“When companies have success, or they have iconic models, we can tend to get lazy... Consumers and artists deserve better – they need to feel like we’re working hard”: How Martin made its groundbreaking Inception acoustic

Martin GPCE Inception Maple.

Maple acoustic guitars have long occupied a respectable, if marginal, place in the world of guitar design. As a tonewood, maple is beautiful and abundant and, in fact, it has greater potential as a sustainable material than traditional tonewoods from the tropics. 

And yet, over the years, guitar designers have struggled to open up maple’s voice and grant it attractive richness to complement its natural clarity. Now, however, Martin’s design team think they have found a way to unlock the full potential of maple using deft and innovative design that allows it to reproduce a broad palette of sounds.