Martin Guitars: A Technical Reference -- R. Johnson D. Boak
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:35 pm
The book was released in 2009 -- it's a highly revised and updated version of a manual published by Mike Longworth. What is so cool about this release is that it now has the blessing of the Martin organization.
Technical reference indeed! Mountains of pictures, release notices, production runs, dimensions, model back ground information, affiliations and general evolution. I particularly like the explanation of "OM" -- I have yet to see "Orchestra Model" explained correctly other than in this publication, here's a tease -- just about every size Martin at some time had an "OM" designation.
I like having it around to fact check -- the internet is full of repeated inaccurate Martin information and data, sadly mostly at the forums.
While not a construction manual, it is great fun and is full of little known stuff -- like the Octa-Chorda A Ditson Dreadnaught with 8 strings!! How about that Dave Bagwill. And there was a 1930 "000" version as well.
The book is a bit pricey but I do recommend it to all guitar lovers.
Technical reference indeed! Mountains of pictures, release notices, production runs, dimensions, model back ground information, affiliations and general evolution. I particularly like the explanation of "OM" -- I have yet to see "Orchestra Model" explained correctly other than in this publication, here's a tease -- just about every size Martin at some time had an "OM" designation.
I like having it around to fact check -- the internet is full of repeated inaccurate Martin information and data, sadly mostly at the forums.
While not a construction manual, it is great fun and is full of little known stuff -- like the Octa-Chorda A Ditson Dreadnaught with 8 strings!! How about that Dave Bagwill. And there was a 1930 "000" version as well.
The book is a bit pricey but I do recommend it to all guitar lovers.