“I wrote loads of the Smiths stuff on my first Martin. It was from some hire company – I just refused to give it back!” Johnny Marr on creating his 7-string Martin acoustic, his disdain for satin necks, and why the Smiths were really a folk band

Martin M-7.

It was December 2023, and backstage at Manchester’s Aviva Studios, Johnny Marr was wrestling with a dilemma. Playing the same venue the night before with a 30-piece orchestra, he’d turned to a Martin D-28, of the kind that propelled him to ’80s stardom in the Smiths, and gifted him classics like There Is a Light That Never Goes Out.

Now, flanked by elite classical musicians and facing an expectant hometown crowd for the second show, Marr found himself debating whether to give a trial by fire to the prototype of his new signature Martin M-7, which was delivered half an hour earlier.