Fred Greene explains how the company took a “completely different approach” with the Inception
Photography Courtesy of Martin
Maple acoustic guitars have long occupied a respectable, if marginal, place in the world of guitar design. As a tonewood, maple is beautiful and abundant and, in fact, it has greater potential as a sustainable material than traditional tonewoods from the tropics. And yet, over the years, guitar designers have struggled to open up maple’s voice and grant it attractive richness to complement its natural clarity. Now, however, Martin’s design team think they have found away to unlock the full potential of maple using deft and innovative design that allows it to reproduce a broad palette of sounds. The resulting guitar has been named the Inception. We join Fred Greene, the company’s vice president of product management, to find out how the Inception is spearheading Martin’s push to intelligently innovate rather than simply service its revered historic models.