Martin guitars are known and respected for their quality and reputation- you're not generally going to find them cheap, so it certainly pays to shop around. It should always be on a web shopper's list to check ebay - not only will you save money on used Martin guitars, but the prices on new ones can be well below what you find elsewhere, even on the net. Sometimes merchants use ebay as a way to sell excess stock, last year's models, etc.

With a site like eBay, you can find a high-end Martin guitar often for the same price it would cost to buy a lesser model at typical retail. Do some digging, and you can find the Martin guitar of your dreams at a huge bargain!

The C.F. Martin & Company is a US guitar manufacturer established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin. Martin is renowned for its high-quality steel-string guitars, and is arguably the world's preeminent mass manufacturer of flattop acoustics, with models that retail for thousands of dollars and vintage instruments that often fetch six figures at resale. The company also made several models of electric guitars and electric basses.

The company's headquarters and primary factory are in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, located in the Lehigh Valley region of the state. The company has been run by the Martin family for all of its history; its current chairman and CEO, C.F. 'Chris' Martin IV, is the great-great-great-grandson of the founder. Many characteristic features of the modern flatop steel strung acoustic guitar were first introduced by the firm. Some influential creations of the company include the Dreadnought body style and scalloped X bracing.

In the 1850s, the Martin company developed one of its best technological innovations for the guitar, the X-bracing system. The musical and structural integrity of an acoustic guitar is a balance between the need to allow the soundboard of the guitar to resonate freely for acoustic purposes versus the compensation needed for maintaining structural integrity over the long term. By gluing struts of wood to the underside of the top of the guitar in a modified X brace pattern, Martin invented a design that successfully met these competing demands: the compromise being pleasing to the ear of players and listeners as well as the demands of time, with instruments of 100+ years of age still being eminently playable.

For many years, Martin has used a model-labeling system that consists of an initial letter or a number or series of zeros that specifies the body size and type (5 being the smallest and J being the largest) followed by a number that designates the guitar's ornamentation and style, including the species of wood from which the guitar is constructed. Generally, the higher the number, the higher the level of ornamentation. Additional letters or numbers added to this basic system are used to designate special features (such as a built-in pickup or a cutaway).