Featured, Workshop »

The third and last article in the story of the restoration of a pre-’34 Martin guitar with a broken bridge. The first two parts of the Martin Custom Bridge Replacement cover removal of the broken bridge and the carving of a replacement.
The first step in getting this replacement back on the guitar is ‘fitting’ it to the guitar top. Like many of us, over the years, pretty much all guitars gain a bigger belly. Under a lot of tension from the strings, changes occur in the wood of a guitar. …

Featured, Workshop »

This is second part of the story of replacing a broken bridge on a, rather lovely, pre-1934 Martin. This update is slightly tardy so feel free to catch up on part one (where we remove the broken bridge) first.
Done? All caught up? Splendid.
Now the broken bridge is off, this is how it all starts. You can see the removed bridge sitting on a block on Brazilian rosewood that will become its replacement. Brazilian rosewood is in extremely short supply and is very tightly controlled species as it was over-harvested for …

Workshop »

This is a bit special.  It’s a lovely, pre-war Martin.  Actually, it’s pre-1934 if you want to get a little more precise (but only a little) – it’s fitted with bar frets.
It’s been through the wars a little and has, at some stage in the past had a long side-crack repaired. That repair has lasted some time from the look of it and doesn’t overly concern me.
What is a concern, however, is the bridge.  The leading edge has cracked and broken off under string-tension.  The owner saved the piece that …

Featured, News »

Christie’s AuctionHouse is having a Country Music sale.  On December 3rd, they’ll be auctioning off a ton of stuff associated with a ton of country music stars.
Among the fringed shirts and other memorabilia that you might expect, are lots of guitars.
And some of them are pretty cool.  To name but a few items:
There is a 1940 S-200 Gibson archtop that used to belong to Roy Rogers.  There’s a 1947 Martin D-18 that used to belong to Hank Williams.  Buddy Holly’s leather covered Gibson J-45 from around 1942 or 43 also …

Factory Tours, Featured »

OK, you might want to get a cup of coffee for this one.  We’ve got a long tour ahead of us but it’s worth it.
We’re off to Martin Guitars to see the factory and get stepped through the build from chunk of wood to splendid guitar.
Got that coffee yet?  Good.  Now go and get a cookie too – it’s the weekend.
Right.  Let’s go.

These are from the Premier Guitar channel on YouTube

Acoustic, Featured »

Well, not really, but this is quite cool in a ‘basic guitar anatomy’ sort of way.
You can step through, at a (very) basic level, the making of a Martin Guitar (or pretty much any acoustic guitar really).  You get a wireframe diagram that is built up with extra bits as you move through each step in the process.  At every stage, there are some photos and some information about what’s happening and why.
It’s interesting for those of you who wonder how many pounds of pressure an average acoustic guitar bridge …