Martin Guitars

C.F. Martin & Co. has been building guitars in Nazareth, Pennsylvania since 1833, and the pre-war flat-tops it made in the Golden Era — roughly the late 1920s through 1942 — are still the benchmark much of the acoustic world measures itself against. Today Martin runs a full production line from accessible models on up; only its highest, hand-built end falls within the Atlas's scope. The Atlas indexes the custom and high-end end of Martin: the Custom Shop and the Authentic Series. You won't find standard-production instruments here — no stock D-18s, D-28s, or Road and X-Series guitars. What appears is the work that competes, in price and intent, with the boutique builders the rest of the atlas covers. The Martin Custom Shop, in Nazareth, builds to order. A buyer specifies body shape and size, tonewoods, neck profile, nut width and scale length, inlay, binding, and label — traditional spruce, rosewood, and mahogany through to koa, flamed maple, cocobolo, and Brazilian, Madagascar, or Guatemalan rosewood, with the option to thermally age the top. The result is, by design, one of a kind. The Authentic Series is Martin's most faithful reproduction line, also built in the Custom Shop. These are brand-new instruments made to pre-war specification — hide glue, pocketed hand-shaped bracing, and Vintage Tone System (VTS) tops that are thermally aged to approximate the tone and look of a well-played vintage guitar. Models like the D-18 Authentic 1937 and D-28 Authentic 1937 recreate the period instruments by name. Because both the Custom Shop and Authentic instruments are built in small numbers, what shows up on the Atlas from Martin is a narrow, shifting slice — which is exactly the part worth watching.