Martin Guitar Introduces Pat Donohue Custom Edition

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Many know Pat Donohue as the guitarist in The Guys All-Star Shoe Band on Public Radio's popular A Prairie Home Companion, an extraordinary picker who plays jazz, blues, swing and folk with equal flair and often blends all four in his music. Among all his talents and achievements Pat is a great songwriter whose compositions include dazzling instrumentals, droll parodies, insightful tunes, and funny, true ruminations. He has been a featured performer at major music festivals, recorded nine fine albums on his own plus a couple with buddy Mike Dowling, and received a Grammy Award for his contribution to Pink Guitar, which featured acoustic guitar arrangements of Henry Mancini songs. The late Chet Atkins called him "one of the greatest fingerpickers in the world today."

A versatile player like Pat needs a versatile guitar. So when asked by Martin to collaborate on a Custom Edition guitar that would bear his name, he — with some assistance from John Woodland of Willie's American Guitars — came up with a unique new design that blends the OM shape, scale and 14-fret configuration with dreadnought body depth and an extra wide neck, plus appointments reminiscent of Martins from early in the 20th century. The Martin OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition is that design brought to life.

"I really like the OM design, but I also like bass resonance, so I went with a deeper body to get it," Pat explained. "Many of the appointments came from early Martins I've admired. I'm excited to combine all these elements in a guitar of my own."

The premium tonewoods on the OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition are stellar. The back and sides are East Indian rosewood for rich tone, while the top is rare Adirondack spruce for exceptional power and clarity. Scalloped Adirondack spruce top braces enhance its balance and dynamic range. Evocative of Martins from the 1920s, the genuine mahogany modified V neck with diamond volute features a slotted headstock with square slots and Waverly brass tuners with small ivoroid keys. Another nod to the 1920s is the genuine ebony pyramid bridge with wide string spacing and a fossilized ivory saddle.

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The appointments are similarly vintage inspired. Intricate multi-colored "parallelogram" wood marquetry encircles the top and compliments the abalone pearl rosette. The wood marquetry chevron backstrip looks spectacular against the rosewood. Bound with grained ivoroid and accented with black/white purfling, the East Indian rosewood headplate features the Martin torch inlay in abalone pearl: the back of the headstock displays the historic Martin pressure stamp. The grained ivoroid-bound ebony fingerboard bears snowflake position markers at the 5th fret, two slotted squares at the 7th fret and a Maltese cross at the 9th fret, plus Pat Donohue's "PD" initials at the 12th fret.

The nut, bridge pins and end pin are crafted from genuine bone, with the latter two sporting abalone pearl dots. Aging toner on the top highlights the tortoise Delmar pickguard and grained ivoroid body binding. Martin's flawless polished gloss lacquer finish on the body, neck and headplate enable the OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition's subtle beauty to shine.

Delivered in a special Geib™ style extra deep hardshell case, each Martin OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition guitar bears an interior label personally signed by Pat Donohue and numbered in sequence. The OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition may be ordered with a 1935 style or other Martin sunburst top for an additional fee: a left-handed version is available at no additional charge. Authorized C.F. Martin & Co. dealers will begin taking orders for the OM-30DB Pat Donohue Custom Edition immediately and dealers who order this unlimited Custom Edition will be posted on the C.F. Martin website.

For more information, visit their web site at www.martinguitar.com.