C. F. Martin & Co.

US · est. 1833 · 2 models

C. F. Martin & Co. was founded by Christian Frederick Martin in New York in 1833 and has been based in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, since 1839, making it one of the oldest continuously operating instrument makers in the United States. It builds steel-string flat-top acoustics almost exclusively. Martin developed X-bracing in the nineteenth century and popularized the dreadnought, which became the standard large steel-string body shape. Models are named by body size and trim style — the D-28, D-18, OM-28 and 000-28 among the best known — and the guitars are strongly associated with bluegrass, folk, country and singer-songwriter playing.