NAMM: Mayer’s $14k guitar
Limited to 25, aimed at collectors’ market
Guitarist John Mayer stopped in to the Media Preview Day at the NAMM show to show off his new collaboration with Martin Guitars – an extremely limited $14,000 ‘cowboy’ acoustic guitar. Reminiscent of the old parlor guitars that Martin made in the 1930′s, the 00-45SC is a 12-fret beauty that Mayer said is the sort of guitar he’d picture a modern day cowboy playing.
According to the Martin press release, the 00-45SC John Mayer Edition is constructed with back, sides and head plate of select premium quality cocobolo wood, a member of the genuine rosewood species prized for its rich reddish-orange and black grain striations. The soundboard is book matched from Martin’s highest grade of Adirondack spruce, prized for crystalline clarity and powerful projection. The slotted tapered headstock with hand-squared slots is equipped with Waverly Sloane bronze engraved side-mount tuning machines with ivoroid buttons. Style 45 vintage appointments are executed in rare richly-colored blue paua shell, with delicate snowflake fingerboard position markers. The tastefully ornate 1902 alternate torch design graces the headstock, also executed in blue paua.
Martin’s standard 00 12-fret body size has long been revered for its’ sweet airy depth of tone, but this special model has an even deeper sound. Aside from its vintage hide glue Custom Shop construction and hand sculpted Adirondack spruce bracing, the 00-45SC John Mayer Edition bears unique attributes never before seen on a Martin guitar. Style 45 top inlay typically circumscribes the tongue of the fingerboard as it extends toward the rosette. This new design provides for pearl edging along the sides of the fingerboard that extend directly with miter joints into the rosette. The inlay motif of the three-ring Style 45 rosette is perfectly continued as a matching inlay on the higher surface of the fingerboard, giving the illusion of complete contiguous circles.
This diminutive stunner comes at a steep price, however. With only 25 being made – and two of those going to Mayer himself – the 00-45SC John Mayer Edition will carry a suggested price of $14,000.
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