The Martin D-28 and the Gibson J-55 acoustic guitars are classic examples of high quality mid-20th century acoustic guitars. The National Music Museum in Vermillion, South Dakota has one of each in its collections, both built in 1941. Arian Sheets, Curator of Stringed Instruments at the National Music Museum, spoke with SDPB about the design and construction of these guitars and offered an overview each company's history.
SDPB: Would you please just tell me about the Martin D-28?
Arian Sheets: Yes, the Martin D-28 that we are featuring today was built in 1941. It's in nearly mint, almost brand-new condition. It's hardly been played, but it has an extraordinary sound. It's really one of the best sounding instruments at the National Music Museum. The instrument has a spruce top and Rosewood, Brazilian Rosewood back and sides. Brazilian Rosewood is now considered an endangered species. So, it's a material that's not as readily available for contemporary guitars.
SDPB: Would I, if I could find a Martin with this Brazilian Rosewood on it, it would still be okay for me to buy it since it exists, or is this like ivory where you're just discouraged from buying it?
Arian Sheets: Well, instruments, vintage instruments made of Brazilian Rosewood can still be bought and sold in the United States. Various world governments have different rules as far as permitting and permission to own such materials, but it does get rather complicated. And so, there's always makers searching for alternatives that have the same playing qualities, the same sound qualities, but are more sustainable than some of the tropical hardwoods that have traditionally been used for guitars.
SDPB: Can you tell me a little bit about the Martin company?
Arian Sheets: The Martin company is really interesting. It's one of the oldest American companies still in business and it's still actually owned by the family that founded it, which is truly amazing. And Christian Friederich Martin came from a region of Eastern Germany called the Volksland in Upper Saxony. And there's various theories as to why he came to the United States. I think the most likely one was that the market here, it was a booming market where people were making a lot of money. It's where the people of his town, which were primarily in the musical instrument trade, where a lot of their exports were ending up. If he could go where the market was, he could cut out the middleman and run a business that focused on high-end production rather than commoditized generic guitars. And Martin really did from the beginning, it was apparent that he wanted to build very high-quality instruments made of the best materials.
And so, he came to the United States in 1833 and settled in New York. Within a few years, he decided he wanted an environment that was more akin to his homeland, which was a rural area and he moved to Nazareth, Pennsylvania. He followed the Mennonite religion, and a lot of his co-religionists were based there as well. And so ultimately that's where the Martin company, well, it's still there today and they still own the building that was built in the mid-19th century, though production is now in a modern factory. And so one thing that was very important about Martin, being who he was, really one of the first well-known American makers of fretted string instruments, is that he created models that blended aspects of various European schools of making. And the Martin company continued to innovate and create new models, the dreadnaught model, which is what the D-28 is, was originally developed in the 19 teens as an instrument for the Ditson company to be sold under their label.
And then Martin created its own version in the early 1930s. And then gradually changed aspects, changed the length of the neck that's 12 frets versus 14 frets where the body joins the neck. And that changed the shape of it in a visibly noticeable way. So, by the mid-30s, you had the 14 fret model, which is the one that is very familiar today. And part of the reason that the D-28 or the dreadnaught model looks just like a regular guitar is because it's the classic, it's the one on which all the others are based. And so, you get a very plain looking guitar. It doesn't necessarily look like anything special, but it's really the origin of that style of American guitar that just became so iconic. If people think of a guitar often they'll think of a dreadnaught in their head.
SDPB: Before we go over to the Gibson. Is there something else that you want to say about the guitar itself in terms of how it was designed for a certain tone or a certain sound?
Arian Sheets: Well, the dreadnaught guitar when it was first created was one of those, it was well, really was the largest guitar that Martin was making. It has relatively deep sides, relatively wide top. And so, it has a strong sound that projects well, and that contributed to its popularity among musicians. And the models that were made before, or just during World War II, are really some of the most coveted as far as the vintage guitar market. And so, we're very lucky to have essentially a perfectly preserved 1941 D-28. And this instrument both acoustics that we're hearing today were gifted to us by John Barmeyer, who was a collector in Georgia. And he really had amazing taste in guitars and collected, not just for beauty and condition and historical importance. But they're really all excellent playing instruments.
SDPB: If I were able to find one of these, the 1941 Martin D-28, what should I expect to pay?
Arian Sheets: Well, that really varies a lot depending on condition. And it's extremely rare to find one in as good a condition as this, basically untouched. I'm not sure exactly what the market is right now, but you could easily have a really fine example of a dreadnaught going, one of the higher models, the D-28 or the D-45 going for well over a hundred thousand.
SDPB: All right, let's switch over to the Gibson. How is it different than the Martin?
Arian Sheets: Well, the Gibson, it was an instrument that was made in Kalamazoo in the exact same year, in 1941. It was really neat that I was able to compare one-to-one an instrument made in the same year. It's a J-55 model. It's also a dreadnaught, but it's a slightly different shape. Gibson had a slightly different shape of model. And it also, the back and sides are made out of mahogany. So that contributes to a slightly different tone color. And you should be able to hear a difference in the sound between the Gibson J-55 and the Martin D-28. The Martin will have a brighter punchier sound. Gibson's tends to be a little bit darker. And it's really interesting to hear how different instruments that are of approximately the same model and same time period can sound.
SDPB: And tell me a bit about the Gibson company as well.
Arian Sheets: Well, the Gibson company was founded in 1902, and it was not actually founded by Orville Gibson himself. Orville Gibson was a really interesting character. He was an inventor, a musician. He worked in a variety of different capacities in Kalamazoo. We think he settled there at some point in the late 1870s. And he started building instruments at least by the 1880s. The earliest dated instrument that we have from him is 1894. And then the earliest dated mandolin that's known by him is 1896. And we actually have that in the National Music Museum as well. Orville had a patent that he applied for, for a very different style of instrument with an arch top and back and sides and neck carved from a big block of glued together pieces of wood, usually Walnut. And he was awarded this patent in 1898. And there were some investors in the area that basically licensed his patent and hired him to advise the factory.
But within the first few years, he was pushed, I don't know if pushed out is really the right word, his time at the company ended and they went in a different direction with more conventional construction, but still building arch top mandolins and guitars.
And early on in the company, the business model was largely based on teacher dealers, which is a system where they would recruit teachers of fretted stringed instruments in various towns, usually mandolin teachers, to sell Gibson instruments and they could sell on payment plans and whatnot. And this really contributed to a popularization of Gibson type mandolin orchestras. And by doing this, the teacher could have a whole ensemble of their students where all the instruments were of the same type, and it would look very stylish and modern compared to bowl back mandolins. And Gibson's early guitars were often intended to fit in with that mandolin orchestra.
Now, by the 20s, this was the period when they were starting to have more… there was more of a national audience. You had radio stars coming out and more touring performers. And so they got a little more in the business of having instruments associated with particular celebrity performers. And they also started building a wider variety of models. They came out with the famous five series F-5, L-5 that was arched top with F-holes, the basis of what later became the jazz guitar and the F-5 mandolin. And they also started making flat tops toward the end of the 20s, as opposed to the arch top model. And by the 30s, they were really becoming more of a conventional company with a wider line of instruments, including much more traditional flat top style guitars. And that's really where these Gibson version dreadnaughts come in. And they came to be a very big company at that point.
And they also got into electric guitars in the mid-30s, initially Hawaiian lap slide style. And then by '36, the F-Hole arch top electric guitar and so on. So, they were really covering a much broader scope of the market. They also did some interesting things where they, like Martin did, they would do house brands for various major distributors. So, they do purpose-built brands and instruments. So, they're a much more eclectic company I would say, than Martin was.
SDPB: And again, the value on this Gibson, if I could find one?
Arian Sheets: I'm not sure. Significantly less than a Martin, but it's also not really completely comparable because it's mahogany back and sides, which generally was a lower grade of instrument than the rosewood. But lower grade doesn't mean worse, it just means it's a different, it's a cheaper wood, but it has a different sound quality.
Listen to Michael Hilson, performer and Instructor of Guitar at the University of South Dakota, play a folk-ish riff, first on the Martin, then on the Gibson.
Listen to Michael Hilson play a blues riff, first on the Gibson, then on the Martin
