Martin Terz Guitars
The terz guitar was made popular in the 1950's and 1960's by the country singer Marty Robbins who played a Martin 5-18 terz guitar, but they were also popular more than a century earlier.
C.F. Martin's mentor Johann Georg Stauffer of Vienna made beautiful terz guitars, and Martin built them from his earliest days in New York.
Terz guitars are typically size 5, but more importantly have a short scale of 22 inches or less to be tuned a minor third higher than the standard tuning, the equivalent of three frets higher.
c. 1840 Martin Terz Guitar
This guitar was likely built at close to the same time as the Goncalo Alves "Tigerwood" Martin and Coupa above but with three differences. It is a smaller "Terz" guitar, tuned a minor third above standard pitch, it was built with a bird's eye maple veneer over mahogany rather than Goncoa Alves, and it has a single "Martin, New York" stamp in place of the "Martin & Coupa" label. While the guitars sold by John Coupa in New York have the Martin & Coupa label and no Martin stamps, guitars of the same era sold directly by Martin, from Cherry Hill, Pennsylvania at the time, have Martin stamps on the headstock and upper back.
The dimensions are:
22 1/8" scale
18 1/4" body length
11 3/8" body width
32" total length
3 3/8" depth at upper bout
3 3/4" depth at lower bout
1 3/4" nut width
2 5/16" string spacing
4 29/32" wide bridge
6" x 1 7/8" x 3" headstock
3 1/4" soundhole
Ebony pegs
Ice Cream Cone heel
Black binding
Broad foot under wide rounded neck block
Three rounded back braces at 4", 3 3/4", 3 3/4"
Three strut fan braces
Bridge plate
Illustrated in "Inventing the Martin Guitar"
1874 Martin 5-20 Terz Guitar
This Style 5-20 Terz guitar was built in 1874, after Martin had established defined set styles..
This is one of two 5-20 guitars built in 1874
Four 5-20 were produced the next year, eleven in the decade.
A total of 17 terz guitars of all styles were produced in the decade.
|
YEAR |
5-20 |
5-26 |
5-27 |
5-40 |
|
1874 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
1875 |
4 |
1 |
|
|
|
1876 |
1 |
|
|
3 |
|
1877 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1878 |
|
|
|
|
|
1879 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1880 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
1881 |
|
|
|
|
|
1882 |
|
|
|
|
|
1883 |
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
1884 |
|
1 |
|
|
|
Total |
11 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
Starting in 1886, Martin guitars are consistently dated in pencil under the top and in most years signed off with the initials of either Frank Henry Martin or the shop foreman. This guitar is from one brief period earlier that Martins are consistently dated with the year of the build inside. In this case, the "A.D." is not a supervisor's initials, but stands for ""The Year of Our Lord", Anno Domini".
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