|
|
David Bromberg began playing
guitar while growing up in Tarrytown, New York. After graduation from high
school, he enrolled at Columbia University with thoughts of becoming a
musicologist, but the combination of his growing reputation as a player
and the thriving Greenwich Village folk scene caused him to drop out of
school to tackle music full time. His extraordinary talent and impressive
stylistic range quickly gained the attention of other musicians, including
Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Ringo Starr, Reverend Gary Davis and Chubby Checker,
all of whom brought him in as a backup musician on their recordings.
As David Bromberg's reputation grew, so did the
notariety of his unique guitar. Around 1964, Marc Silber at Fretted
Instruments in Greenwich Village took in trade a Martin F-9 archtop on
which the original top had been broken and replaced with one made of plywood.
With advice from Jon Lundberg, one of the most knowledgeable guitar dealers
of the era, he ordered a spruce top from Martin and had it braced (as a
flattop) and installed by repairman Mario Martello and French polish finished
by Eugene Clark. The guitar turned out beautifully and sounded great. Soon
after, repairman Matt Umanov made a similar conversion for Bromberg but
with a long-scale neck and inlays reminiscent of the Style 42 Martins Bromberg
already owned. |
Bromberg's instrument became so famous that Martin created
a new size of flattop guitar – the M (or 0000) – in its image in 1977.
Tonally powerful, balanced and well-defined, the Martin M went on to become
a favorite among folk and studio musicians. To honor David Bromberg’s musical
contributions and his influential guitar, C. F. Martin is proud to introduce
the M-42 David Bromberg Signature Edition! |
