Martin

C.F. Martin & Co.
C.F. Martin & Company (usually just Martin) was established in 1833 by Christian Frederick Martin in New York to make Guitars but by 1838 he moved to Nazareth, Pennsylvania where the firm is still based.

Martin first tried making Ukuleles in 1907, for Bergstrom (the biggest Honolulu Music shop and Martin's Hawaiian distributor at the time), but the early versions were apparently not very good because they over braced them and made them too much like they would a Guitar. However in 1916 they had another go at making Soprano scale Ukuleles, got it right and became probably the most influential Ukulele maker ever. They inadvertently created two of the larger Ukulele scale definitions we use today and they were also the firm behind the invention the Tiple Ukulele. It should also be remembered that this period of making Ukuleles was the foundation for Martin continuing success as a chordophone maker.

In 1916 they started out with different levels of Soprano, the Style 1 and 2. S2's had triple bound top binding (black-white-black) with ivoroid outer binding and S1's had no binding around body and a small ring around soundhole. In 1918 they added an outer binding to the S1 and the unbound model became the S0, they also started the S3 with a 7 layer top binding, alternating stripes of white celluloid and ebonized maple and a 5 layer soundhole ring. In 1920 they started making them of koa as well as mahogany and these koa variants were known as the S1k, S2k, and S3k, (they never made a koa S0). In 1922 they started an even fancier koa model called the S5k, (for some reason there never was a style 4), and they only ever made a mahogany S5 in 1941 and 42, after production of the S5k and the other koa models finished in 1940.

Martin did make some Ukuleles for others to brand, like Wm J Smith & Co.,(who also used the name U-Ka-Lu-A on their sound-hole labels; even in Martins!), Grinnell Bros. (with their Wolverine branding), Wurlitzer and Ditson, but not as many as people think, so there are often stories that brand "x" is really a re-branded Martin which aren't true. Again if you look on the Internet you can find out exactly how many Ukuleles Martin made in any one year both to be branded as Martin or for others to brand, (they kept very exact records). It is the case however that Martin allowed its workers to come in and make instruments for themselves on their days off. I don't know the full deal here but I have seen a few, very Martin like, un, or only partially branded instruments including Ukuleles that were produced this way. Mike Longworth is probably the most famous of these staff makers, (though he did continue making Ukuleles after he retired from Martin) so there are some “almost Martins” outside of the official records and sometimes using different woods to mahogany or koa



Goya was originally a Swedish brand of Guitar made by Levin. Martin brought the company in the early 70's, shut down European manufacturing but kept the name going to brand instruments, including Ukuleles, made in Korea and Taiwan from 1980 until 1996, (though actual production may have finished by 1993?)

Another branding Martin used for far eastern made Chordophones was Sigma. Martin founded this brand themselves in 1970 for use on Japanese and later Korean made instruments. Martin ceased their interest in Sigma in 2007 and sold the name to A.M.I. However they had let the copyright lapse in the US and it was picked up by St. Louis Music who don't use the name themselves but don't let A.M.I. sell Sigma branded instruments in the US. All of the Sigma Ukuleles I have seen have been made for A.M.I. after Martin sold the name on.