Official Luthiers Forum!

Have any of you seen the "new" Martin CEO-8 Limited that they just released? I find it kind of strange that they went in such a direction with this or any of their guitars. It's a blatant knockoff of a Gibson J-200 and Hummingbird hybrid. It even has the plastic tulip tuners and a "The Martin" logo. I'm scratching my head on this marketing strategy. People that buy Martins don't want a Gibson. Thoughts?

I am by no means bashing Martin here, I'm just questioning the motive. Are they paying tribute to Gibson in the way that many have paid tribute to Martin by using so many of thir design features over the past century? If another manufacturer copied a Martin, I wouldn't think twice, but for some some reason, when Martin copies another manufacturer, this just seams a little beneath them. I can't figure out why I feel this way, I have no horse in this race, but it just shocked me.

Here's a quick video of the guitar
http://youtu.be/yzcE_-kvWJ0

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Chris Alvarado
www.ChrisAlvaradoLive.com
www.Driftwood-Guitars.com

This is from The Onion, right?

They weren't satisfied with copying Taylors? I think that logo puts it squarely in tacky land.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Yeah the logo is just tooooo much. As they say on Monday Night Football..... C'mon Man!

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Chris Alvarado
www.ChrisAlvaradoLive.com
www.Driftwood-Guitars.com

Maybe the bird on the pickguard is a myna bird....

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I like it. It's perverse.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Maybe they think they can do a better job. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery the saying goes. It does seem a little odd though.


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At least they didn't install the bridge backwards.

I think it is a Martayson OMingbird.

It's perfect -- a Gibson shape with a Martin sound.

All it's missing is about 2 pounds of bolts and bling on the bridge. Too bad Little Jimmy didn't get to play one.

Doesn't surprise me in the least. I have built several guitars for customers that want a "Gibson" look and a "Martin" sound. Not to mention the fact that over the years Gibson has used Martin shapes for their guitars to compete. Why shouldn't Martin get in the game.

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"I've been had again"
Tim Benware
Creedmoor, NC

Gibson made some mighty fine guitars back in the 1930s and 1940's...

At least the headstock inlay is "period correct." Ha ha.

Gibson has done stuff like this before, even up to a couple of years ago when they did a "tribute to Jimi Hendrix" which was a not-too-well-executed Strat copy. All's fair in love and war, and I'm not sure into which category this sort of thing fits.

Is it just me or are the tuners really poorly aligned?

Does it have the saw marks on the braces?

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

What about the Collings built Waterloo brand L-00 copy?

Martin has another one that CF designed himself called the CEO-7 and if you check out Martin's site this is a guitar that I really like.... L-OOish in shape to a degree with an Adi top and a list price of $3K meaning a street price of less.

Also since these G*bsonesque Martins are being designed by Chris Martin with "CEO" designations in the product names looks to me like Chris is intentionally giving Henry at G*bson some reason for pause.

Good!

Jack is right, some of the vintage G*bsons are highly coveted and were and are great sounding guitars.



Here's a pic of the CEO-7 that I personally like a great deal. Notice the burst? Very uncharacteristic for Martin to have a small lighter area and all dark shoulders. Instead this is very characteristic of......G*bson.... So these are definitely efforts to perhaps fart in the general direction of Henry at G*bson. About time too....

Chris and Henry are very different sorts.... Chris is dedicated to being a responsible steward of the earth's bounty with excellent efforts to discontinue the use of any questionable materials, ivory, etc. and the use of sustainable woods as well.

OTOH Henry settled out of court and paid a $300,000.00 fine for poaching mad rose (edit/correction should read mad ebony).... but before he paid the fine he wrote a piece in the WSJ claiming that he was being singled out, just him, no one else mind you, for prosecution.....

Then he paid the fine.... What a guy I tell ya.....

EDIT: Correction it was mad ebony not mad rose, my mistake and I corrected my original post to reflect this.

Gibson has been knocking off Martin square shoulder dreads for decades so why not?

Sycamore Back and sides on the CEO-8... A first for any Martin. I was digging around the Martin forums, and it sounds like the CEO-7 is a very nice guitar that sold very well. It sounds as though the general feeling in the community towards the 8 is an overwhelming yuk. It'll sell to a small sliver of customers that want a Gibson that sounds like a Martin. But at $5,4000 I'd be happy to put them in mine, or any of your ques, and we could build it for them instead haha!

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Chris Alvarado
www.ChrisAlvaradoLive.com
www.Driftwood-Guitars.com

As I remember, there was overwhelming evidence that this WAS a political hit by the Obama regime, and the real problem was the paperwork. You'll recall the Madagascar folks were fine with the sale, but the Feds tried to twist the terms concerning "finished" boards, versus unfinished.

I think Henry is a tool, but I don't think he's a crook. The gubmint definitely overstepped their bounds in the raids. Chuck Erickson (I think it was), posted pix of the 2nd raid that showed armed-to-the-teeth SWAT teams guarding those dangerously evil pallets of wood - just feet away from innocent lineworkers cowering in fear. Talk about overkill! It reminded me of the Elian Gonzalez incident.

It was just cheaper to pay the fine, and then make a bundle by issuing their Government Series stuff. So, yeah - the headbanging was on the side of capitalism, not by an overreaching Socialist regime intent on destroying those who refuse to polish the hindquarters of the guy in the White House.

Further to that, Mr. Martin and other guitar company owners do much the same kind of imports as Henry... but they get away with it because they donate to the Dems. Call me a liar.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

You just can't stop the politics, can you.

Talking 'bout Hesh.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Martin designs certainly have been copied extensively, but what bothers me about this guitar is that the design zeros in on a specific well-known model of a competitor and doesn't bring anything really original to it. This might be a nice guitar, but it could have been much cooler if Martin had done their own take on the design instead of just slapping on blatant Gibson design elements like the split parallelogram markers, the headstock inlay, the awful egg-shaped sunburst, the keystone tuner buttons, and the pickguard shape. The only thing about the design that says Martin is the bridge and, for those few who know Martin archtops, the headstock shape. That Martin logo just reminds me of the Japanese guitar companies that made knock offs of all the major American guitars in the early seventies before they got their acts together and started making quality original designs.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

I'm talking about you.

Hey Barry.... in my viewpoint, Chris didn't enter politics into this conversation, he just replied to what Hesh had said...