CHRIS MARTIN: I’m Chris Martin. I’m C. F. Martin IV. I’m the sixth generation of Martins who run my family’s business, the Martin Guitar Company.

Actually, this is our 175th anniversary. The company was founded by my great, great, great grandfather in 1833. He emigrated to the United States after studying guitar building in Vienna, Austria with renowned guitar builder named Johann Stauffer, worked in Manhattan for six years, moved to Pennsylvania in 1839. His son joined the business in the late 1800s. The guitars became more and more Martinized as time went by, and we developed a very traditional rectangular headstock, and at the turn of the century is this guy, Frank H. Martin, my great grandfather, joined the company, and he had two sons, one of whom was my grandfather.

In the 1920s, we built a lot of ukuleles. We also began the transformation from gut to steel string, and that’s the point at which guitar historians talk about the development of the western guitar, the acoustic guitar that we take for granted here in America, was deveoled in the teens and the 1920s. In the 1930s, we introduced the dreadnought, initially with a 12-fret neck, very reminiscent of a classic guitar. We squared off the shoulders, slimmed down the neck, and as they say in show business, the rest is history. I’ve been told that this is the most copied shape of acoustic guitar in the world.

My father joined the business in 1955, the year I was born, and he caught the folk boom, and rode that right through the folk rock boom of the ‘60s, you know, people we still know and love: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary.

I joined the business in the 1980s. I took over in 1987. Business was a challenge then. The acoustic guitar has come roaring back, and we’re very proudly celebrating our 175th anniversary this year.

We’re here at the Summer NAMM Show, and if you get a chance, please come and visit our factory. We have a museum and we give factory tours every work day.