Meet Dick Boak and Richard Johnston to talk about the history of Martin Guitars

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Permalink Reply by dick boak on June 9, 2009 at 11:25am

Bernie,

I have the keys to the museum and I can't tell you how special it is to pull the 1942 D-45 or the 1929 Ditson 111 or Kenny Sultan's 000-42 out and let them be played. They long for that you know. Pat Donohue of Prairie Home Companion came in and spent three hours selecting a half dozen special guitars to play on the Christmas 08 Show. That was particularly special as he is such a great player. I'd like to do a CD Project (called "Keys To The Museum") and have selected players choose the model they identify with most and record a cut with it. David Grisman did Tone Poems and said he would help me. It must be done. So much to do and so little time!

dick boak

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Permalink Reply by Bernie on June 9, 2009 at 12:29pm

That might be quite the project

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Permalink Reply by Phil Griffin on June 9, 2009 at 11:41pm

This would be a wonderful recording. I remember the Donohue segment on PHC and was envious of the opportunity he had to play all of those wonderful instruments. I was even more intrigued by the great and varied sounds of the instruments he chose.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Brandt on June 9, 2009 at 11:06am

Hello!
Do you still have a "historian" working at Martin Guitars? You used to have a gentleman (I've forgotten his name) one could call and read out a serial number and he would turn (what sounded like) big dusty pages of huge old ledgers and be able to tell you a lot about a guitar in question. I always found it useful w/ customers to be able to provide that kind of info.

Also...Dick, are you still building at all? I remember that years ago you built quite a lot and built some small "alto" steel strings from time to time (which I love!).

All the best to you both,

Greg Brandt
www.gregbrandtguitars.com

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Permalink Reply by dick boak on June 9, 2009 at 12:17pm

Greg, I guess as archivist, I am the closest thing to "historian" here, though Richard Johnston knows much more than I do. I keep the archives. Mike Longworth had that position of course. We still have the old serial number log books, though newer records are kept on the computer. Mike Dickinson in Customer Service is also an expert of sorts on the older instruments, as he is called upon to make occasional purchases for the Martin Museum. Regarding building, I'm not doing too much in my basement these days except small projects. The ceilings are low and I don't have as much space as in The Church of Art. Those are excuses though. I'm just so busy and my time is spent mostly in designing guitars conceptually on paper. Perhaps in retirement if there is such a thing. Some of my own instruments from antiquity are featured on www.dickboak.com under GUITARS.

dick

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Permalink Reply by Kenn Henderson on June 9, 2009 at 11:10am

How does one obtain a spec/info sheet on a specific guitar? Who or what department do you contact with the serial number, and is there a charge for this?

Thanks, Kenn

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Permalink Reply by dick boak on June 9, 2009 at 12:20pm

Simply go on the Martin website and look up your model, or if you want to drill deeper, you can contact Martin Customer Service. I'm not 100% sure what their policy is, but there's no harm in ever asking, and there is certainly no charge.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Hoffman on June 9, 2009 at 11:11am

I used to have a D-35 from the early 1970's that had a two-piece back. I recall a lot of chit-chat during that time frame about whether the three-piece back had an adverse effect on the sound quality of the 35's. I had no opinion; I just loved the one I had. Was there any testing done to compare the sound of the two and three-piece backs and judgments about what, if any effect the change had?

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Permalink Reply by Richard N. Johnston on June 9, 2009 at 12:20pm

Martin did quite a lot of experimenting with the bracing on the D-35 before it was introduced (see page 71 of Book Two), but there's no record of later versions being made with two-piece backs (that doesn't mean it didn't happen, just that there is no record of it).
The lighter bracing on the backs of the D-35 models was because it was thought that 3-piece backs were inherently stiffer than the standard 2-piece back.
Martin now uses the same bracing on the D-35 models as on 2-piece back Dreadnoughts, but the top bracing is still quite different than what is used on either the D-28 or the HD-28.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Mancini on June 9, 2009 at 11:11am

Hi guys. Thanks for hosting this forum. My question is:

All other things being equal (although they never are), which type of top bracing would be stronger, a 1/4" straight (like on a D-35) or 5/16" scalloped ?

Mike

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Permalink Reply by dick boak on June 9, 2009 at 12:24pm

Tough question. I would have to honestly say that I feel they are nearly identical in strength. As an aside, I feel that tonally, the scalloped 1/4" HD-35 is on par with the scalloped 5/16" HD-28. That's my read.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Preuss on June 9, 2009 at 11:12am

Hi Dick and Richard,

I sure hope you can help me with my guitar. I have a Darco guitar. I have posted a ton of pictures on photobucket. I have pics of the outside, inside and even the old beat up case.
It was made for the C.F. Martin company. I have asked the unofficial martin forum group and I have asked the Martin Company what they know. Martin company tells me that there were only a few made circa 1980. So far, no one on the Martin forum knows anything. Personally I think the guitar is older than 1980 but I might be wrong. I know the early 70's were a strange time for Martin and I think this guitar might be a pre-sigma model and maybe they thought about naming the sigma line "Darco"?

[IMG]http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu19/darco_photos/DSC01276.jpg[/IMG]

Here is the link to even more of the photobucket pics. http://photobucket.com/Rare-Martin-Guitar
Please check it out and let me know.

Thanks for your input and help!

Mark

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