Customer Reviews

Martin Guitar Book (Softcover)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is an excellent story of the Martin family and how they came to be guitar manufacturers for the past 133 years. It gives you a brief history of the family and the many guitar styles that have been produced through the years. The book also touches briefly on the history of guitar playing in the United States and how the Martin family rose to meet the challenges of the era of the banjo and the mandolin. The book also contains many fine photographs illustrating the Martin line from the beginning until the mid 1990's (when the book was written).

The second half of the book is a reference section that lists each Martin guitar style and gives information on how to date particular instruments. This is valuable, especially for collectors since on the early instruments only the cases were labeled and not the guitars themselves.

All in all I found the book interesting. My only complaint, and it is a minor one, is since the book was published in 1995 Martin has come out with many special run guitars. Unfortunately they're not covered in this book. If you have even a passing interest in Martin guitars you'll find this book interesting.

I already had the 1995 edition and was very curious to this 2006 update since a lot has happened at CF Martin.
The front cover states 'new pictures and revised text' and that is true. But they also changed the format, layout and paper quality. And so it has lost all the magic of the 1995 version. That one had very nice fold out pictures, was very easy to read because of font types and color, and had those body size sketches and charts and style charts.

If you haven't seen the 1995 edition you will probably like the 2005 edition. But for me the 2005 edition has become a book as many others already available.

This book starts at the beginning tracing the evolution of the Martin family business and the instruments they produced. It is well written with photo illustrations. I have never owned a Martin guitar, but enjoyed reading about this long lasting American company.

I visited the Martin guitar factory this past summer with my nephew, and got this book for him as a Christmas gift. It is a great resource on Martin.

If you like knowing some history of your favorite stuff...this is a great book with nice photos and not that expensive.

This is a history of the Martin guitar ,which is one of America"s finest instruments.

I liked the book. Interesting and everything kept short and snappy. I would've liked some more in depth stories about the important things like the development of the Dreadnought, but there was some nice inside info with the interviews with C.F. Martin IV.

I found the 'interruptions' with pictures of models and artists a bit annoying and a bit too brief. I would've liked to read more about important moments like the MTV unplugged series and the Eric Clapton signature models.

All in all definitely worth reading and having. I am looking forward to receiving and reading Richard Johnston's "Martin Guitars"

This book is an excellent resource for researching the history, development and evolution of C. F. Martin guitars. This is the 2nd edition and much improved over the first. Highly recommended for Martin fans.

Great to by this book from Amazon. I received this book within 2 weeks and it is really in good condition. I will definitely by something more from Amazon.