Electrifying!
Martin Adds Their First Real Electric Guitars
In 1961, shortly after C.F. Martin's son Frank had become Sales Director of the company, Martin made the move to capitalize on the growth of Rock N' Roll, and produced their first fully electric guitars.
In 1959, following the success of early Rock N' Roll and Elvis, Martin introduced Martin flat top models with DeArmond pickups, as well as volume and tone controls on the top.
The D-18E was a D-18 with two pickups, a pickup selector switch, one volume control, and two tone controls on the top. With heavier bracing and all this hardware on the top, as you can imagine these were not the best sounding Martin guitars.
After a single prototype (#163746) stamped on September 22, 1958, Shop Order #803, about three hundred were produced in 1959 before the Model was discontinued in the same year. Now this model is highly desirable, and examples are expensive, due to the fame brought by Kurt Cobain, who had played one on "MTV Unplugged".
Along with two more of the D-18E (#160164-65), Martin stamped the first two D-28E (16066-67) on January 26, 1959. The D-28E was a D-28 with two pickups, a pickup selector switch, two volume controls, and two tone controls on the top. It also had gold plated hardware.
After producing 175 D-28E in 1959, Martin built only one D-28E in the following year and none in 1961. After building a total of only 61 more in the next three years, this model was discontinued in 1964. Martin only sold a total of 238 of the D-28E.
Martin stamped more of the two Dreadnaught models and also added the 00-18E at the same time on March 12, 1959 (#166839-50). The 00-18E was a 00-18 with one pickup, one volume control, and one tone control on the top. A second pickup was also an option before the model was discontinued in 1964.
Only the 00-18E is listed in either the 1962 or 1964 Martin Catalog, so apparently Martin had already given up hope for the D-28E, but the 00-18E and D-28E were both still listed in the price list through 1965, so there must have been guitars in inventory to unload.
In 1961, Martin built their first prototypes of a fully electric guitar.
Martin thought they might do better competing with the likes of Gibson and Fender by producing a fully electric guitar, as Guild had done in the previous year with their Starfire electric.
Martin built three prototypes of the F-50 (#179828-30) in Shop order #914 stamped on September 27, 1961. Twelve more were built in 1961 (180636-456), stamped on November 17, in Shop Order # 985 before they went into greater production in 1962.
The F-50 was a single cutaway guitar with one DeArmond pickup a two inch deep laminated wood body, one pickup, one volume control, and one tone control on the top, and an adjustable plexiglass bridge. Very few of the original plexiglass bridges survived without breaking.
A total of 519 F-50 were built before being discontinued with just a single guitar being produced in 1965.
Martin built three prototypes of the F-55 (#179831-33) in Shop order #915 stamped on September 27, 1961. Twelve more were built in 1961 (#180684-95), stamped on November 27, in Shop Order # 986, before they went into greater production in 1962.
The F-55 was essentially the same guitar with with two pickups, a pickup selector switch, two volume controls, and two tone controls on the top.
A total of 665 F-55 were built before being discontinued in 1965.
Martin built three prototypes of the F-65 (#179834-36) in Shop order #916 stamped on September 27, 1961. Twelve more were built in 1961 (#180672-83), stamped on November 21, in Shop Order # 987, before they went into greater production in 1962.
The F-65 was a double cutaway version of the F-55.
A total of 566 F-55 were built before being discontinued in 1965.
1961 Martin F-50 Guitar
Shop order #985
stamped on November 17, 1961
Serial #180644
This guitar is one of the initial batch of twelve produced in 1961.
1961 Martin F-65 "Prototype" Guitar
Shop order #916
stamped on September 27, 1961
Serial #179835
This guitar is one of the initial three prototypes of the "top of the line" double cutaway F-65 produced in 1961.
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