Martin Honors Master Woodworker
George Nakashima With Limited Edition Commemorative Guitar
 August 1, 2000Nakashima's extraordinary furniture designs are on display in many of the finest museums and homes around the world. Inspired by his love of Japanese fine craftsmanship and simplicity of design, this American?born son of a struggling newspaper reporter of samurai lineage, created distinctive designs from a variety of ancient woods. Influenced by the time he spent working in Paris. Tokyo and India after receiving his master's degree, Nakashima developed a unique appreciation for working with wood from the trees that he loved so dearly. Nakashima and his American-born wife Marion Okajima, had just opened a furniture workshop in Seattle when World War 11 started. Like other Japanese Americans, they were interned in a camp before being allowed to move to rural southeastern Pennsylvania. By 1946, he had created the beginnings of a craft furniture business. His sinking designs, superb craftsmanship and use of organic materials soon earned him a lasting international reputation. He is widely heralded as the founding father of the contemporary American woodworking movement, George Nakashima died at age 85 in 1990, but his woodworking studio and artistic legacy are carried on to this day by his daughter, Mira Nakashima Yarnall.
For the last two decades of his life, the George Nakashima visited the C. F. Martin "Sawmill" on a regular basis to supervise the cutting of his rare oversized walnut logs, which were perfectly suited for cutting on Martin's state of the art bandmill. In honor of his extraordinary and unparalleled skill in crafting objects of wood, and as a testimonial to the long and warm relationship between the Nakashima family and the Martin Guitar Company, Martin is honored to introduce the George Nakashima Claro Walnut Commemorative Edition. This acoustic Dreadnought guitar is designed in the woodworking style of this great artist and limited to a maximum of 100 instruments,
The sides and two piece back are bookmatched from highly figured Claro walnut, perhaps Nakashima's most favorite species of wood. The panels of the back are joined with two of Nakashima's trademark dovetailed "butterflies" fashioned from East Indian rosewood. The neck combines two pieces of flamed maple with a thin contrasting walnut center stripe. The Nakashima Family Crest, a five petal Japanese ivy leaf, is nested on the Claro walnut headplate beneath Martin's script logo. Both designs are painstakingly inlaid in Mother of Pearl. The fingerboard inlays are also derived from the Nakashima family crest, a full crest at the 5th fret, two leaves at the 7th and 12th frets, a single petal at the 9th, and small floral centers at the 15th and 17th frets. Nakashima's signature is delicately inlaid between the 19th and 20th frets. Both the fingerboard and the bridge are crafted from the highest quality genuine black ebony. Tuning machines are vintage style open geared Waverlies with nickel plated butterbean knobs.
The soundboard is bookmatched from rare Italian alpine spruce, adorned with a single rosette ring of highly colorful abalone pearl. Scalloped top braces are shifted forward to a position one inch from the soundhole for optimum sound. The soft appearance of the instrument is enhanced with a light aging toner on the top and a satin lacquer finish throughout. The pickguard is polished and beveled from material that closely matches the vintage tortoise pickguard coloration of the pre?war era. A black nut and saddle contrast with fossilized ivory bridge and endpins, inlaid with the larger 5mm black pearl dots. Included with each Nakashima Commemorative guitar is a vintage Geib Style(TM) hardshell case with a taupe tweed exterior and a green crushed velour interior.
An interior label, personally signed by Mira Nakashima Yarnall and Martin CEO and Chairman and CEO C. F. Martin, IV, is numbered in sequence with the edition total (i.e. I of 100, 2 of 100, etc.). A secondary label features a classic Jack Rosen photograph of George Nakashima and the Japanese symbol "Wa," which represents "harmony." Martin Guitar dealers will begin to take
orders for the Nakashima Commemorative Martin guitars immediately, though the edition will not begin to appear in stores until the summer of 2000. For more information, visit their web site at www.mguitar.com. |
