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JC Buddy Guy Blues Signature Edition to be Intruduced by Martin Guitar at NAMM
Press Release
2006-06-18

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Buddy Guy is a musician’s musician. Not only has he had a fundamental impact on the blues and on rock and roll, but he’s influenced new generations of artists. Known for his showmanship, playing guitar with drumsticks, walking into the audience while performing, picking the guitar with his teeth and playing it over his head (influencing a young Jimi Hendrix), Guy performed flamboyant live concerts, predating the 1960s blues rockers.

In addition to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Buddy has received five Grammy awards, 23 W.C. Handy Awards (more than any other blues artist), Billboard Magazine's prestigious Century Award, the title Greatest Living Electric Blues Guitarist, and the Congressional Medal of Arts awarded by the President. Still, when it came to creating a Martin Signature Edition with his name on it, Buddy Guy showed himself to be anything but traditionalist. The JC Buddy Guy Blues Guitar may well be the most distinctive Signature Edition Martin ever.

The JC Buddy Guy Blues Guitar combines Martin’s J (jumbo) body style with a cutaway for big sound and easy access to the upper frets. The guitar features an Adirondack spruce top; the sides and three-piece back are richly colored East Indian rosewood. The low profile neck is carved from genuine mahogany. But it is the appointments that really set the JC Buddy Guy Blues Guitar apart. Buddy likes polka dots on his guitars and polka dots he got. The unique rosette features a ring of turquoise composite dots. Turquoise composite dot inlays also accent the black ebony belly bridge and the ebony bridge pins. The black ebony fingerboard provides the palette for a random “splash” of turquoise composite polka dots. Buddy Guy’s “BG” initials serve as the position marker at the 12th fret. The black ebony headplate showcases the block letter “C.F. Martin” logo, also inlaid in turquoise composite.

The JC Buddy Guy Blues Guitar is factory-equipped with Fishman VT electronics. To simplify “on the fly” adjustments in the tradition of electric blues, the volume and tone knobs are mounted on the top, just below the bridge and the polished and beveled black pickguard. Buddy Guy is as unique as the Martin guitar that bears his name. Delivered in a Geib™ style hardshell case, each Martin JC Buddy Guy Blues Guitar bears an interior label individually signed by Buddy Guy and Martin Chairman C.F. Martin. IV and numbered in sequence with the edition total. www.martinguitar.com.