C.F. MARTIN AND COMPANY, NAZARETH, PENNSYLVANIA, 1975

Johnny Marr purchased this rare 1975 Martin D-35 with shaded top and gold-plated tuners at New Kings Road Vintage Guitar Emporium in around 1994 and used it often in the studio throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Interviewed last year for Guitar World about his long history with Martin acoustics, Marr told Henry Yates: [The D-28] was my main six-string until the early ’90s, when I got into D-35s with Electronic and Pet Shop Boys. I guess I just fancied a change. The guitar saw heavy use on the road as a tour bus and dressing room guitar when Marr was touring around the world with The Healers from 2000-2003 and – together with lot 72 – formed a key part of his arsenal during the recording of the band’s 2003 album Boomslang. I used a lot of Martin D-35s [on Boomslang], since I've got a couple that sound quite different from each other, Marr informed Total Guitar in 2003. This D-35 can be heard prominently on the 2003 single ‘Bangin’ On’ and was used to record acoustic elements of the tracks ‘Another Day’, ‘Need It’, and ‘Caught Up’. Notably, ‘Bangin' On’ and ‘Caught Up’, along with 2001 single ‘The Last Ride’, comprised the primary soundtrack for Michael Kors’ Fall-Winter 2003-04 runway show during New York Fashion Week in February 2003.

The workshop records at C.F Martin and Company indicate that this D-35 was built along with twenty-four other Dreadnoughts of the same model. Interestingly, the Martin “build sheets” do not record a shaded (sunburst) finish on the top nor gold-plated Grover Rotomatic tuning machines on any of the D-35s from this batch. The standard tuners in 1975 would have been nickel-plated Rotomatics. As the Martin Custom Shop was not officially launched until 1979, there is speculation that this D-35 varied from the standard natural finish and nickel-plated hardware as a special request for a Martin customer.