Pearls of Wisdom
Pearl Inlay on Martin Guitars
Until 1902, the Style 42 was the most embellished guitar in the Martin line. It was richly inlaid with pearl on all top borders, including the soundhole and the borders of the fretbooard extension.
Until close to the turn of the century, no guitar in the Martin product line, including the Style 42, had pearl or other adornment on the fingerboard, or on the headstock.
Martin Style 42
The Style 40 Martin was similar to the 42 with the except for the lack of pearl inlay surrounding the fretboard extension.
This early Style was revived in the 1920's for the 00-40H, a Hawaiian version of Martin's 12 fret 00.
1934 Martin 00-40H
The Style 27 was the least expensive pearl inlayed Martin, with pearl on the rosette only.
The Style 30 also has a pearl inlayed rosette. Here you can see a Style 27 with a Style 30, which appear to be nearly identical. In fact, in some years, the only difference between the style 27 and 30 were the tuners, which were brass on the Style 27, and silver plated on the Style 30.
The Style 34 was similar to a style 30, with pearl rosette, but with the addition of an ivory bridge.
Here's a more unusual Style 34, with a unique wider band of pearl that we've never seen on another Martin.
In 1902, Martin was said to have built three custom ordered Style 42 guitars, labeled 00-42S, which were adorned with pearl on the back and sides in addition to the top. This style guitar with added pearl trim was later adopted formally into the Martin product line, and called the Style 45. Martin actually built two guitars with the same serial number, so four guitar were produced with added trim in 1902, three of which had a fancy tree of life inlay on the fretboard, and one of which had snowflake inlays closer to what would be seen on the production Style 45 Martins.
1902 Martin 00-42S
Martin later added inlays to two additional frets.
Style 45, 1919, with inlays added at the third and 17th frets.
The Style E, designed for guitar teacher William Foden, is unique in having pearl on the top border with no pearl surrounding the fretbiard extension, like a Style 40, yet having pearl on the borders of the back and sides, like a Martin Style 45.
Martin 1913 Foden Special Style E
This custom ordered Style 42 from 1902 was the first Martin to have this particular "fern" style headstock inlay, which in recent years has been copied and made available on certain custom Martin guitars as the "alternate torch"
1902 Martin 00-42S
The "fern" inlay was replaced on Martin Style 45 guitars by what has become known as the "torch" or "flower pot".
1919 Martin 0-45
And this was replaced on Martin Style 45 guitars by a second somewhat simplified version of the "torch" or "flower pot", which was designed for the solid headstock on the 14 fret OM.
1930 Martin OM-45 DeLuxe
The pearl "C F Martin" logo appeared on the C-2 and C-3 archtop in 1932, and was then used on the solid headstock Style 45 Martins starting in 1934.
1932 Martin C-2S 12 String
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