Though piezo technology had been known since the 1800's, it had not been applied to guitars until the late 1960's when the Prismatone Bridge pickup was offered on guitars made by The Harmony Company for Baldwin classical guitars.
By the 1970's Ovation Guitars offered their under saddle piezo pickup. However back in 1959, guitar player had to rely on electro magnetic pickups or microphones to amplify their guitar sound.
The Rowe DeArmond Company (now known as Rowe Indusrries) of Toledo, Ohio was one of the preeminent supplier of guitar pickups. The first acoustic electric Martin guitars came with DeArmond single coil pickups mounted on top of the instruments soundboard.
The original instruments were the D-18E, the D-28E and the 00-18E, and were traditional Martin acoustic guitars that came with added single coil electric pickups, wiring, a selector switch, and volume/tone controls on the instrument's lower bout.
The D-18E and the D-28E both bore two chrome sided pickups which were typical of the day with large polepieces on one side and smaller ones on the other. These were replete with twin volume and twin tone knobs and a three-way pickup control switch on the top upper bout.
The pickguard needed to be cut to maintain the pickup rings.
The 00-18E had only one similar DeArmond that was mounted at the bottom of the neck. There was a single volume and tone controls for this model.
All of these guitars had the same accoutrements as their acoustic cousins. All had a spruce top. The D-18E and the 00-18E had mahogany back and sides and the D-28E had rosewood back and sides. The D-28E had gold plated Grover Roto tuners.
In reviewing these guitars I am shocked to learn the current asking prices are between $25,000 and $50,000 for these vintage instruments.
Besides the pickups the biggest difference between the electric and acoustic models of this series was, due to the pickups mounting, the electrics were made with transverse bracing on the top. This changed the sound when the guitar was played acoustically. Subsequently they sound thinner than a typical X braced Martin.
Although Martin guitars did not become expensive until around 1973, electric guitar pickups that are screwed into a Martin acoustic guitar and holes drilled into the top along with ladder bracing in my opinion probably had somewhat of a diminished effect on the instruments acoustic sound.
The D-18E was discontinued within a year. The D-28E and the 00-18E were produced through 1964.
However, in 1961 Martin introduced a line up of thinline electric guitars.
So in 1961 prototypes of a Martin thinline guitar was being developed. These guitars were available for purchase as of 1962. They were designated models F-50, F-55 and F-65.
The F series designation was a holdover from Martin's earlier archtop series of guitars built starting in 1935, The F-1, the F-5, F-7, and F-9. These describe Martin instruments with a 16 inch lower bout width, 4.125 inch. body depth, 20.125 inch. body length, and 24.9 inch. scale. Martin did build other archtop models, including the models R and model C archtops, which had different measurements.
The bodies on these electric guitars measured slightly less than 2” in thickness. The tops and backs were maple plywood with the tops being bound. All had a modern shape; less width on the top bout, while the lower bout was wider. The cutaways on these were different than any guitar of the day as they were wide and stood at almost a right angle from the neck and had a modified Florentine shape. The necks were glued into the instrument and processed a 20-fret rosewood fingerboard which joined the body at the 14th fret. The necks, and headstocks looked like they could have been the same ones used on a Martin acoustic guitar. They probably were.
These instruments had the typical Martin necks shaped with 3 plus 3 style tuners. Another unusual feature on this series was the use of a clear Plexiglas adjustable bridge. Like most archtops, the pickguard was elevated.
The F-50 bore a single humbucking pickup at the bottom of the neck and a single volume and tone control on the lower bout.
The F-55 and F-65 included a neck and bridge DeArmond Humbucking pickups and a toggle switch mounted on the upper treble bout. They also had dual volume and tone controls.
The F-50 and F-55 models both had trapeze tail pieces with a large M cut into the base that was mounted above the guitar’s top. However a Bigsby vibrato unit was an option.
The F-65 had a double cutaway and was offered with at trapeze tailpiece or a Bigsby made vibrato that had the Martin M in the base.
All of these guitars were produced from 1962 through 1965.
These guitars could be purchased with amplifiers which bore the Martin logo.
These were designated Model 110 and 112T, possibly due to the speaker size and the fact they came with a tremolo circuit.
The Martin Model 110 was a small class A amplifier that produced 5 to 12 watts of power through a single 6V6 power tube. Controls included volume and tone.
The Martin Model 112T was the larger amplifier. It had a 12" speaker and delivered 12 to 15 watts of power through a pair of 6V6 tube, and 3 12AX7 preamp tubes. One of these tubes probably powered the tremolo circuit.
The Martin Model 110 and 112T were both manufactured by the DeArmond Company. In fact, DeArmond built this same amp calling it the DeArmond R15T but for the color of the covering and grill cloth these amps were virtually identical.
By late 1965 the Martin F series was discontinued due to lack of interest. However Martin stayed the course and created a new series of electrics dubbed the GT series that became available the following year.
The two models were available this time, the
GT-70 and GT-75. These were thinline guitars with two F-holes and a neck that joined the body at the 15th fret. The 22 fret rosewood fretboard was bound. The guitars inlays had dot position markers and the headstock was redesigned and bound.
The big difference in these instruments was the neck and headstock shape. The neck was a bolt-on style, while the headstock now had a more modern shape. These guitars also sported truss rods. Martin acoustic guitars would not have this feature until 1985.
The GT-70 had a single cutaway on the lower bout. The upper bout had an inward curve into the neck. As with its predecessor, this model bore two DeArmond humbucking pickups. The neck joined the guitar at the 16th fret. The tailpiece was a Bigsby with a large V in its base. The bridges were now made of chrome and adjustable.
The GT-75 was similarly equipped to the G-70; however there were twin cutaways on the upper bout.
Martin also made 12 string versions of the GT-75 sans the Bigsby. These guitars bore the Martin M trapeze tailpiece. All models were available in black or burgundy finishes.
Martin's foray into building inhouse electric guitars ended in 1968. However the Japanese company, Teisco Gen Gakki, began building "replicas" of the Martin GT series, which they sold under the Liberty logo.
This occurred around the time that Kawai purchased Teisco. Former employees that were not included in the sale started the Teisco Gen Gakki company and built house-brand guitars and basses. Some of those house brands did not sell, and the manufacture needed to use up parts. One of these house brands was Liberty. These electric guitars were labeled as MT-280 or Martin Type 280. Compared to the Martin instruments, the quality was lacking.
Along with the new guitars, Martin offered a new amplifier designated the SS-140. In keeping up with popular amplifier designs of the era, this amp was the size of a refrigerator and is assumed to have 140 watts of power. As a kid, I recall lugging those big heavy amplifiers around. Thankfully some brilliant and unknown engineer discovered that amps could be “miked” and their sound could be run through the public address system eliminating the need to drag around amplifiers that weighed 200 pounds and up.
Around 1970 Martin followed the pack and outsourced a less expensive version of its acoustic guitar under the Sigma brand. By 1973 Martin added solidbody and hollow body electric guitars to its lineup under the Sigma and SS logo made by the Japanese company Tokai.
They were copies of well known electric guitar shapes with a self-styled headstock. Their sales were dismal and discontinued in the mid 1970’s.
Then in 1974 Martin went back to producing a domestic series of electric guitars designated the E series. The headstock was sort of a variation of the old Stauffer Martin design with the exception the tuners were 3 per side. These guitars were actually built at the Martin facility in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
There were 3 versions of the guitar; the E-18, the EM-18 and the EB-18. All were double cutaway guitars with the lower treble bout offset from the upper treble bout. The horns were rounded off. The natural lacquered bodies were built to resemble the natural wood guitars of the day, using a laminate of maple and rosewood and mahogany giving not only a striped effect, but the appearance of a neck-through-body guitar, although the necks were glued into a pocket in the body.
Later models eliminated the mahogany. The Martin brand was stamped into the back of the body. The necks had 22 frets. A CFM script logo was decaled on the head. The tuners were Sperzels.
The E-18 and the EM-18 were similar guitars but for the pickups and electronics. The E-18 came with twin DiMarzio pickups and a toggle switch to put them in or out of phase. The neck pickup was a PAF style and the bridge pickup was a DiMarzio super distortion. Both had brass nuts and Leo Quan bridges.
The EM-18 had twin Mighty Mite pickups and a 3 way switch that could put the pickups in or out of phase and also split the coils.
The EB-18 was a bass guitar with an approximate 34” scale and Grover tuners. The guitar was produced with a variety of pickups.
By 1980 Martin added a model designated the E-28. This was a fancier version of the E-18. The nut was made of Micarta. The fretboard was ebony instead of rosewood. The neck was extended to 24 frets giving it a two octave range.
Some of the later models had sunburst finishes. The headstock was overlaid with ebony. An active circuit was added.
An EB-28 bass was added to the line-up during this period with similar accoutrements. This had DiMarzio P-bass and J-bass pickups.
All models came with a molded plastic case. The entire line was gone by 1982.
Like the Little Engine that Could, Martin kept chugging along. And in their final attempt in the electric guitar market the turned to Korea. A line of guitars under the Stinger brand was produced. Much like the failed Sigma/SS series these were Asian copies of traditional US guitars. They additionally added a line of small amplifiers as well.
These products were geared to beginning guitar students and all had a low retail price. They were sold under the corporate name Martin Telemarketing.
The Stinger series lasted until 1990 when Martin came to its senses and went back to what they do better than any other company - building high quality acoustic guitars.
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