Martin Dreadnought in the House

Martin Dreadnought in the house! I bought my first guitar today and started learning Redemption Song by Bob Marley. This is among the most memorable days of my life, I should have done this years ago. I’m in love with this instrument and have found a new passion for a lifetime – learning to entertain myself and the fantasy of becoming a troubadour.

UPDATE: As a sign of congratulations, in June the following story appeared:

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Grunge became gold Saturday as the guitar Kurt Cobain played on Nirvana’s 1993 “MTV Unplugged” performance months before his death sold for an eye-popping $6 million at auction.

The 1959 Martin D-18E that Cobain played in the band’s rare acoustic performance and subsequent live album was sold to Australian Peter Freedman, owner of Røde Microphones, at the Music Icons event run by Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California.

The bids opened at $1 million for the sale that ended up breaking several world records.

Cobain used it to play tunes including “About a Girl” and “All Apologies” at the Nov. 18, 1993, show in New York that came less than five months before the singer and songwriter died at age 27.

A day earlier at the same auction event, a custom guitar played by Prince at the height of his stardom in the 1980s and 1990s sold for $563,500, a small sum compared with the Cobain guitar but well over the $100,000 to $200,000 it was expected to fetch.

Prince played the blindingly blue guitar with the artist’s “love” symbol on its neck beginning on the 1984 Purple Rain Tour, as well as on the classic albums “Lovesexy” and “Sign O’ The Times.” He used it into the early 1990s.

Archivists going through Prince’s possessions at his Paisley Park home and musical headquarters in Minnesota recently found the guitar that was thought to be lost during the four years since his death from an overdose at age 57.

Also Friday, a macrame belt that Elvis Presley wore about 30 times on stage brought in nearly 10 times its expected price, with a final bid of $298,000, and an ivory gown worn by Madonna in her 1990 “Vogue” video sold for $179,200.

Martin Guitar Company

A C.F. Martin & Company HD-28 Dreadnought

Martin (inventor of the Dreadnought in 1916) were founded in 1833. CF Martin were making guitars during the civil war, in a factory that remains today, 30 miles from Gettysburg. They never stopped making guitars. Made in USA ✌

The dreadnought is a type of acoustic guitar body developed by American guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin & Company. The style, since copied by other guitar manufacturers, has become the most common for acoustic guitars.

At the time of its creation in 1916 the word dreadnought referred to a large, all big-gun, modern battleship of the type pioneered by HMS Dreadnought in 1906. A body much larger than most other guitars provided the dreadnought with a bolder, perhaps richer, and often louder tone. It is distinguished by its size and square shoulders and bottom. The neck is usually attached to the body at the fourteenth fret.

Martin dreadnought guitars are also known as “D-size” guitars, or, colloquially among musicians, as dreads. Their model numbers consist of “D-” followed by a number, such as “D-18” and “D-45”. The higher the numerical designation, the more decorative ornamentation on the instrument.

Dreadnought History

The dreadnought style was originally developed in 1916 and was manufactured by Martin specifically for retailer the Oliver Ditson Company. The model was retired after dismal sales. In 1931, after revising the design, Martin began producing dreadnought guitars under its own brand, the first two models being the D-1 and D-2, with bodies made of mahogany and rosewood respectively.

The popularity of and demand for Martin dreadnought guitars was increased by their use, almost exclusively, by folk musicians of the mid-20th century, including most bluegrass guitarists. Today dreadnoughts are considered the standard guitar of bluegrass music, used by many bluegrass musicians to produce a signature sound of that genre.

Martin dreadnoughts manufactured prior to 1946 are highly desired by musicians due to their loud volume and exceptional tone due to the use of scalloped bracing. It is not uncommon for these guitars to sell for in excess of $30,000.

The Gibson Guitar Company‘s initial response to the Martin dreadnought was the round-shouldered J, which it introduced in 1934. It introduced its first square shouldered guitar, the Hummingbird, in 1960.

Since then, dreadnoughts have been made by nearly all of the major guitar manufacturers worldwide in both standard and more recently various single-cutaway forms.

Martin Dreadnought Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

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