DR Centennial Acoustic Guitar

The Martin DR Centennial Dreadnought Acoustic guitar is a limited edition guitar specifically designed to commemorate the Centennial anniversary of the Dreadnought guitar. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is available for orders placed until December 30, 2016. After that, the guitar will be gone!

The Martin DR Centennial Dreadnought Acoustic guitar features an Adirondack Spruce VTS (Vintage Tone System) top. What is Martin’s Vintage Tone System? Martin Vintage Tone System (VTS) acts like a time machine, where Martin can target a specific decade of vintage instruments, and reproduce the color, cellular and moisture content of that decade. Working with scientists, Martin developed this process by having tops of vintage Martin guitars analyzed by some incredibly-powerful microscopes. The goal was to determine what makes vintage Martin guitars sound so incredible. After much analysis and trial and error, Martin was able to replicate their findings within a given decade. Thus, the Martin Vintage Tone (VTS) was created where tops and braces are temperature aged to reproduce the color, weight, and moisture content of various ten-year periods of Martin history.

This limited edition Martin DR Centennial Dreadnought features an Adirondack VTS top, with Sitka Spruce 5/16 in. forward-shifted scalloped braces. Most importantly, the Adirondack top has been temperature-aged to target the sound and look of a vintage 1930’s Martin guitar. With this instrument, you will get a vintage Martin sound, for a fraction of the price of the original instrument. And best yet, the DR Centennial Dreadnought will have and adjustable trussrod, Limited Lifetime Warranty, and all the contemporary playability of a new Martin guitar.

To round out the sound of the DR Centennial Dreadnought, the back and sides are constructed of solid East Indian Rosewood, attractively bound with an antique white binding. The solid neck is fashioned to a modified low oval, with a high performance neck taper, for smooth, effortless playability across all frets. The East Indian fingerboard is elegantly adorned with mother-of-pearl Style-18 position markers. And the guitar is sold complete with a hardshell case.

The Martin DR Centennial Dreadnought harnesses all the power of a vintage Martin Dreadnought with the playability of a new Martin guitar. Remember, this guitar is limited to orders placed by December 30, 2016, so place your order today to own a unique price of music history.

Includes a Martin 345 hardshell guitar case.

The History of the Dreadnought Guitar
The very first Dreadnought guitars were designed and crafted by C. F. Martin & Co. in 1916, but marketed in Boston and New York exclusively under the Oliver Ditson brand. Originally made for Hawaiian slide playing style, the very first Dreadnought made was a Model 222 shipped to Ditson in August of 1916. Designed to expand the size and tone of the acoustic guitar, it was the largest acoustic guitar ever build.

Where did the Martin get the name Dreadnought? Frank Henry Martin, the CEO of the Martin Company at the time, was an amateur historian. He had read about the design of the largest British battle ship of WW1, the HMS Dreadnought. He remembered the name of the “largest” ship in the British fleet, this was the “largest” guitar Martin had ever built, and the Dreadnought guitar was born.

The Dreadnought guitar was ahead of its time, and was considered to be “too loud.” Because of its “loud” tone, the Dreadnought guitar never came into vogue. And after the Oliver Ditson Co. went out of business in the mid-1920s, the Martin Dreadnought was discontinued.

With the stock market crash in 1929, musical styles began to change. Folk music became popular and as the genre became popular, the venues got larger and larger. The traditional parlor acoustic guitar was not powerful enough to fill the concert hall. At that time, players didn’t have the luxury of plugging into an amplifier or PA system. To ask for help, many players traveled to Nazareth, Pennsylvania to see if Martin could design a larger instrument that was powerful enough to be heard on stage. Martin’s craftsmen remembered that they had all the jigs and fixtures from their earlier Dreadnought invention of 1916; and in 1931, Martin introduced two new dreadnought models, the D-1 and D-2. They were an instant hit, and later in 1931, the D-1 became the Martin D-18, and the D-2 became the Martin D-28. Over the past 100 years, the Martin Dreadnought has become the industry standard for the acoustic guitar tone. The Martin Dreadnought has been seem more on TV, live performance, and heard on more recordings than any other guitar in musical history. The Martin Dreadnought has defined what an acoustic guitar can and should be, and subsequently, it has become the most popular acoustic guitar design in the world.