History Of Precipitation – Martin Guitar Brand History Review

History | Chapter 1 About Martin

For a year and a half, Martin Guitar has been recognized as the world’s best original acoustic instrument company.

Martin Guitar Company relied on the efforts of the generations of the Martin family successfully in history. Survive in the wind and rain: from the initial C.F.MARTIN era to the innovation led by Sr.’s Stauffer in 1830 to the recent technological revolution of C.F.martin IV (Chris Martin). The persistence of family-style operations has always maintained a prominent reputation, which is enough to reflect the excellence of the six generations of Martin’s quality of guitar and production technology. In the music industry, C.F. Martin rarely has opponents, maintaining long-term vitality.

In its colorful history, Martin Guitar has successfully adapted to continuous changes in product design, power distribution systems, and manufacturing methods. Besides this continuous innovation, Martin Guitar has never abandoned its product quality promise. Whether it is
The small workshop established in 1833 is still the expansion of today’s Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
The head office has never given up the original intention of producing the world’s top musical instruments.

The story behind the most well-known Martin Guitar manufacturers in the United States today goes back to 1796, January 31. In a small German town, Mark Noyki, named Christian Fedleyk Martin, was born in the home of local furniture and carpenter. At 15, Christian Fred Like took over the family industry and became excellent at woodworking. Then he left his hometown, traveled to the music capital of Vienna, and became the famous Martin Guitar producer John Sri Toro’s apprentice. This pair of Christian Fedrick

Later guitar production had a profound impact.

History | Chapter 2 Confuse of the same

Although the record is rough, it is obvious that the young Martin is a talented apprentice, and soon he became one of the best producers in Sto Buddha. After getting married and having a child, he firmly returned to his hometown and opened his workshop. However, shortly after his career, Martin found himself in the fierce competition of local wooden manufacturing and violin workshop associations.

Making and his family have long been members of the local Woodsmith Association, and there are also well-known Martin Guitar producers. To reduce the external competition of their associations, the Violin Craftsman Association has always tried to prevent wooden artisans from making music. The Violin Marist Association launched a huge movement. They claimed that the violinists belonged to the regular instrument maker who served the artist. They not only paid attention to the results of their products but also the artistic and cultural nature of the production process. However, instead, the wooden craftsman is just a group of people engaged in

People who operate the weapon are just some furniture. They also claim that as long as normal people can distinguish between the Martin Guitar and what a bench is, our works are simply different from their works.

To defend the right to make a Martin Guitar, the members of the Woods Craftsman Association counterattacked that the violin craftsman to make a guitar does not have the right to talent. Still, the exploration of the wooden guitar is exactly George Martin, that is, the Christian Fedleyk Martin, His father, completed 35 years ago.

To support their remarks, the wooden artisans invited the famous instrument vendor to prove it in court at the time that the musical instrument dealer declared that Christian Fedrick Martin, which was the apprentice of the famous violin craftsman Stolfo, a Martin Guitar created by the Martin Guitar made Not only is he quality, beautiful appearance, but also has a distinctive voice, which is enough to prove that he is a qualified and outstanding craftsman.

The battle filled with gunpowder finally ended with the victory of the carpenter. However, this process deeply touched Martin. He thought that it was difficult to get development opportunities under the system of trade associations in Germany, so he decided to leave here. So, on September 9, 1833, Martin left his hometown and went to New York.

When he first came to New York, he opened his shop at 196 Hudson Street in the West District.
The size of this small shop was dwarfed by the current 84000 square feet and nearly 500 employees. He set up a small workshop for guitar manufacturing in the courtyard behind his shop and displayed products, including cornets and music.

Due to the limited Martin Guitar production and the immature music market, it was difficult for him to start. To save the retail of the store, C.F. Martin signed a distribution agreement with various teachers, importers, and wholesalers, including Bruno&Company (a subsidiary of Kaman), Henry Schatz, and John Coupa. Therefore, before 1840, many Martin guitars marked “Martin&Schatz” and “Martin&Coupa” were produced.

History | Chapter 3 guitar with wine

It is easy to see the progress and changes in society by comparing Martin’s sales model in that era with that of Martin Guitar’s factory today. Barter was a common phenomenon in the retail industry; Martin Guitar sold records then, and we can find many barter transactions, including records of exchanging guitars for children’s clothes and wine.

For the Martin family members who were born and grew up in the rich Elbe River area, life in the lower part of New York can be said to be very difficult. At that time, Martin’s close friend and business partner Schatz said they had never been satisfied with the local life, so the Schatz family decided to move.

In 1836, they moved to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and bought 55 acres of local land. Later, the Martin family visited them, and it was such an opportunity that strengthened Martin’s determination. After returning to New York, Martin and his wife decided to move to Pennsylvania again after careful consideration. So, in 1838, Martin Guitar sold his retail store in New York to Ludecus&Wolter and bought 8 acres of vacant land in the suburb of Nazareth.

Old Martin found the place he wanted to live and spent the rest of his life here.
The following years were a few years of rapid progress for Martin and his Martin Guitar company. Considering the sales of the original store in New York, Martin’s sales records in those years frequently showed his trade with the commercial center at that time.

For example, Boston, Albany, Philadelphia, Richmond, Petersburg, Nashville, Bedelsburg, St. Louis, New Orleans, etc. The business at that time should be quite smooth for Martin. As Martin said in an advertisement published in 1850, C.F. Martin, a zither player, is honored to serve the majority of musicians and is proud to provide the most high-end musical instruments for the expanded music industry.

History | Chapter 4 factory evolution

The early Martin Guitar products were all made by hand. Generally, one person was only responsible for one piano at a time, and there were few quality standards. But Martin’s products at that time also had some similarities. Until the 1840s, Martin’s guitars had tuners (asymmetrical) mounted on one side of the head. This design is because Johann Stauffer, his master in Vienna, taught him this way in his apprenticeship years. Martin also stopped using this design in later production, and it was not until many years later that Leo Fender reproduced this design on the classic model Telecaster.

Another early Martin Guitar product feature is the adjustable neck. A screw knob installed on the heel of the piano extends to the inside of the connecting wood of the neck and body. There is a wooden lever directly above the dovetail (the connecting piece of the neck of the piano body) to adjust the neck’s curvature.

When the strings are installed, people can adjust the strings’ height by rotating the heel’s connectors. At that time, it was a very sophisticated and complex design, but the disadvantage was that this mechanism was easy to slip and fail under the action of high-pound strings. Therefore, Martin gradually eliminated this unique neck adjustment technology in the later design.

In the 1950s, people witnessed another technological revolution of the Martin Guitar. It is also known as the X-stent system design. This design is still used on Martin’s steel string guitar. This unique sound beam structure creates the distinctive timbre characteristics of Martin Guitar, with bright mid-high frequency and strong low-frequency response.

C.F. Martin， Sr. He died in 1873. His legendary piano-making skill was passed on to his descendants. It is his son who inherits his will. Christian Frederick, Jr., 48, was also born in Germany. In moving from New York to Nazareth, Martin’s enterprise developed from a small workshop to a factory with dozens of piano makers. The earliest production was carried out in Martin’s house, but the expanded production scale made factory operation necessary.

In 1859, a factory building was started at the corner of Nazareth North Street. After the continuous expansion and repair of Martin’s people through the ages, the North Street workshop is still in use. Still, it has changed from the original production workshop to the current warehouse and string accessories transfer station. In addition, its attic is used as the land for Martin Guitar to connect guitar manufacturers, a place dedicated to providing raw material retail business for guitar artisans and repairers.

History | Chapter 5 personalized determination of brand quality

In the years after the death of C. F. Martin, Sr., Martin’s performance also experienced various ups and downs along with the business cycle. According to the company log at that time, with the American Civil War on the ascendant, the company’s sales increased significantly, more or less due to the destruction of musical instruments and various cultural facilities caused by the war. The exchange rate crisis after the war directly impacted Martin Guitar.

At that time, however, Martin’s scale was more or less able to withstand similar financial shocks. In 1888, C.F. Martin, Jr. died unexpectedly. He entrusted his immature career to his son, Frank Henry, who was only 22 years old. Young Frank Martin’s business mind was severely tested at the beginning. Soon after he took over the business, the company faced many problems in distribution. At that time, Martin’s exclusive agent was C A. Zoebisch&Sons Trading Company.

The company’s main business is distributing and acting as an agent for various orchestral instruments. Young Frank Martin believed that this company could not bring more influence and sales to Martin Guitar. in especial.

Zoebisch refused to represent Martin with more new Martin Guitar, which made their relationship more inharmonious. One of the representatives of these new products is the well-known mandolin.
In the 1990s, with the increase of Italian immigrants, the mandolin was also popular (the mandolin was an instrument of Italian origin). Frank Martin finally made up his mind to cancel his contract with Zoebisch. This is a big move for a young man who lacks business experience.

You should know that Martin and Zoebisch not only have this profound business partnership but also have maintained the friendship between the two families for a long time. After winning the distribution initiative, Martin Guitar ushered in the peak period of mandolin sales. In 1898, Frank Martin recorded in his personal sales notes that 113 kinds of mandolin were produced at that time. However, the previous figure was very small. 3. After three years of stable sales of 220 guitars a year, Martin’s sales increase in recent years is almost attributed to the mandolin’s popularity.

Since the traditional distribution company was abandoned, Martin Guitar and Mandolin were mainly sold through direct mail advertising in newspapers and media then. At the same time, this results from Frank Martin’s ongoing efforts. Every year, he frequently travels in New York State and New England. In those years, most Martin Guitar sales came from Frank Martin’s direct negotiations with local music stores.

History | Chapter 6 education? Or sales?

Martin’s sales performance slowed down due to the impact of the two sons’ school plan. Frank Martin resolutely chose the latter in the company’s sales force and the education of future generations. The reason for all this stems from his own experience. Frank Martin is self-taught, so from a long-term perspective, he naturally hopes his children will receive the best education. So. Christian Frederick Martin III was admitted to Princeton University in 1912, and his brother Herbert Keller Martin was admitted to the same school shortly afterward.

Recalling his father, C.F. Martin III said: “He is an excellent father. He has been busy in the family business all his life. Although he has not received a formal education, he is still experienced, especially fascinated by Greek and Latin.

In 1916, the third generation, who was about to graduate from Princeton University, hoped to continue to study management at Harvard University. “I was full of ambition then, and I didn’t want to eat the family business,” he recalled. “But my brother was still in college, and my father hoped someone would help him manage his business together. So I went home and participated in the piano-making work. At that time, I just took the attitude of doing odd jobs.” But the third generation did not know then that the work he took over would become his lifelong mission.

History | Chapter 7 is about driving on the wave of Ukulele

The 1920s was a golden age of Martin’s rapid expansion. At that time, Ukulele became the new favorite of American public leisure culture and entertainment. However, Martin’s first Ukulele was not as popular as expected. The Ukulele looks too much like a guitar. They use too much sound beam structure, especially on the panel, and it is also a spruce bracket. The heavy volume structure made Ukulele’s voice dull and dull, so the buyers did not welcome it then.

Recognizing the design defects of the first Ukulele, Martin was not discouraged but continued to develop a more appropriate Ukulele. By reducing the use of sound beams and replacing mahogany materials, Martin’s Ukulele quickly integrated into the wave and occupied a considerable market share. At that time, Martin had to double his factory building to meet the excessive demand. In 1920, the total production of guitars was 1361, but there were no statistics on the production of the Ukulele.

Martin III conservatively estimated that the production of Ukuleles at that time should be more than twice that of guitars. As for the organizational structure of the senior internal management of the enterprise, Frank Martin mainly appointed Martin III to be responsible for production prediction and control, while his brother Herbert Keller Martin was responsible for sales.

This division of labor was very smooth initially until his brother Herbert Keller Martin died suddenly in 1927. With the death of his brother, Martin III became increasingly involved in the company’s sales activities and constantly went to all parts of the country to carry out sales activities.

During the decade of the 1920s, Martin’s sales performance grew at a good rate every year. By 1928, the annual output of guitars had reached 5215 pieces per year. Almost five times as many as in 1920. But with the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929, the depression of the national economy forced Martin’s strategy to turn to how to survive. A large number of unemployed and credit institutions
The bankruptcy makes the sale of guitars more and more a challenge.

Between 1929 and 1931, guitar sales fell by half. For the bleak living environment, Martin decided to reduce his salary and change the working system to three days a week. At the same time, the factory also carried out production reform. They began to produce violin parts and wooden jewelry. They did so only to keep the artisans busy.

Martin Factory has never determined to spend time in these fields. “We always worry that other products will affect our focus on guitar production.” Martin III stressed, “We were involved in some other products during the Great Depression, but we were not very willing to do it, just out of frustration.”

To stimulate and expand the increasingly depressed sales, Martin launched an activity to stimulate production development. During this period, the company introduced many new designs to the production line to replace the existing products and tried to find a way to overcome the sluggish sales situation by trying the new Martin Guitar. Although some products have to face the fate of short life, some designs have become the company’s capital, such as the famous Dream sound body and the invention of 14 products connecting to the neck.

History | Chapter 8 Martin Innovation

According to Martin III. The neck with 14 Martin Guitars was designed at the end of 1929. Before that, guitars used the neck with 12 Martin Guitar. As time went by, Perry Bechtel, a famous banjo plucking master, suggested Frank Henry Martin make a 14 Martin Guitar. Bechtel believed that a longer neck could greatly broaden the range of the guitar and make the guitar a perfect instrument. After accepting his suggestion, Martin released a new guitar, the then 14 “Orchestra Model.”

Unexpectedly, the 14-grade Martin Guitar was very popular with the public then and finally became the production standard of Martin’s production line, replacing the original neck technology. This standard became the general standard of the American guitar industry later.

The name of the “Dreadnought” guitar has some origins. His name comes from the English invincible warship in World War I. This shape of the body has become the symbol of the Martin Guitar. Frank Martin and Harry Hunt (the manager of Chas. H. Diston Co., a famous musical instrument dealer in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York then) were the first D-fiddles Designed. At that time, they speculated that the huge body could bring better bass and resonance response to the guitar, which would be very suitable for singers to use.

The first D-shaped guitar was produced in 1916 and sold in the name of “Oliver Diston&Co., Boston, New York”. At that time, not many people could accept such a guitar. At that time, a few musicians sang with guitar. The soloist also thinks that the D bass is too exaggerated. However, with the prosperity of folk music, the sales of D-shaped Martin Guitar have entered a rapid growth stage. Until today, this type of piano is still a top priority of Martin. And almost all other guitar manufacturers and producers also take this body as a design benchmark.

Frank Martin died in 1948 at the age of 81. Martin III fully inherited the business of his ancestors, and Martin also continued its legendary quality and brilliance. The prosperity after the war, accompanied by the vigorous growth of folk music, made Martin’s period from 1948 to 1970 a period of vigorous development.

However, the excessive demand made Martin’s production line overwhelmed so that in the early 1960s, Martin’s orders would be delayed for three years! However, Martin’s order postponement is so desirable by the industry.

However, King Martin III said that they were embarrassed at that time. He said that “some people came to the instrument store with hundreds of dollars to find a good Martin guitar. He wanted to buy it at that time, not three years later. Our lack of production capacity at that time was not conducive to customer and distributor relationships.

The third son joined the family estate in 1955. His name inherited the name of his late uncle and grandfather. His name was Frank Herbert Martin. Father and son jointly decided to build a larger production plant.

Although the original North Street workshop has become a workshop with several floors after several generations of development, it can still not achieve greater capacity. “The factory building in North Street was not the most suitable production site then. The longevity of our Martin family members had something to do with going up and down these factory stairs every day. Haha, I can’t bear to part with it.” The third generation said jokingly at that time.

The production mode of the new factory on Sycamore Street is slightly different from that of the old factory on North Street. Handmade remains a quality Martin is proud of. However, to pursue higher production efficiency, the new plant cancels the design of the multi-story plant, and all production activities are completed on the same floor. Therefore, the production line process can become more smooth, which has to be said to be a best-of-both-worlds approach, improving efficiency and not losing quality.

Under the leadership of Frank Herbert Martin, who was no less capable than his father, Martin began to merge and expand the market. In 1970, Martin Guitar Company acquired Vega Banjo Workshop in Boston, and a few months later, it acquired Fibes Drum Company (which once produced a special kind of drum made of glass fiber. The bigger merger was the acquisition of Darco String Company in 1970.

The former owner of this company was the famous old John D’Addario and his son. Another major move in the 1970s was A.B. of Sweden’s Acquisition of Herman Carlson Levin, a company that once produced classical guitars and some steel wire models. Martin sold Vega, Levin, and Fibes again within a few years.
However, Martin&Darco’s strings remained an internal component of the company.

History | Chapter 9 Martin VI

Christian Frederick Martin IV was born on July 8, 1955. He studied economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. After studying, he often went to Westwood Music repair shop in West Los Angeles to learn guitar repair. This work also helped young Chris learn many valuable tips about guitar retail.
When Chris was young, he once helped his family’s enterprises to pack strings, six packs a box. But since 1972, he began participating more widely in family business activities. He once helped in the office and participated in the NAMM musical instrument exhibition in Chicago.

He also produced the neck in the workshop. In the summer of 1973, he participated in the reproduction and various auxiliary work of the D28S guitar, which was a valuable experience for Chris and provided the best internship platform for him to work in the family business in the future. Chris joined Martin in 1978 when he had just received a degree in management from Boston University. Scholars degree. Since then, he has been involved in almost all departments and thoroughly understands the whole family business inside and outside.

He was appointed Vice Chairman of the Marketing Department in 1985. Since then, he has been committed to how to make this traditional production enterprise with a long history survive in the modern market environment. His grandfather Martin III in June 1986. He died on the 15th. Chris inherited the enterprise and became the chairman and CEO of the company. At the same time, what fell on his shoulders was how to make the enterprise enter the new century successfully.

Under the leadership of Chris, the scale of Sycamore’s production base has been expanded.
Backpacker model travel guitar was born. In addition, signed versions and limited edition guitar projects were also brought to the production line, especially signed guitars such as Eric Clapton and Gene Autry. Perhaps more noteworthy is Chris’s contribution to introducing the X series guitar, which redefines the concept of guitar, guitar materials, and guitar structure. With computer-aided design and production, the X series provides people with a more affordable choice without sacrificing quality. Martin Guitar is progressing steadily under the leadership of Chris, who has mature leadership and a friendly personality. He can even give mature and steady sales guidance to all Martin dealers worldwide.

Martin has been committed to institutionalizing sustainable environmental protection since 1990. The system mainly covers how to effectively use natural materials for making traditional Martin Guitar and vigorously develop alternative materials and trees. The customer experience department of Martin is also promoting various non-traditional materials that were not accepted before by all customers and potential consumers. At the same time, Martin has vigorously promoted various alternative materials and guitars made of sustainable wood paper to demonstrate the company’s environmental protection concept to customers and peers. At the same time, Martin took the CITES Agreement as an official standard to protect endangered tree species.

Martin has thrived in the long history because of his uncompromising quality of musical instruments and superb business management skills. The marketing method and product structure have been changing, but the insistence on Martin Guitar manufacturing and quality has never changed. In the 1904 product catalog, Frank Henry Martin told potential customers that it was no secret how to make Martin Guitar and make them speak. It just needs patience and care.

Carefulness lies in the selection of wood and the carving of details to increase the comfort of use. Patience to complete each part that should be completed. A good Martin Guitar is not as cheap as a broken one, but how can a good voice be defined by the difference between the two? This sentence has come from more than 80 years of history, but the dust of history has never let Martin’s commitment to musicians in this sentence lose a little color.

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