Martin Guitar | The SC-13 Origin Story

Martin Guitar Rameen Shayagen, Fred Greene, and Tim Teel walk us through the process of designing and building the Martin SC-13E, an innovative acoustic-electric guitar from the masters of tradition.

From our demo of the Martin SC-13E by Teja Gerken, which you can view here:

It’s evident from the first look that the SC-13E is like no other Martin before. Although its body dimensions are only slightly larger than a 000, its outline is asymmetrical, with an offset waist and shifted dimensions. But even more significant than the new body is the SC-13E’s new Sure Align neck joint. Completely eliminating the traditional heel, the Sure Align neck uses dovetail joint–shaped hardware inside the neck pocket, allowing the neck to slide onto the body, where it is secured by a pair of machine screws. Combined with a sharply angled section of the back behind the neck joint and large cutaway, the design allows for unparalleled access to the highest frets. But there are other advantages to the Sure Align neck. Its adjustable nature allows the guitar’s intonation to be fine-tuned by moving the neck within the neck pocket, which changes the distance from the bridge, and replaceable shims are used to set the neck angle, which determines action height.