00:00Well, I actually met a woman in Nashville, Lynn, and she works with Martin. And she reached out
00:18to me and she was like, do you ever play Martin guitars? And I was, I said, yeah, like I started
00:23out when I was 12, I like saved up $2,000 just from like busking and playing gigs and asking
00:29my grandparents for money at Christmas and stuff. And I saved up a bunch of cash and I went into the
00:35music store where my dad used to teach and they had this Martin HD 28V, which was like Adirondack
00:42spruce top. And, um, I was coveting this guitar and I always really wanted a Martin. Um, I started
00:48out on a baby Taylor guitar and then I, um, kind of graduated up to Blue Ridge guitars, which are
00:52really, they sound great too, but I coveted Martins cause that's what all my favorite guitar players
00:57had. Um, so I, that was like my first nice guitar that I ever bought as a kid. And I
01:02saved, saved up for years to be able to buy it. Um, and then I bought like a vintage Martin
01:07when I went to college and, um, it was a 48, I think, D18. Um, so that was another Martin
01:14that I loved, but then I sold that one and then I gave, or I sold both of them. Actually,
01:18I sold my first ever Martin to my aunt. She wanted, she wanted one. Um, and now it's actually
01:23in the musical instrument museum in Phoenix, Arizona. And then the old vintage Martin I
01:29had, I toured with it for a while and it was really hard to tour with. I felt like I
01:33was kind of damaging it cause of all the travel and the wear and tear and you go to different
01:38climates and, um, those old guitars don't have an easy way to adjust the action cause
01:42they don't have truss rods. So eventually it just wasn't practical and I kind of needed
01:45the money. So I sold it. And, um, and ever since then I've been playing different guitars
01:50and I've wanted a Martin again. So I, I told all that to Lynn and she set me up with the
01:57Martin folks, Thomas, who runs the company and Rory who kind of helps, um, you know, make
02:03different models of guitars and plan them out. And he's like a guitar genius. So I talked
02:07to them about building this guitar, which is a custom. Um, it's Madagascar Rosewood on
02:14the back and sides. They sent me a bunch of pictures of different wood and I really liked
02:17this cool stripe that this one had down the middle and, um, yeah, it has my MT logo. When
02:25I made a record, um, a few years ago, Crooked Tree, the guy who designed it, um, Nick, he
02:31made this cool like MT logo out of branches. So I sent that to them cause we were kind of
02:36going back and forth about inlay and then they had the idea to make these branches that
02:40get more and more crooked. And that kind of goes with my song Crooked Tree. And I went
02:46with this sunburst, which we were talking about earlier. It's kind of unusual to see
02:49on a Martin. It's sort of like a J45 type sunburst. Um, but I just kind of like the dark
02:56sunburst. I first got that. I asked for that on a different guitar. Um, this Thompson guitar
03:02that I have, and then I just, it sort of became my thing. Now I have like three guitars with
03:06this really dark sunburst, which I think is pretty. And yeah, I'm trying to think if there
03:10are any other specifications, the neck size, I guess I went with, um, sort of a V shaped
03:16neck and 11, one and 11 sixteenth size, which is what I usually use. Um, but yeah, I got
03:24it last summer. I was playing in Pennsylvania near where the Martin factory is. The factory
03:29is in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. I remember I went there as a teenager with my dad. I think
03:33we were visiting relatives in the Midwest and we took like a little side trip to go see the
03:38Martin factory and it was so cool. And, um, so they came down to the show that we played
03:43in Pennsylvania last summer and brought me my guitar and I got to play it there at the
03:47show for the first time, which was really exciting. Yeah. Do you have pickups? I do.
03:52Yeah. Um, right now this one has an LR bags, hi-fi, um, pickup. I think it's just the hi-fi.
03:59So they have a hi-fi and a hi-fi duet. That one has a mic in it, but I think this is just
04:03a straight pickup. Um, and yeah, I usually, I've been playing this on stage for when I
04:09go to claw hammer guitar, which is kind of a percussive style of guitar playing. And this
04:14pickup and guitar combo sounds pretty good for that.
04:17Do you use mic as well on stage for the guitar?
04:21Yeah. So in my other guitar, which I play on like the flat picking stuff, I actually just
04:26got a microphone put inside the guitar and, um, it was kind of a complicated process. So now
04:32I have a pickup in that guitar under the saddle and a mic, um, kind of in the sound hole. And
04:37then the mic goes through and I have the pickup jack here. And then on the other guitar, there's
04:41actually another hole drilled in the side where the mic comes out. So I can run two lines
04:46out of that guitar. And, um, the pickup's really helpful because it doesn't feed back. You
04:50can get it really loud. So no matter where we're playing, if we're playing in like a small
04:55club where the audience is really noisy or if we're in like a big arena, I can still get the
04:59guitar at the right volume and I don't have to worry about feedback or it sounding washy.
05:04Um, but then the mic helps for making it sound like a natural sounding guitar. I really
05:09pickups to me, like, I don't love how they sound, but they're like a necessary thing for
05:14the live show. Um, so I like having the option to do either one. Um, and then I just got that
05:20put in my other guitars. So I'm still kind of figuring out, figuring out if I want to put
05:25it in this one or like start putting it in all my guitars. It's a little bit of a commitment
05:28because you're literally drilling a new hole into the wood of your guitar. So I haven't
05:33put it in this one yet, but we'll see if I ended up, end up really liking it in my other
05:36guitar. I might. Um, but yeah.
05:39Do you have preferences for, um, woods for the back and sides? I mean, some people love
05:46mahogany. Some people love rosewood. Do you sit in either camp or?
05:50Yeah, I kind of, to me, it really just depends on the guitar itself. This is the only one
05:55I have with this Madagascar rosewood. I think it sounds really cool, but I didn't really know
06:00what to expect because all my other guitars are either mahogany or Indian rosewood. Um,
06:05but yeah, I don't know how to describe this, like, compared to those two. It sounds different
06:10to me.
06:12I guess it's more kind of in that rosewood category where it's super resonant. The mahogany,
06:17um, is a little drier and, um, kind of, I don't know, like the notes are more focused,
06:25but the rosewood to me has more overtones, um, which can be good depending on the situation.
06:30Um, so I kind of like having some of each, I guess.
06:33I always think that rosewood's got its own reverb built in.
06:37Yeah, totally.
06:38There's, there's more going around the note, you know.
06:42Exactly. Yeah. That's kind of what I was like trying to describe. It's almost like
06:45one sounds like a piano, like rosewood is more piano-like to me because you have all these other
06:49reverberant notes around it. Um, I actually just bought a 1943 D18 that's mahogany and I love it.
06:58It's like, it's a mahogany guitar, but it sort of has some of that resonance of a rosewood guitar and
07:05I'm debating if I want to take it out on tour. I bought it to be like my studio guitar for when I
07:10record my albums or go play on other people's records. Um, cause you can't really beat the
07:16sound of like an old guitar, especially those older Martins are so amazing. Um, but yeah,
07:22I did just put a pickup in it. I didn't drill a lot of times with the old guitars, you'll have to drill
07:27this part bigger if you want to put a pickup in. And I didn't, I got a small jack, but apparently
07:33those little ones aren't very sturdy. So I'm like, if I bring it on tour, it's probably just gonna break
07:38and I'll have to figure out something else for the pickup. But, um, yeah.
