee discount price. I would see the nice custom guitars in their catalogs, some really amazing limited edition models. One caught my fancy. In 2006 they put out the Arts and Crafts model that was inspired by the Arts and Crafts-era architecture of the The Gamble House in Pasadena, California, and also as a tribute to the craftsmen of the era.
Dix and I were hired by Martin Guitar to play at the NAMM Show show and an after-hours dinner for their retailers. I was lucky to be seated at the dinner table with Chris Martin. I mentioned to him that I thought the Arts and Crafts model was the most elegant guitar they had ever built. He thanked me and said he and Dick Boak had designed it.
Then he went on to say that there were a few people commenting online about the guitar not being built with the exact woods used in the Craftsmen era furniture and that the body style was not that of the Martin Guitars available during that era. So he said they decided to do the Arts and Crafts II, which was made of oak back and sides with a body style similar to the era.
Well, when I got home I called Dick Boak at Martin and asked if they had one of the first Arts and Crafts models because I like that body style. He checked and they did, so I bought it. When the next one came out, I had to have that one too. I thought they would make a great set of guitars–and they do. They are so lovely and sound amazing.”