My Martin

Guitars are cool. It’s easy to make music with just your guitar and your voice. After a long day at work it’s fun to simply play a few soothing chords and relax. Tune the strings on your wooden box and you can have music wherever you go.

Despite the advantages of the guitar I chose mandolin as my first bluegrass instrument. I had listened to a lot of bluegrass music and I liked the sound of the instrument. But what really steered me toward the mandolin over the guitar was my past experience with other forms of music. Everybody who played folk and rock played guitar. I needed to find my own niche.

Or so I thought. After years of practice on that tiny “guitar” that tries to be a violin, I showed up for my first jam and found that I had lots of company. Way too much company for a novice such as I. Real bluegrass fans want to play Bill Monroe’s instrument. That turns out to be an easier entry than trying to be Earl Scruggs or Chubby Wise. Lester Flatt wannabes were few and far between at my first jam.

I’ve been picking bluegrass for over fifteen years now. I tried a little banjo, a little fiddle, a little Dobro. I play bass every now and then when the need arises. But the guitar has always called to me. I love what people like Clarence White, Norman Blake, Tony Rice and Bryan Sutton have done on the instrument.

In a pawn shop in Odessa in the fall of ’64

The pawn shop man was leavin’ he was lockin’ up the door

I ran up just in time and I holler’d just through the screen

Hey, man, you got any good guitars in here,

he said “I got this D-18”

The first guitar I ever bought was a Mahogany body baby Taylor. I got it for my daughter on the recommendation of my friend George Ireton. It was a good guitar and when Juliet was ready for a full sized guitar a friend gave us a nice Yamaha with the proviso that we pass it along to a deserving young guitarist once she outgrew it.

That didn’t take long and of course we did pass it along. So now it’s time to buy a good guitar for my kid who plays guitar better than I can ever hope to. What would you do? I’ll tell you what you ought to do. You should do exactly what Juliet and I did. We went to a good music store with a good inventory and we played almost every guitar in our price range. A guitar stand was set up next to my daughter and if she played a guitar she liked better than the guitar on the stand she replaced that guitar with the one she was playing and auditioned another. This process was repeated until we found the perfect guitar for her, a Gibson J45.

I learned a lot from that shopping experience. All guitars are not the same and the playability and tone should be compared side by side when you’re thinking about laying down your hard earned cash. I know people who buy good guitars sight unseen off the internet but I don’t recommend it.

So I gave him a hundred dollars and I took that sucker home

I cleaned it up and strung it hit a chord and heard that tone

It was crisp and clean rich and full all a guitar ought to be

I said Thank you, Mr, Martin, you made this D-18 for me

   Said Thank you, Mr. Martin, I’m alright

   ‘Cause once again this old guitar helped me through the night

   I’m mighty grateful to you, you know how to make ’em right

   I said Thank you, Mr. Martin, I’m alright

When it comes to bluegrass I’ve always had a bias towards Martin guitars, in part because of that classic D18 song.

If I’m feelin’ down and worthless and I haven’t got a dime

Wonderin’ if I spent my life just wastin’ my time

I pick up that old guitar some paper and a pen

I say Thank you, Mr. Martin, you saved my life again.

I’ve written songs about my lovers my family and my friends

My wife my child the old home place and the road that never ends

Heroes hobos rock n’ roll and a honky tonk queen

I wrote ’em all without exception on my Martin D-18

After our shopping trip, I played Juliet’s new J45 every chance i got. I enjoyed the tone and the way your fingers could wrap around the fretboard with such little effort. One day Juliet took her guitar away with her to college so now it was time form me to buy my own guitar. I wanted to get a guitar that would sound as good as hers did. What should I do? You know because you just read the formula above. Go to the music store with the good inventory (in my case Tall Toad in Petaluma). Play every instrument side by side and choose the one that’s best for you.

I did exactly that and the formula worked again just as it had for my daughter. I played guitars by a half dozen makers and had some tough decisions to make. They were all good. I asked if they had any D18s because my heart drove me in that direction from the song I loved so much. I played one and it was awesome. A little more than I wanted to pay but still in my price range. I’ve got to buy this guitar! I reached over to the guitar stand and played my current favorite, a Martin D35. That was when I knew I had my new guitar. Send that D18 back. The D28 like Clarence and Tony played doesn’t suit me either. 000, 00, D45, this crazy body style numerology doesn’t suit me. I need to pick the guitar than sounds the best to me and that I can play. This is it.

Well there’s your Galagher your Gibson your Goya, Gretch and Guild

I’ve played every kind of guitar that them guitar makers build

I’ve picked on a lot of axes but the best there is alive

Is my not quite beat up wonderful Martin 35