Vintage Guitar magazine’s recent feature, “Bridge‑Plate Blues,” explores a quiet change that altered the sound of Martin dreadnought guitars made in the early ’70s. The piece notes that the company once promoted its instruments as delivering a richly resonant tone that competitors could mimic but never match, yet within a couple of years Martin altered construction methods in ways that compromised that very claim.
The article also places those modifications in the broader context of the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Martin grappled with material shortages and surging demand. A 1969 Washington Post Magazine story by Marion Clark highlighted the impact of Brazil’s export ban on rosewood, a wood traditionally used for Martin’s guitar bodies. In response, the firm reportedly secured as many rosewood logs as possible before the embargo took effect, a move that foreshadowed later compromises in tone quality.
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