Martin had been aware of decalomania for a long time before the first Martin head stock decal appeared in 1932. On October 13, 1897 a company named Palm, Fechteler & Co. sent some sample sound hole transfers (decals) to Martin with the following comments: “Sound holes can be made much more attractive by “Transfers” and […]
On June 22, 1932 Martin received a shipment of decals from Palm , Fechteler & Co. Based on unit costing from later orders it appears the first batch was for about 5,000 decals. Martin put the decals into immediate use. The earliest reported guitar with a decal is a 1932 OM-18, serial number 50674, that […]
In a reply to a customer inquiry dated September 7, 1932, C. F. Martin III made this very succinct explanation for the change to a compensated bridge: “For about two years now we have been setting the Ivory saddle in our Guitar bridge on an angle in order to give the heavy bass strings extra […]
Since the last few years of the 19th century Martin had been inlaying the fingerboard of their instruments with positions marks. For style 21 and 28 guitars the inlays were in the shape of small slotted diamonds and squares. Lower grade instruments received small dot inlays while styles 30 and above were decorated with beautiful […]
19th Century Martin Guitars The following observations on types of bridge pins and end pins used on 19th century Martin guitars are based on examination of existing guitars as well as clues from the 1889 to 1899 inventories. The information available for 19th century bridge and end pins is not exhaustive and much research still […]
Between 1916 and 1926 Martin produced Ditson model ukuleles with a wide waist design that were similar to the guitars Martin was making for Ditson from 1915 to 1920. The Ditson model ukuleles are popular collectors items because of their distinctive appearance but are not particularly rare, excepting the Ditson 5K ukuleles, as several thousand […]