THE REGENERATION GAME

How Martin Guitars is utilising alternatives to the traditional tonewoods

“Mother Earth will be cheering you on,” says Martin, if you pick up one of its Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-endorsed acoustics. There are currently two of Martin’s 150 or so models that carry the FSC stamp, meaning all materials in an instrument have been judged to meet the organisation’s forest management standards.

At one end of the FSC range, the OME Cherry features a Sitka spruce top, cherry back and sides, mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard and bridge, plus African blackwood headplate. The most expensive in the range, the 00-DB Jeff Tweedy is Martin’s first Custom Artist model certified by the FSC and carrying the Rainforest Alliance seal. Mahogany top, back, sides, neck and headplate, and Richlite fingerboard are all FSC certified. Richlite also appears as fretboards and bridges on the X, Road and the Junior series. Martin’s sourcing specialist Albert Germick says engineered materials are “always something we’re looking at”.

“When the CITES thing occurred,” says Germick, “we started looking at more alternatives to rosewood and we did decide to use granadillo

(Platymiscium yucatanum) and katalox (Swartzia cubensis),” which he describes as “sustainably harvested”. The Martin 00- and 000-16E, launched in 2019, feature granadillo back and sides.

At its Mexican plant, the company has been switching necks from mahogany to laminate birch from the US, and uses HPL (high-pressure laminate) on its X and LX lines, “greatly reducing our consumption of mahogany and rosewood”. Martin says it is planting koa in Hawaii, mahogany in Nicaragua, cocobolo and mahogany in Costa Rica, and is in a partnership to replant maple in Pennsylvania.