Martin Guitar Masterpieces [Hardcover]

For a few years now, if you haven’t been completely satisfied with the standard range of guitars produced by the premier American guitar company called Martin, for a hefty price, it’s been possible for you to have one custom made to suit your own particular requirements. Once this idea had been successfully launched, the company took the concept one stage further. They worked closely with some famous Martin players to design and produce a number of limited edition guitars bearing the signature and preferred style of the artist in question. So far, the collaborators to have been honoured with a Martin Artist Edition have included Bob Dylan, Sting, Steve Howe, Martin Carthy, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon and each member of that famous trio, Crosby, Stills and Nash.

This book is a history of the production of these Artists’ Editions and in itself, from start to finish, is a tasteful work of art. In the vast majority of instances, each of the guitars featured here live up to their billing of ‘masterpiece’, but for my taste, in a very small minority of cases, the decoration can be a little excessive and over the top. For me, the beauty of a classic Martin lies within its simplicity.

In terms of its design and appearance, this slim looking volume is a beautiful masterpiece in its own right, completely worthy of the instruments whose story it tells. It consists of 144 glossy pages, each 247mm x 355mm, and starts with the interesting story of how these things initially came to be. In the majority of examples this is followed by a two-page spread devoted to an explanation of the origins, development and evolution of each of the 70 or so guitars featured. Dick Boak is not only the Martin employee who has been lucky enough to be chosen to work on these guitars, but also the author of this very lovely book. He writes an interesting single page account of the genesis of each instrument, which successfully combines lighthearted anecdotes with detailed technical specifications. In most cases on the facing page, is a beautiful full colour, almost full size photograph of the body of the guitar in question, sans neck. On one or two occasions a guitar may be given three pages for the telling of its story, and in a small number of cases only one. In most instances, the large full-page photograph is supplemented by other smaller pictures, which are carefully arranged within the cultured typography on the opposite page. You end up with a book that is part Martin guitar history, part guitar-porn paradise and part coffee table beauty.

The overall feel of this book is lavish, sumptuous and expensive, but I’d say it would be cheap at twice its recommended retail price. It is an essential book for guitar lovers and Martin heads everywhere. When Chris, Kate, Ben and I went on the Martin guitar factory tour in the summer of 2001, we saw one of the magnificent guitars featured here in its final stages of completion. I knew then that the only thing that was ever going to stop me owning one of these was the small matter of the £25,000 price tag. This book makes a very good, affordable substitute for not owning the real thing, at a minute fraction of the price. You can’t possibly go wrong. Buy it now.

Ian Tatlock.