Martin Style 18

From mid-19th-century parlours to MTV, we retrace the history of Martin’s all-American 18-series flat-tops with CF Martin & Co’s museum and archives specialist, Jason Ahner

- Rod Brakes

To this day, American guitar builder CF Martin & Company remains a family-run business whose roots in the craft can be traced back several generations to the early 1800s. The story in America began in 1833 when Christian Frederick Martin Sr (son of German cabinet maker Johann Georg Martin and the former apprentice of renowned Viennese guitar builder Johann Stauffer) emigrated to New York City. That same year, he set up shop and founded CF Martin & Co, before relocating to Nazareth, Pennsylvania in the late 1830s, where the company continues to thrive under the care of his great-great-great-grandson, chairman and CEO Chris Martin (aka CF Martin IV).

Few guitar builders can claim to be a crucial influence on the history of popular culture as Martin. Remaining at the forefront of guitar evolution since the mid-1800s with innovations such as X-bracing, larger body sizes, steel strings, and 14-fret necks, Martin has endured as an industry leader, while the guitar continued to gain in popularity over the years with different musical styles emerging. Although numerous benchmark Martin designs have stood the test of time with their understated elegance and world-class tone, spanning multiple music genres, the 18-series of acoustics stands out for many as the classic embodiment of the instrument.