Inventing the American guitar : the pre-Civil War innovations of C.F. Martin and his contemporaries / edited by Robert Shaw and Peter Szego ; essays by David Gansz, Richard Johnston, David LaPlante, Arian Sheets, and James Westbrook.

Personal Name: Shaw, Robert, 1951- editor of compilation.

Note:Foreword / by Jayson Kerr Dobney -- Preface / by Peter Szego -- Timeline : 1796-1867 -- Part I. Austro-German style. Johann Georg Stauffer and the Viennese Guitar / James Westbrook ; C . F. Martin's "Homeland and the Vogtland Trade / Arian Sheets ; C.F. Martin in New York, 1833-1839 / Richard Johnston ; Guitar labels, 1825-1850 -- Part II. Spanish style. The Spanish guitar in the United States before 1850 / David Gansz ; The Cadiz guitar and its influence on C.F. Martin / David LaPlante ; C.F. Martin in Pennsylvania, 1839-1850 : a period of transition / Richard Johnston ; Evolution of the top bracing of C.F. Martin's guitars ; Madame de Goni and the Spanish-American guitar / David Gansz ; The Spanish guitar as adopted by James Ashborn / David Gansz ; Wooden cases for James Ashborn guitars -- Part III. American style. C.F. Martin in Pennsylvania, 1850-1867 : fine tuning / Richard Johnston ; Martin's evolution to an American guitar / Richard Johnston ; Early Martin guitar design and construction : what survived / Richard Johnson -- Timeline : 1833-present -- Measured drawing : Austro-German style Martin guitar -- Measured drawing : Spanish style Martin guitar -- Marquetry sample card -- Glossary.

Note:Inventing the American Guitar is the first book to describe the early history of American guitar design in detail. It tells the story of how a European instrument was transformed into one with all of the design and construction features that define the iconic American flat-top guitar. This transformation happened within a mere 20 years, a remarkably brief period. The person who dominates this history is C. F. Martin Sr., America's first major guitar maker and the founder of the Martin Guitar Company, which continues to produce outstanding flat-top guitars today. After emigrating from his native Saxony to New York in 1833, Martin quickly established a guitar making business, producing instruments modeled after those of his mentor, Johann Stauffer of Vienna. By the time he moved his family and business to rural Pennsylvania in 1839, Martin had absorbed and integrated the influence of Spanish guitars he had seen and heard in New York. In Pennsylvania, he evolved further, inventing a uniquely American guitar that was fully developed before the outbreak of the Civil War. Inventing the American Guitar traces Martin's evolution as a craftsman and entrepreneur and explores the influences and experiments that led to his creation of the American guitar that is recognized and played around the world today.

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