The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #119859   Message #2603277
Posted By: PoppaGator
02-Apr-09 - 01:56 PM
Thread Name: Tech: The New Martin 1 Series
Subject: RE: Tech: The New Martin 1 Series
I just looked 'em up on the CF Martin website.

Back and sides are solid wood, not laminate. The tonewood is something I hadn't heard of before:
[snip]
GENUINE SAPELE
ENTANDROPHRAGMA CYLINDRICUM
Similar in appearance and tone to Genuine Mahogany, Sapele exhibits a powerful midrange, great punch and bright and airy trebles.
[snip]
The top is sitka spruce, and the fingerboard and bridge are solid East Indian rosewood; that's all pretty standard.

The neck might be some kind of laminate:
[snip]
Stratbond neck is 25% stronger than mahogany
[snip]
No mention of where they're being manufactured.

There are four models, two dreadnaughts and two orchestra models. In each body style, they offer an acoustic and an electro-acoustic version. The electros have cutaway bodies, the acoustics don't.

The D-1 and OM-1 acoustic models are both listed at $1199, and the DC-1E and OMC-1E (electrified/cutaway versions) are $1499. (Martin, as always, includes a good hardshell case as part of the purchase.)