Subject: RE: Has Martin gone mad?
From:
Justa Picker
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 08:38 PM
Yes Martin HAS gone mad. :-)
I was in Nazareth last summer, did the factory tour, met Chris Martin and Dick Boak, and sat for a brief presentation in their saw mill, by Chris Martin where he outlined the company's business philosophy for the 21st century.
On the one hand Chris is to be commended for turning the company around from its near bankruptcy in the early 80s.
He had correctly determined at that point in time, that the things that got Martin into deep doggy doo, were the fact that his Daddy had attempted to build the company into a big music conglomerate with a lot of diversification and too rapidly during the recession of the early 80s. (ie. The acquisition of Darco String Manufacturing [now Martin Strings of course][the only good move he made!]; the acq. of Fibes drums [bad move]; the acq. of Levin Guitars in Sweden [bad move since the company was bankrupt when Frank Martin purchased it, and through later-discovered technicalities, found they couldn't import Levin Guitars without heavy import duties], buying outdated and antiquated computer software designed for vetinary clinics that they hoped they could modify [bad move] ...and there were many other misteps as well.
When his Daddy was ousted in the 80's by the board of directors and Chris IV was made president, he decided to get back to doing what Martin did best - that is building really good guitars, and to just focus on that, and guitar strings and accessories...and things began to turn around.
Problem was, that over time, Chris developed such a paranoia of the company ever boarding on insolvency again, that he went not just one step in the opposite direction but 3 to the point of obsession...and began to expand the Martin guitar line up, with over time, such a dizzying array of models, and materials used (not to mention the "custom shop") that by doing so, he inadvertently cheapened the Martin brand name and confused customers with so many models, nobody could figure out the difference between one and another (as if it was easy before?)
He was very proud of stating during our saw mill presentation, that his #1 absolute top priority was keep ALL of the employees in the Martin family (in Nazareth) employed - NO MATTER WHAT!
He cited many large corporations using downsizing and massive layoffs and cuts in workforces, in order to balance profits and financial forecasts for stock holders. He said that in his mind this was no way to run a business in this day and age and that employees DO matter. So he gets brownie points for this, obviously ... but at what cost? By continuously releasing new models of all materials, designs and at all cost levels.
Martin's biggest enemy or thorn in their side, has always been their own history - especially when you consider that they are one of the oldest privately owned companies in the U.S. (est. 1833).
Many a Martin affectionado knows that between 1930 and 1944, they made some of their best instruments - commonly known as their Golden Era. The majority of these instruments are what made and established Martin's legendary reputation. (They also made a lot of really great straight braced instruments from the latter 40s through to the 60's.)
That reputation, to many traditonalits, should be preserved at all costs - save bankruptcy. Chris may have gone totally over the deep end however and really diminished the prestige of the Martin brand name (i.m.o.) because,
(a) he felt compelled to enter the low end of the Market, and get a piece of that market share (because Taylor was killing them there, not to mention Larivee, Guild and Gibson too) ... but of course by doing this, it would not only ensure continuous cash cows and cash flow, but also, keep his family / employees working (the job security thing.)
(b) Started out with a limited number of sigature editions, and then went crazy over time .... to the point that NOW, practically anyone who's ever farted on a Martin guitar will get a signature model released ... and the signature models in quite a few instances were based on guitar models that the actual signator, never even owned or played! (ie. the new Norman Blake model; the Ernest Tubbs D-35; the Kitty Wells Honky Tonk Angel model; the on again and now off again Lucinda Williams Model, and many more. But hey, they sell well to the dealers anyway ... and that's the name of the game.
(c) Once upon a time the D-45 was THE flagship guitar in the Martin line - in fact 45 anything. It was a real prestige thing, if you could afford to actually own and play one. Today, the D-45 is just another guitar in their line-up eclipsed now by the D-50, the Peacock, and the soon to be released in limited numbers, D-100. They also released (in the what-were-they-thinking-department a limited edition release of the D-50K (koa sides and back) with a list of 50K each. (This model has not yet sold out. Wonder why? Perhaps because koa is NOT Brazilian.)
(d) They're making guitars out of high pressure laminate (plastics) and other strange materials. They use counter top material for nuts (corian) and more plastics (micarta) for fingerboard and saddle material. CF's predacessors especially his grandfather and great grand father would be rolling in their graves, if they could see what their progeny has done to the brand name and the models and some of the crap that is being turned out in Nazareth to the tune of 50,000 instruments a year.
(e) Cowboy Guitars? Anyone played these overpriced pieces of shit? God they're awful to play, awful sounding and hideous to look at. That picture of Chris Martin dressing as a cowboy smiling? (He's smiling because he's laughing all the way to the bank at the suckers that will buy ANYTHING these days, if it has the Martin logo on it!
I am convinced that at this point, the Martin guitar have become whores to the allmighty dollar above all else.
There are still some really great new Martins to be had (yup they ARE overpriced), so you buy them privately and used, because since they revamped (in the last couple of years) what the so-called lifetime warranty covers, it's not worth shit or worth paying for in a new guitar, in that all it covers these days is a neck reset to the original owner , which you might need in 10-20 years and that's pretty much all it covers these days.
I do love the Martins I own.
Don't get me wrong.
But...
... 'last time I checked, Rolls Royce didn't make an economy model and they're still in business.
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sj
