Hi Ace
Well concerning being two years old and "opening up"
That I have noted about Martins, seems like for
a Martin that period is approximately 5 years.
When new they are just dead(and set up badly)
Get them set up and wait 5 years for them to come in
and you have that C.F. Martin sound.
Go to a Music store and play a new one and you will
be disappointed
Jeri
PS Do you have a price list or web site?
Jeri,
The issue with "opening up" comes from the characteristics of the soundboard and the lacquer finish that's used. It takes some time for that to "work in" to get to vibrating the way it should. Our guitars do that too. They pretty much all do that.
But the point I wanted to make is that D45 is 40 years old and played alot, and is fully opened-up and aged very nicely as a vintage Martin. While the guitar we made is still not yet at its fully "opened-up" state. When our guitar gets "matured" it's going to really be freaky good.
I am aware of that "new guitar sound" not being what they will eventually end up as, and as a luthier, I'm decently versed in what that's all about.
Plus, almost every Martin made since 1970 is a factory-built guitar, and they stopped scalloping the braces, and the fitting isn't what it was back in the 1930s and 1940s. Nowhere even close to the old quality. You have to buy a $10k+ custom-built Martin to get what the old Martins used to be like.
We used to have a website, but we took it down. The guitars just weren't selling since the downturn in the economy. That's why we still have a few left that haven't been sold. We make very few guitars, and it takes us about a year to finish each one.
Just the lacquer finish alone takes 3 months to do. We specialize in the most exotic woods obtainable, but we can make a plain one to order, if that's desired.
Our "plain wood" versions use top quality woods too, but not super exotic woods that are very costly to buy. They would run in the neighborhood of around $2500 and up, depending on options, for like a nice Maple, or Indian Rosewood, or Mahogany.
I think we still have 2 nice mahogany ones with black Ebony trim, that we made a matching set of 3 guitars, all the same, except one a regular dreadnaught, one a dread with Venetian cutaway, and the other a dread with Florentine cutaway. All with Honduran Mahogany necks. Very elegant looking, but relatively plain-figured high-quality wood. Cedar soundboards, complete the monochromatic look, with very striking contrast to the black Ebony trim. Those are relatively affordable, and in a similar price range as a factory produced guitar from Martin, below $3000 each.
As the makers, we don't have to include any dealer mark-ups, and our prices reflect that. Our guitars at a custom dealer would all be over $5000, and most would be over $10,000. We are able to sell at much less than that, because we are not using dealer distribution. We don't make enough gutars to have dealers, anyway.
We do have a few stunning exotics that are complete.
We do 25.4" scales on everything, unless specified otherwise, and all modified Martin pattern construction..
We have a dreadnaught in quilted Bubinga that has to be seen to be believed!
We also have a quilted Sapele dreadnaught, and a matching dreadnaught with Venetian cutaway, which will knock your eyes out.
And we have a super-fancy Brazilian Rosewood with fancy figure and sapwood, and an Adirondack Red Spruce soundboard, which is the "signature combination" that was used on the pre-WW2 Martins and is so desireable for that "pre-war sound".
We might still have a nice Madagascar Rosewood Jumbo around, but I'm not sure.
Those are all some pretty expensive guitars, and I'll have to get some prices from Bob on them.
I've asked him to send some pics to display.
I'll put up some pics, when Bob emails them to me.
These guitars are worth seeing, regardless of any interest in buying them.
They are most certainly some of the most exotic and beautiful guitars that you will ever see.
We basically make our guitars as art, visual and musical. I don't think we really make any money at it, once it's all said and done, with the amount of time and effort we put into each one. It's mostly because we enjoy the creation of the instrument, and exercising our creative desires.
Our "motto" for creating an instrument is "Nobody will ever ask you how fast you got it done, or how much money you made on it. The only thing that will endure is the quality of the instrument, and the lasting impression it makes on the owner and audience".
We might not make money doing it, but we hope that the future will look on our instruments as the ones that people will fight to get ahold of the few that we made, after we're gone.