- Mark Valentine
- Jan 9
- 1 min read
This is an American guitar history lesson. Christian Frederick Martin, Sr. was born in 1796. Yes, that is the founder of the C.F. Martin & Co. He did not pull these amazing guitars out of his head. Mr. Martin apprenticed under under the master luthier, Johann George Stauffer, in Vienna, Austria.
Henry Schatz was also an apprentice in that shop. When Martin returned to America, He made guitars for a decade on Hudson Street in New York City. He often collaborated with Schatz.
Schatz lived outside of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Martin’s wife, Ottilia visited the Schatz family and that began the move from New York City to Cherry Hill, just north of Nazareth. Nazareth is still the headquarters and primary factory for C.F. Martin & Company.
Martin embraced the popularity of Spanish guitars and mixed in his own ideas about shapes and sizes and bracings.
To many, this process defined the American acoustic guitar.
A museum called the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, Pennsylvania has an 1834 Stouffer-style Martin and Schatz guitar on display as a permanent loan from the C.F. Martin & Co. OK, Martin fans, let your pilgrimage begin.
We have videos of nearly 100 instruments.
Here is a story of a 1955 Martin D28 that we met. Brenda sold it for 5 figures right after the video shoot.
