Official Luthiers Forum!

Looking around (mostly Martin) it seems that most of the Adirondack models have mahogany back/sides and very few EIR back/sides. Is there a reason for this?

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

If you are talking about older models, then the tops were Red Spruce, whether matched with Mahogany or Brazilian Rosewood, because that's what they were using. The shift to East Indian Rosewood (for cost reasons) more or less coincided with a shift to Sitka Spruce (again, for supply consistency and cost reasons).

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Almost all of Martin's new models are matched with mahogany. Any idea why?

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

Not really. If we're talking about Martins, the shift away from Red Spruce occurred sometime in mid 1946, if memory serves me correctly and the shift from Brazilian to East Indian in mid 1969. The shift away from Red Spruce was a supply problem and the shift away from Brazilian, while ultimately a supply problem was exacerbated by governmental restrictions that the Brazilian government put into place.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Maybe I'm saying it wrong. There are only a few Martin red spruce models, but almost all of them are with mahog.

Ideas why?

Do you think it is just because the red spruce cost more so they are putting less expinsive wood on back?

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

I have the 2009 price list .... all the Golden era models have adi ... and none of them are exactly cheap (4349 and up list) ... and then they knock you an extra 800 bucks to go from a D-18 to a D-28 in the Marquis model ... ever seen any 800 dollar indian rosewood sets ???

most of the Golden eras are 18 models, D, OM and 000, hence hawg.

The regular D-18 lists at 2599 .. the 1937 authentic lists at a whopping 8599 ... for what - hide glue and adi ??? isnt everything else pretty much the same ???? Its all about marketing, and getting premium price for what is to be a premium guitar, built like an old one .. and they make you pay for it.

oddly enough .. the MC-18 (hawg cutaway) Woody Mann is 5299, and the M-21 (EIrw) Steve Earle is only 4299 .. the Stephan Grossman HJ-38 in Madrw is only 5199 ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

This is exactly the reason I started looking into building. THere is no procedure or product, wood species, inlay, binding or really anything that should increase the price of a 1500 base model to over 8 grand...nothing! Only if it is a vintage pristine cond. martin should a guitar be that much.

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma

Red spruce began to get scarce. The deer eat the young shoots,so the spruce was then protected by the state. You cannot cut one down unless it is on privately owned land. I got a log cut on cheat Mountain,and sawed it into quarter sawn tops on a Wood Miser sawmill.

Still,no reason for the huge extra money a figured Les Paul gibson,or any other guitar with special wood costs. I guess people who don't know any better must pay it.

hey what a surprise .. a new factory guitar that didnt need fret, nut or saddle work .... isnt that what the 2800 is for in the first place ??? What gets me is the number of guitars hanging on store walls that are almost unplayable, and they somehow expect people to buy them that way.

One of my jobs at the store I did repairs in was to check the set up on all the store guitars .. I did it, and got a good laugh out of it quite a few times. A very close shop to me used to be a Martin dealer .. no longer, they didnt sell all that well, as its mainly a piano store and there is way more money in pianos ... but then again, I couldnt play half the ones they had there anyway, the action on them was terrible.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Tony,

What you mention is a big piece of what got me into building in the 1st place...

You pay a ton of money for the privilege of paying more money for a good setup and some fretwork...

And "Cheap guitars" are more of a Kit than what we build... just less "Assembly" required.

After playing guitars with properly done fretwork and good setups... I find it very hard to play on those that don't have it.

Unfortunately, any more what you get with the "Free Setup" is truss rod adjustment and sanding down the plastic saddle..... Unless you can negotiate a proper fret job, nut and saddle before you purchase....

Thanks

John

Ah yes... but you would have not been so well refined Todd

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I have a 15 series Martin but got it from Maury's Music online and they did the setup and replace the saddle and nut w/bone, and it has a nice fretjob...not sure how they are out of the box?

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Bro. Matthew A.
Oklahoma