I am not unfamiliar with Martins.

There was a shop in Seattle years ago—the Broberg House of Music—that sold a variety of instruments, but they specialized in Martin guitars. Mrs. Broberg, a venerable old lady, played classic guitar herself, and she rightly considered Martins to be the best American-made guitars, exceeded only by European makers such as Herman Hauser in Germany and two or three of the Spanish luthiers such as Manuel Barbero and José Ramirez. Mrs. Broberg tried to keep at least one of every model Martin in stock. Many of them were set about the shop on display stands. We used to spend a lot of time at the Broberg House of Music just looking at the various Martins and feeling something akin to lust. As far as I know, no one ever sacrificed a goat before one of them, but then. . . .

I bought my first Martin there, a 00-18 steel-string with spruce soundboard and mahogany back and sides. It was all I could afford. It was $95.00 and I had to buy it on time. $15.00 a month. This was in 1954. It was a fine sounding instrument. A year later I started taking classic guitar lessons and I traded it in on a 00-28-G—spruce soundboard, with the back and sides made of really beautiful Brazilian rosewood. $175.00, would you believe? Later, I got a 00-18-G (spruce, mahogany back and sides), for about $110.00 as I recall, as a second guitar. All these Martins sounded great and felt good to play.

It was in the late Fifties, when I joined the Seattle Classic Guitar Society, that I was introduced to some of the guitars by European luthiers. Since then I've owned seven Spanish-made guitars (four classics and three flamencos), and they were better than any Martin I've ever played—fuller sounding, longer sustain, more projection—although the Martins were quite good. I could definitely have survived had I just kept the first Martin classic that I bought. But GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome), as we all know, is a powerful motivation. . . .

Wood is definitely a problem. There has been such a demand for good guitar woods within recent decades that the really choice woods are exceedingly hard to get in any quantity. This is one of the reasons why the quality of many formerly top-name guitars has diminished. Back in the Fifties and early Sixties, you could buy the first Martin that Mrs. Broberg handed you and be sure that it was top quality. After all, it was a Martin. But not anymore. It is definitely possible to get an excellent Martin these days. But you have to be very selective.

But the same is true for other makes. Through much of his career, John Williams has played guitars made by Ignaçio Fleta of Barcelona. I once heard him say that Fletas were all excellent, but some were better, and at Fleta's shop, he tried seven guitars before he found the one he really wanted. The most recent classic I purchased was Japanese-made (not mass-produced, but made by a Japanese luthier who apprenticed in Madrid), imported, inspected, and labeled as approved by José Oribé. It looks and sounds like a José Ramirez and some people think it is. In fact, I played it once at a Seattle Classic Guitar Society meeting and everybody assumed it was a Ramirez. But even so, I had my pick of five guitars of the same model.

Because of the wood situation and because most of the big name guitars are turned out in much greater quantities than they used to be, no matter what brand you're looking for, you have to be very picky. It isn't wise to buy one just by "brand name" anymore.

Don Firth