After the Ditson Co. folded in 1931, C. F. Martin & Co. had to figure out what to do with the last of the special line of guitars they had been building for their once largest customer. Very few Dreadnoughts were built for Ditson, but the company still thought these large guitars should have a place in their line. After initially building the D-1 and D-2 exclusively for the Chicago Musical Instrument Co., Martin decided to give all their dealers a shot at selling Dreadnought models, so the D-18

Here at Martin, we set-out to craft our own strings so each strum, each pick, each riff creates a difference you can hear. | Martin Guitar

Whenever Christian F. Martin IV hears a Martin guitar, whether it’s the timeworn piece Willie Nelson’s nearly strummed a hole through, or a customer nervously picking a D-300 that looks like fine art and costs $300,000, he beams with pride. Like a father. Martin is the executive chairman of C.F. Martin & Co., the sixth generation of Martins to create arguably the world’s most-renowned acoustic guitars out of Nazareth, Northampton County. Founded in New York City in 1833 by German luthier Christi