My Martin Guitar

So…

I first learned to play guitar when I was 12 years old. I taught myself how to play using my mom’s acoustic guitar and song books which had chord shapes in them. After a year or so of playing, I remember my mom pulling this big clunky hard case out of the closet and showing me her precious 1969 Martin D12-35 acoustic guitar. I tried to play it but my hands were not strong enough yet, especially because it’s a 12-string guitar. It requires each finger to press 2 strings at a time so it takes twice the hand and finger strength as a standard 6-string. My grubby little 13-year-old fingers struggled!

My mom would play it every so often, and the sound was unmistakably loud and full. It was a beautiful guitar to listen to. When I was a few years older in high school I was able to play it more easily, and it was fun! My mom would let me take it out and play it pretty much whenever I wanted through high school and college. But, when I graduated college, I moved out, and didn’t really see that gorgeous guitar again…

Until this past Christmas, 2021. My mom decided to pass her 12-string Martin guitar on to me as a gift. It was a very special moment for me. That guitar is a piece of history, being over 50 years old. But more importantly, it is part of MY history with the memories I have attached to it. Mom, I can’t thank you enough!

Now, with all the mushy stuff out of the way… turns out this guitar has an interesting story! My mom bought this guitar from a man named Bryan Enright. The first paper trail of the guitar is a repair receipt dated May 13, 1975. Some cracks and dents were fixed, some refinishing was done on the body, cracks were glued, bridge replaced and neck straightened. A pretty thorough repair done at the Martin factory in Nazareth, PA. Bryan paid $121 for all this work in 1975. According the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, that would be equivalent to $664.81 in today’s money. That guitar was in bad shape!

That repair was completed May 27, 1975. Now, I assume that Bryan spent that summer learning how to play “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by War or “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver, or something nice like that. The Vietnam War had just ended and “Rhinestone Cowboy” by Glen Campbell was topping the charts. What a horrible time to sell this awesome guitar to my mom! But that’s exactly what he did on August 24, 1975 for $400 ($2,197.71 in today’s money ((holy shit my mom was loaded!))).

When I received the guitar from my mom, it had been sitting in her closet/attic/garage and moved house to house with her for the previous 10 years I think without being taken out and played at all. Also pretty sure it had not been professionally serviced or set up since she purchased it in 1975. Needless to say, it was once again in bad shape and needed some repair. I took it to a Martin-certified repair shop, Russo Music in Asbury Park, NJ. After more than 6 months and $650 (eerily similar to the repair cost in 1975 adjusted for inflation) the 1969 Martin 12-string is good as new! Special shout out to my dad for paying that entire repair bill, thank you so much!

This beauty plays and sounds incredible now. Thank you Russo Music for fixing it up, thank you dad for paying the repair bill, and thank you mom for passing on this one-of-a-kind instrument. I promise I will take great care of it.

Complete with big clunky hard case lined with velvet.