UNIQUE Martin Custom Shop at Chicago Music Exchange

Transcription:

Hi folks Nathaniel here at Chicago Music Exchange I'm joined by Daniel Albert how's it going mate it's going well how are you I'm doing very well so we are about to talk about some Martin custom shops I believe we are absolutely was there something in there I was just making sure it was a custom shop but I mean it has to be if it's aged so um I was actually just at the Martin custom shop and we were picking out a bunch of wood and whatnot um so we're going to have some really really cool things coming okay um but right now we do have a lot of great stuff so now's a excellent time to to get a good deal on the Martin now so obviously you you at the uh Pennsylvania right uh so how do you what's the process how you go about choosing this piece of woods as opposed to this piece of wood what's I mean ultimately like in a situation when it's a company like Martin all their wood is excellent so you don't really have to wonder whether it's going to be a great sounding piece at all um so a lot of what we do there is just try to pick out things that are visually very stunning as well right um it it's difficult because you have Woods like Rosewood that have long been revered for uniformity and not going too crazy but as those wood supplies are drying up um you see a lot of Rosewood with the real wild grain is what they call it you say wild looking pieces this this is up there right yeah. that is one I mean obviously some really really cool uh things going on with the bridge and the fingerboard there um and again just things that you typically wouldn't expect to be used on a guitar uh we're kind of transitioning into that period where having strange grain or previously kind of undesirable looking wood is I'm really glad that we're getting beyond that because you're getting some really really great looking guitars out of it yeah 12 fret obviously we've got a western red cedar top and I'm I always butcher this but uh African paduk okay p p if you don't know listen I I'm just going to look at you like you're going to know uh and then we have uh the fingerboard here is actually Cadillacs and you actually have some of the sapwood in here so the uh the lighter areas here are a just kind of a different part of the same tree um but you can see they used a piece where it's kind of right on the edge of what you would consider Norm Al looking and then the uh the lighter sapwood there

I mean do you have any favorite kind of particular Martin models I really like the 12 Frets so uh so you might notice yeah I'll that oh you want this one cool I got to yeah I got to play that as well that's that's really cool so this guy um we actually I'm not the only one around here that likes 12 Frets so we notice that there's kind of a gap in in Martin's model lineup uh ever since the vintage series went away so uh this guitar is based on the hd28 vs um so it's vintage and it's a uh slope shoulder or slotted head stock 12 fret uh neck joint here um and we actually also did this in the d18 so d8 vs and these are Custom Shop made really really excellent guitars and um we're I mean so glad to see him back in the lineup cuz it's been a really long time and the the 12 fret does give a very unique sound uh it's got more of a present mid-range and uh really really records well in my opinion so uh very happy to see these back yeah again I I was playing around on that earlier great like just for strumming finger picking it can do kind of all of it really absolutely but it looks great I mean a slotted headstock yeah yeah we uh really they got it right the first time that they did it and then the vintage series obviously uh were fantastic instruments as well so and then for these guys we went with a alder Spruce top with the VTS system so it's basically going to be kind of age to the uh to the approximate year that they were going for on them and then um here's some of that very straight grain East Indian Rosewood that I was talking about that nice and um all a lot of your typical D28 appointments you've got your uh Herring bone antique white binding just uh kind of hard to argue with if you want a 12 fret uh in a big body.

Yeah so we have a om-42 um so technically one size bigger than a Triple O um and I mean this is absolutely wild it's gorgeous in just absurd Rosewood on here um I mean I would say that this is like a wild grain Rosewood and this is a lot of the stuff that we had picked out last week so a lot of stuff with non-traditional but then you still get some of your straight grain up here so really really great looking guitar yeah it sounds great I mean it sounds great it plays really really well uh I mean I know I said that like a D28 is my dream kind of Martin or dream acoustic in general amongst there's there's a few of them um but over the years I found myself leaning towards the smaller shapes like the double o or triple whatever absolutely they're just very comfy to play I you know yeah so on this om-42 we have uh obviously Sitka top on there looks like some nice aging toner to kind of yellow it out there and we do have uh this is some of that Wild Grain East Indian Rosewood that I was talking about crazy it so as you would typically find in the past they most companies only used Rosewood that was just straight grain all the way through but I mean personally I like this more something with a little bit more character and uh I mean it's right in the name it's pretty wild looking so um Stone and on yeah yeah and um this is this is actually really really well ornamented here you've got your uh snowflake in Snowflake inlays and then uh diamonds and bars on here um as well as the the Pearl all the way around as well as on the perimeter of the neck there so uh definitely kind of up up near your 42 or 45 style uh appointments which is awesome and um we do have a really really nice flame Maple binding uh top and back of the body neck and the head cap which you don't usually see people do um and then beautiful floral inlay on the front there um and then kind of typical to some of the older guitars you actually have the CF Martin stamp on the back here rather than any logo or anything like that I mean uh just a fantastic guitar in a great shape usually uh if you're recording like a model like this you have to take less frequencies out for a balance sound whereas with the dreadnut there's kind of some some shaping that has to happen there but of course yeah

Now I mean I've had the pleasure of playing all these. I'm a big D28 fan um it's kind of one of my dream acoustic guitars really have a D2 it's for me it's the archetypical what's well you know you know what I'm trying to say yeah I know I don't know how to guitar in like films magazines when I was a kid and it was that shape but you know with the uh the blonde kind of tough absolutely but that's really cool to see it in that yeah yeah anytime you have like a shade top or like an Amber tone type thing it's it's a very classic for a reason for sure and you don't like you said you don't really see it as often as you do just a straight up natural finish so uh whenever these are available we typically do uh try to try to go after I mean that is a stun look guitar

All right now so do we have the ability to let's send Let's Pretend someone at home is watching this and they want this but slightly different maybe a different type of neck maybe without these or without that do we have the ability to to do that or we do oh yea absolutely uh we can certainly order two the exact specifications Martin has a ton of things that they offer that may have never been used but they offer them anyway just in case somebody wants to be really really specific uh about what they want and um the lead times are not too bad with Martin so uh if anybody at home has something, in particular, they want just call chat email all that good stuff and well I mean it's get it quoted yeah I mean it's cool that we have the ability to do that you change maybe the neck or this or that uh have your own somewhat unique Martin which is very cool yeah and actually we are um what Martin refers to as a custom expert dealer so we do have some options on uh our custom builds that aren't available to every Martin dealer so um there's definitely a lot of cool stuff we can do and the sales people can elaborate on that a little bit.

now so you said so we've got quite a lot of martin Customs the moment yeah we do um we did just get the the shipment of these guys the hd28 vs and then we also have the d18 vs uh as well so we have just a few of each of those so it is going to be a pretty limited run yeah um and then yeah just all sorts of stuff arriving every day and more to come yeah so I mean I assume it's probably best for people at home to maybe call The Shop email just or whatever really cuz absolutely these were chat yeah chat uh I mean they're probably not going to last too long I imagine yeah I mean these this model in particular I mean we go through those and are getting new ones all the time so uh definitely uh good to jump on while we have them and then guitars that are more one-offs like this guy the OM-42 and then uh this guy as well um it's hard to say I mean this is obviously a trickier body shape but if you're somebody who uh enjoys uh more finger style or um kind of that small body sound uh that would be a great great guitar and a very very unique uh guitar as well.

Well I mean I think we've kind of wrapped it up there amazing guitars um look great sound great lot I mean that's really cool that we can customize them and you know do our own thing with them um so you got to get on them quick folks uh give Daniel a call don't give me a call cuz I I don't know when don't call me either oh don't call you I'm not I'm not good with people we're going to put his phone number right here yeah my personal line uh direct line yeah don't put that in there but uh yeah go Gwen W yeah love that yeah uh I mean all very cool guitars uh a lot of fun playing you can't go wrong with any of them they all sound great yeah yeah after being in business for so long May kind of have it down I think so I think they know what 18 I don't know what 1833 I don't even know I'm asking the question but that's right oh it is hang on yeah 1833 correct f [ __ ] hell it's nearly 200 years yeah it's been a little while they know what they're doing.