Martin CF-1 American Archtop 2006 - stunning Big Blonde Jazz Guitar signed by CF Martin IV for the Pro-Player !

The Martin CF-1 was produced between 2004 and 2007 in very limited numbers. The model was designed by Dale Unger, whose American Archtop line of guitars are also made in Nazareth, PA, and it was Dale who supervised production of the CF-1 and CF-2 archtops at the Martin factory. All Martin CF-1 archtops have paper labels signed by both Dale Unger and C.F. Martin IV. Unger apprenticed with Bob Benedetto and incorporated Benedetto design elements and aesthetics into his own archtop designs. The Unger/Martin relationship was fairly short lived, with records suggesting that only 260 CF-1 archtops were completed. Today these guitars are widely considered to be among the biggest bargains of the Jazz guitar world thanks to their combination of tone, workmanship, playability, and price. 

The CF-1 is a 17” X braced archtop with full depth, venetian cutaway, ebony fretboard and fittings, and a floating Kent Armstrong humbucker with pickguard-mounted volume control. The body is made with a formed three-layer laminate European spruce top and figured maple three-layer laminate back and sides. The fit and finish is top notch, and the workmanship is clearly that of Martin’s Nazareth workforce. 

The guitar’s acoustic tone is wonderful, which might come as a surprise given the laminate body. Whatever the secret sauce was used in the design of this model, the Unger/Martin team hit a home run and built an affordable archtop that sounds like a guitar that’s 10 times the price. Acoustic archtop tone is famously hard to describe, but expect a guitar that is warm, full, defined, clear, and responsive. With 11-50 flatwounds the guitar offers an incredibly full tone that most other archtops can’t achieve with 13s. Plugged in, the Humbucking Kent Armstrong delivers exactly what you expect. String balance is excellent, and the warmth and character of the guitar carries through the pickup nicely.