Teja demos new Martin.

[Cosmic Wonder]

Mike

On edit: Mr. Wonder is embarrased and apologizes for misspelling the Martin name.

[Marshall]

<Martin>

Looks interesting. I like the holes in bracing. I think that's a concept that should be considered more. It reduces mass but retains stiffness. That's used in aircraft design regularly. Here's the United Terminal at O'Hare which uses a steel structure that mimics aircraft design.



Udder dan dat, I got no interest. It's a 25.4" scale. Don't know about the neck profile.

I like that Teja strums some. I think that's what most guitar players do. His lovely fingerstyle is appreciated, but 90% of guitars sold are for strumming mostly. Just nice to hear how it performs under those circumstances.

I don't think he plugs it in in the demo. Does he?

[drlj]

It does interest me.
I couldn’t care less about the pickup system. I would be very interested in it without the pickup. I am sure, if it is successful, they will produce a 000 short scale but the longer scale doesn’t bother me.
I would be most interested in it or finger style.
It has some pluses.

[Dub]

I read all the specs and reviews when it was announced. As LJ says, it has some pluses. The necks are 1-¾” at the nut so that lets me out. Like nearly anything being manufactured today, I am not part of their targeted market.

I am still interested in the Martin SC series. The neck can be taken off and I could have someone re-carve it to 1-5/8" instead of the 1-/34" it comes with. I asked Martin if their Custom Shop could do that but they said no, there are no Custom Shop SC models.

[John B]

Marten is not amused.

[drlj]

I go back & forth with 1 11/16 to 1 3/4 inch nuts frequently. I never really felt much difference. I know it makes a very big deal to some, but I would buy either size and not give it a thought.

[Dub]

Jan 23, 2024 13:21:35 GMT -5 drlj said:

I go back & forth with 1 11/16 to 1 3/4 inch nuts frequently. I never really felt much difference. I know it makes a very big deal to some, but I would buy either size and not give it a thought.

For some styles, I wouldn’t care either. I’ve played SC models in stores and the neck felt very comfortable. Its thin asymmetrical design is very well done IMO. My problem is partly the RA which forces me to keep my wrists straight while playing and because I like to play thumbstyle using Merle Travis’s technique which means I’m constantly using my noting hand thumb to catch the low E and A strings. That becomes painful and difficult on the wider necks. Even Bresh couldn’t do it. There is a video where someone asks him to play something on a guitar that isn’t his and he declines saying he can’t do it using “this” guitar.

Unfortunately, there aren’t enough thumbstyle players to constitute a target market.

[majorminor]

Jamie Kinscherff whose shop some of us visited in Texas has been doing that exact bracing with holes for years.

On edit mayBe HAD been doing. Surprised to see his website is defunct. Man that guy was a world class builder.

[Cosmic Wonder]

Jan 23, 2024 11:45:58 GMT -5 Marshall said:

I don't think he plugs it in in the demo. Does he?

Yes, at the end and I can’t tell the difference between being played amplified or acoustic. I think it sounds really good.

Mike

[Shannon]

I'm beginning to think those guys at Martin may have a future in the guitar business

I'm contemplating a Martin for my 60th birthday (year after next), but I doubt it will be one of these new creations. I think the Inception looks like it has potential, though.

[theevan]

Jan 23, 2024 14:47:53 GMT -5 majorminor said:

Jamie Kinscherff whose shop some of us visited in Texas has been doing that exact bracing with holes for years.

On edit mayBe HAD been doing. Surprised to see his website is defunct. Man that guy was a world class builder.

Yes he was. I wonder what happened.

[theevan]

Welp, looked him up. He's teaching environmental studies at Blanco Academy. In Wimberly.

[Marshall]

Jan 23, 2024 13:21:35 GMT -5 drlj said:

I go back & forth with 1 11/16 to 1 3/4 inch nuts frequently. I never really felt much difference. I know it makes a very big deal to some, but I would buy either size and not give it a thought.

I'm OK with either. I figure once you get up the neck, the width ain't the same anyway. I used to be anti-1 3/4, but I think that was, unknowingly, more a reaction to Taylor's slim neck than the width.

I've got no damn good reason to be against 25.5" scale. I'm just used to shorter and generally like the thought of ease of playing with lower tension and I like the punchiness I perceive in shorter scales. - But it's probably just a nonsensical mental block I have.

Like so many other things.

[Cosmic Wonder]

I’d be interested in seeing them do a 12 fret, 000 short scale, no pickup.If the tone was there, that would be a very attractive option for me.

Mike

[howard lee]

Jan 23, 2024 11:45:58 GMT -5 Marshall said:

<Martin>

Looks interesting. I like the holes in bracing. I think that's a concept that should be considered more. It reduces mass but retains stiffness. That's used in aircraft design regularly. Here's the United Terminal at O'Hare which uses a steel structure that mimics aircraft design.

[...]

Interesting. A well-known luthier friend of mine refrains even from drilling a single hole through the transverse brace to make access to the truss rod easier. He feels drilling through braces weakens their structural integrity. At least Martin guitars don't have faulty door plugs (or bridge pins) that pop off while you're playing.

[drlj]

I don’t see why that would weaken braces any more than scalloping them would. Every luthier I ever met had their own set of ideas, which is fine. Keeps things interesting.
Time will tell and it’ll probably take more time than most of us have anyway.

[howard lee]

Jan 24, 2024 7:29:44 GMT -5 drlj said:

I don’t see why that would weaken braces any more than scalloping them would. Every luthier I ever met had their own set of ideas, which is fine. Keeps things interesting.
Time will tell and it’ll probably take more time than most of us have anyway.

I agree that each luthier has their own approach and theories. I just shared one of those opinions.

I also once dated a woman who made a documentary film about trephination, the process of drilling a hole in your skull to give your brain more oxygen and increase your intelligence, although that always seemed like an oxymoron to me.

[drlj]

I don’t know. People have often commented that I have a hole in my head and I am fairly smart. My hole seems to be a naturally occurring phenomenon.
I must say, you seem to have dated a variety of interesting individuals in your time. 😊😊

The first luthier I really got to know was a builder of Tamburitzas. This was in the mid-60s and he was the person the music stores all used for any guitar repairs. Music stores were not what we now think of as guitar shops, but they were all we had in the Pre-Elderly era. Guitar repair was a different animal in those days.
He was good, for the time, and actually did a live demonstration of instrument building at the Smithsonian where his tamburitzas were displayed.
He invented his repair technique as he went along, which was how it worked back then.
It was at his house that I saw the 50s era Martin that a guy had sanded and spray painted purple using hardware spray paint. That one couldn’t be repaired.

[Marshall]

Braces in a guitar don't add that much weight, really. So drilling holes in braces is more work and has little benefit. In aircraft, weight is king, so there's much more necessity in reducing it.

[PaulKay]

I like the new bracing strategy and Teja notes the added volume it has probably because of it.
I'm not a fan of maple backed guitars, as I find that it usually constrains the low end too much.
Even in this demo, I would have liked to hear a more pronounced low end especially in that open tuning.