Martin Propaganda: Custom Shop

Ridgemont

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http://www.youtube.com/user/cfmartingui ... ustangbase

Interesting tidbit on a large scale manufacturer managing a custom shop. Taylor and Gibson would be other large companies that run custom shops. Considering Guilds continual expansion, I could see them eventually opening a single order custom shop in addition to their small batch dealer ordered GSR runs.

I called Martin about a year ago and asked the building process of a custom shop guitar. Here was the breakdown:
1. The wood is bent in the bending machines (general area)
2. Neck is carved and assembled in Custom Shop.
3. Bracing and body is assembled in the Custom Shop.
4. Inspection of status is done in Custom Shop.
5. Binding is done in binding area (general area).
6. Final sanding is done in Custom Shop.
7. Dovetail neck is set in Custom Shop.
8. Finish is done in finish area (general area).
9. Final assembly (i.e. bridge, tuning pegs, strings) done in Custom Shop.
10. Setup with Plek machine and any additional filings done in Custom Shop.
11. Final inspection done in Custom Shop.

I, along with Toni, are owners of custom shop Martins, and I have to say that the fit and finish are some of the best I have seen in a guitar. The spruce is beautifully silked producing a three dimensional wave that can catch the eye even under the burst top. Tone is subjective, but to me it is one of the best small bodied guitars I have played.

This provides an interesting model for large scale manufacturers finding balance between meeting large volumes and maintaining a small shop to compete with boutique dealers.
 

Bill Ashton

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I could be wrong, but when Sirkku and I did the factory tour last February, on the way home from the Florida Show, I think we watched them doing binding in the Custom Shop area as well. It was about that time in the tour I overflowed the card in my digital camera and lost everything :(
 

Frosty

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My experience is different.

I also owned a custom shop Martin for a while. It was a good guitar in its
own right and, yeah, I was told about the special shepherding a custom gets
through the process. But I eventually discovered that a regular production
guitar from the "vintage marquis" series was simply a better instrument for
my purposes. So... what's my point...

Maybe it's a "10,000 hour" rule kind of thing. I can't imagine how many...
say HD-28s Martin has cranked out, but I'm sure they've nailed that design
and worked out the bugs. I expect they learned a thing or two building my
one-off, so the next guy to order something with similar specs is going
to reap the benefits!
 

gilded

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Frosty,

Sometimes, one pile of wood sounds better than another, too.

Another example: A friend of mine played a lot of '59 Les Pauls back in the day (played in a lot of bands, Mercury Records artist, plus he owned a '58 Gold top). He said that a lot of them were dead-sounding. I have no reason to disbelieve him.

The only '59 Burst that I played belonged to a Swedish guy who played with Blood, Sweat and Tears in the early mid '70's; Georg Wadenius?? It was in a New York repair shop, because it 'wouldn't play in tune'. The shop guys let a few of us play the guitar. They were right, it wouldn't play in tune!

Some guitars are more equal than others! Just sayin'!
 

Frosty

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gilded said:
Sometimes, one pile of wood sounds better than another, too.

Likely part of the equation - we're dealing with organic material here. But, again
in support of the 10,000 hour rule, I've owned three Tacoma D-55s and each
instance of that standard, production model sounded good to me. So Guild
uses top grade spruce for the top and applies the braces in just the right way
to shape that D-55 tone... and they do it over and over again and they get
consistently good results.

If I were a foreman at the Guild plant and an order came in for a custom shop
D-55... the place I would start would be to get out the tried-and-true jigs
and templates and probably put them in the hands of the employees who
have turned out a few traditional D-55s. Maybe the customer wants a special
nut width, or binding or inlay. But, would Guild change the bracing pattern,
which would change the voice of the instrument? And if they did, would they
call it a D-55?

Thinking about it... the Martin custom shop instrument I had started with
the M-36 and changed the nut width, saddle spacing, bridge material and
fingerboard binding. On the heel block it said only "Custom", no mention
of M-36, though that was the template for the build, including the three
piece back, etc.
 

Ridgemont

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I think Frosty brings up a good point about custom guitars. Martin, like Guild, spends time R&D time to develop their regular series guitars. The guitars that work and win over the general public are then built in higher numbers to fit the need. Frosty likes the Vintage and Marquis series which went through this process. They have been tried and tested and have passed the test with Martin and the general public. These guitars could be considered to be optimal.

It is more of a gamble when ordering from a custom shop. Lets say you like the M36 but want to change some specs to your tastes. You order it with a larger nut, neck and change bridge material to something else. Will it still sound the same as a standard M36? Experts would say no even though my lowly ears may not be able to tell. Point is that you are opting to design a guitar as an amateur instead of buying a standard model that has been developed by experts over a period of time. It is a gamble.

Lucky for me, I purchased a herringbone 000-28. A regular run guitar that was mysteriously discontinued from the Martin lineup around the time that the Eric Clapton 000-28 came into production. Both guitars have roughly identical specs, but the EC has a huge upcharge for the signature.
 

West R Lee

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I'd like to see Guild go back to the old custom order form.......got a few of the forms in my Guild Gallery magazines. But something tells me that if I ordered a rosewood dread with forward shifted Martin style bracing and an adi top with D100 adornment, I wouldn't get it for 40% off MSRP :lol: . I'm guessing $5500, maybe $6000? :? :wink:

West
 

adorshki

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West R Lee said:
I'd like to see Guild go back to the old custom order form.......got a few of the forms in my Guild Gallery magazines. But something tells me that if I ordered a rosewood dread with forward shifted Martin style bracing and an adi top with D100 adornment, I wouldn't get it for 40% off MSRP :lol: . I'm guessing $5500, maybe $6000? :? :wink:
West
I'm sure you're worth every penny of it.
:D
 

Ridgemont

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West R Lee said:
I'd like to see Guild go back to the old custom order form.......got a few of the forms in my Guild Gallery magazines. But something tells me that if I ordered a rosewood dread with forward shifted Martin style bracing and an adi top with D100 adornment, I wouldn't get it for 40% off MSRP :lol: . I'm guessing $5500, maybe $6000? :? :wink:

West
That would be quite a guitar. But if the future Guild custom shop works like the Martin one, then getting forward-shifted Martin style braces on a Guild would not be an option. Too bad considering many folks like forward shifted braces.
 

Bill Ashton

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Ridge', that guitar shows that Martin really can do a nice sunburst when they put their minds to it. Beautiful piece. Really nice!

Our favorite Central Massachusetts music store has (had?) a Martin that looked for all the world like they were trying to copy a Gibson J-45, and Chaz and I did the finish work :shock: :shock: ...but couldn't agree as we went along! :lol:
 

Ridgemont

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Bill Ashton said:
Ridge', that guitar shows that Martin really can do a nice sunburst when they put their minds to it. Beautiful piece. Really nice!

Our favorite Central Massachusetts music store has (had?) a Martin that looked for all the world like they were trying to copy a Gibson J-45, and Chaz and I did the finish work :shock: :shock: ...but couldn't agree as we went along! :lol:
Yes, the Martin sunburst thing is an odd duck. The specific burst on mine is called 1933 Ambertone. The only regular production guitar that has it is the OM Chris Hillman. But the custom shop does a bunch. As far as Martin bursts, our local GC has a D18GE in a burst that is pretty nice and I have seen some nice ones on some Eric Clapton models....but I have seen bursts on those slope shouldered Martin dreads that are just horrendous. I read comments on the Martin forum and it also seems like even the Martin Aficionados are surprised when the see a nice Martin burst.

The only burst that are consistently good are the early '80s Guilds and most of Gibsons. Although my '99 D25 Burst is pretty respectable.
 

Frosty

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Ridgemont said:
...burst that are consistently good are the early '80s Guilds and most of Gibsons...


I'd agree with that. Guild did that handsome tobacco 'burst in the early 80s, love that.
And that chameleon reddish 'burst in the Gruhn days - very cool. Gibson, I gotta say,
when they do it right... hoo-boy... I'm a sucker.

Yeah, Martin had a CEO model... maybe, that was a slope shoulder dread. I've tried
those and Collings, Santa Cruz, etc. slope shoulder dreads - but haven't found one that
delivers what a good J-45/50 can.... which I suppose is Gibson tone. Which I suppose
has more to do with the general body shape!

Back to the Martin topic - I am presently enamored with an OM-28V. The specs of that
GAD-30, particularly the 1 3/4" X 2 3/8" (nut X saddle) suit me so well I went poking
around a couple of weeks back. Happened upon a brand new 28V and was captivated
from the very first second.

I would love to see a traditional, production series USA-made Guild with 1 3/4", 2 5/16",
and a <armor> neck profile befitting a man. </armor>
 

scott

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Hi- I own 3 custom shop guilds -two jf 55-12's one with incredible tree-of-life inlay and the other with extra fancy binding. I also own an f-50r jd custom shop. I am not sure where they were built; possibly Nashville. I think at least some of the work was done by one specific luthier. Some observations: 1. custom shops have a higher-grade wood -at least from a cosmetic point of view 2. workmanship is also better(in some cases quite a bit better) 3. The sound is different from the regular models-possibly different specs and or wood grade 4. all three are incredible and I wouldn't sell them to buy standard model 5. I wish they would re-open custom shop for other choices-limited run on the f-612 would be nice. BTO's are a nice option. Just added my 2-cents.
 

ladytexan

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I don't know how many folks work in the Martin custom shop. But from what I can tell, they are busy. I don't have a burst (by the way, Jonathan, your ambertone burst is beautiful), but here are a couple of pictures of my OM35 Custom. :) As per Jonathan's, the silking on the spruce top is phenomenal (hard to see in the photo).

scaled.php


scaled.php
 

Just_Guild

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Well, maybe I could get my buddy Steve to post on here about his experience with a custom Martin guitar. I hesitate to post too many details as I don't know how much of what he experienced is normal. Suffice to say his oldest son plays golf with Martin's CFO (and heir apparent). Steve asked if he could get a deal and yes, he did. I'm not that familiar with the Martin line, but I believe like a D-48, Madagascar rosewood, spruce top, Fishman transducer, etc., etc. He ended up paying about $6500.00 (dealer cost) for a very awesome guitar that he absolutely loves and deserves. His daughter designed the headstock inlay; it's all abalone and mop binding, a truly beautiful work of art.

It's great to have a friend in the business!
 
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