I'm pleased to announce my new C.F. Martin & Co. Custom Shop D14 exceptionally flamed Koa acoustic guitar. This guitar was 6 months and 1 day in the making and easily lives up to the long wait! When I ordered this guitar I focused on woods that will be very limited, if not impossible to obtain around 10 to 20 years from now. When you spend this much on a guitar, you should be thinking about the investment possibilities as well as the tonal possibilities.
I also wanted a Martin that no other person has. For a fact, I now have that Martin. This is the first Martin with a 9 piece neck. Yes, the neck is 9 pieces. Maple, Koa, Walnut, Koa, Maple, Koa, Walnut, Koa Maple. The Claro walnut rosette is the same size as the rosette that you find on the Martin OMC Cherry (Which I also own.)
Now onto the specifications:
Top and Sides: Exceptionally Flamed Koa
Back: Exceptionally Flamed Koa with a highly flamed European Maple wedge
Mahogany Dovetail front block and mahogany rear block
Sitka unscalloped braces
Grade 4 Ebony Fretboard (25.4" Scale)
Grade 4 Ebony belly bridge with black pins (white dots)
Claro Walnut binding and purfling with maple fiber (dyed black) inlay on the binding and purfling
Abalone C.F. Martin Inlay on the Performing Artist style squared off headstock. Complete with exceptionally flamed Koa headplate
Gotoh Chrome tuners with ebony tuner knobs
Bone nut and bridge saddle
Now, onto some pictures. This level of flame is very hard to capture in
pictures. I have not been able to obtain pictures that live up to the
quality of this finely crafted instrument. However, I'm looking into
professional pictures. If I go that route, I'll be sure to update this
post.
You might notice that there is a complete lack of inlay on the fretboard. I have contacted Aaron VanWhy to complete some inlay on the fretboard for me. Aaron was recently promoted from the Martin Custom shop to a management position so I was not sure that he would complete the inlay on my custom guitar. Aaron does
custom inlays for guitars and just about any other thing you could possibly inlay. Since he's the best inlay artist that Martin has, I'm taking the guitar directly to him for my inlay work.