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Lot Essay
EC: 'The Andy Guitar' - he's played this on stage now with me for the last 15 years... I've played it too but [although] it's not my first choice of acoustic, it was his.
LD: I think you got it at around the time when you were starting to do acoustic material on stage.
EC: Unplugged on stage..
LD: And you said can you get a Martin for Andy.. you didn't have a lot of them at the time and..I bought this one and (imitates Andy) he said "I like this one, this'll do, I'll have it".
...I was always curious about this guitar because of the strange inlays in the neck... I think this is a neck from an archtop.
KK: Yes, the body too.
LD: They changed the top..put a flat top on..and I think they designated it F7 or L7.
KK: Although it doesn't look it visually, this is the biggest guitar that Martin ever made..
EC: Wow...
KK: It's longer than a Dreadnought and wider than a Dreadnought. It's got this pinched waist which makes it appear smaller.
EC: That's probably why Andy loved it because of the volume.
LD: It's a lovely guitar.
EC: It's a great rhythm guitar.
The F-7 was first produced in 1935, and was Martin's attempt to compete with the most established makers of archtop guitars, such as Gibson and Epiphone. With a body length of 20 1/8 inches and width of 16 inches, it was the largest guitar with a 14-fret neck that Martin made at the time. By 1942 production of all F-series guitars had ceased with a total of only 187 being made.
By the late 1960s it became apparent to many American guitar makers and repairmen that these guitars would be superior, tonally, if converted to a flat top model. One of the earliest to succeed at this was New York repairman and dealer Matt Umanov.
Per a conversation with Mr. Umanov in April of 2004, he remembered being involved in the conversion of this guitar as well as four others. One of the better known conversions, is the example owned by David Bromberg, which he continues to use to this day.
LD: I think you got it at around the time when you were starting to do acoustic material on stage.
EC: Unplugged on stage..
LD: And you said can you get a Martin for Andy.. you didn't have a lot of them at the time and..I bought this one and (imitates Andy) he said "I like this one, this'll do, I'll have it".
...I was always curious about this guitar because of the strange inlays in the neck... I think this is a neck from an archtop.
KK: Yes, the body too.
LD: They changed the top..put a flat top on..and I think they designated it F7 or L7.
KK: Although it doesn't look it visually, this is the biggest guitar that Martin ever made..
EC: Wow...
KK: It's longer than a Dreadnought and wider than a Dreadnought. It's got this pinched waist which makes it appear smaller.
EC: That's probably why Andy loved it because of the volume.
LD: It's a lovely guitar.
EC: It's a great rhythm guitar.
The F-7 was first produced in 1935, and was Martin's attempt to compete with the most established makers of archtop guitars, such as Gibson and Epiphone. With a body length of 20 1/8 inches and width of 16 inches, it was the largest guitar with a 14-fret neck that Martin made at the time. By 1942 production of all F-series guitars had ceased with a total of only 187 being made.
By the late 1960s it became apparent to many American guitar makers and repairmen that these guitars would be superior, tonally, if converted to a flat top model. One of the earliest to succeed at this was New York repairman and dealer Matt Umanov.
Per a conversation with Mr. Umanov in April of 2004, he remembered being involved in the conversion of this guitar as well as four others. One of the better known conversions, is the example owned by David Bromberg, which he continues to use to this day.