1936 Martin C-1 Archtop

During the "Golden Era" period, Martin's revolutionary designs defined and shaped the modern acoustic guitar, but there was so much experimentation that some Martin innovations never lasted. In 1931, Martin began producing archtop guitars. Ultimately, the flattops released in the mid-'30s permanently changed both the Martin company itself and the 20th century acoustic guitar. Once those flattops hit, Martin archtops were made in fewer and fewer quantities, and with time they were almost forgotten altogether. Debuted in 1931, the C-1 is essentially Martin's Style-18 archtop in that it has Mahogany back and sides, whereas the C-2s have Rosewood. The original C-1s had a round soundhole, but in 1932, Martin began experimenting with F-hole designs. In total, Martin made 786 F-hole C-1s, and in 1936, they produced 127 of these very cool archtop guitars. This C-1 is serial number #62465, so it was made in 1936. The year before, Martin switched over to Ivoroid binding on this model, and it lo