Long
before C.F. Martin came to New York from Markneukirchen,
Saxony and established his music store on the lower East Side
of New York City,
Martin
is said to have apprenticed in the acclaimed workshop of
Johann Georg Stauffer of Vienna, builder of the Stauffer
"Legnani" Model,
perhaps
the most modern of European
guitars.
Stauffer
guitars typically have a thin, wide "figure 8" shaped body
with an upper bout more equal in size to the lower bout,
also seen on the earliest
Martin
guitars, as opposed to the guitars of
Spain, with a smaller upper bout on a narrow body, as later
adopted by Martin and still prominent today.
The
unique one of a kind "Renaissance" Style Stauffer guitar
seen here, with a body that flows seamlessly into the neck,
is clearly the model for the
unique
one
of a kind "Renaissance" Style
Martin guitar seen below, so we're lucky that both have
survived.
Ironically,
early Martin guitars are known for their "Stauffer
headstock", a distinctive headstock
with six tuning machines in line on a single side of the
headstock,
as emulated today on Fender guitars, and
which were referred to by Martin as "Vienna
Gears". In actual fact, more Stauffer
guitars have a paddle
shaped
headstock with ebony friction pegs than what has
come top be known as the "Stauffer" head.
Even the style of the Stauffer label has
been copied in Martin guitars...
