VOA标准英语2008年-C.F. Martin & Company Celebrate 175 Years of Ma

They are the acoustic¹ guitars of choice for many of today's leading musicians and songwriters, and the company that makes them is celebrating its 175th birthday this year. From the headquarters of C.F. Martin and Company, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, VOA's Susan Logue reports.
　
Brad Marshall (L) and Kevin Artz (r) have been playing Martin guitars together for 30 years as Marshall Artz

Brad Marshall will never forget the first time he played a Martin guitar. "It felt like it was a whole band when I strummed it. It was so full sounding."

Kevin Artz says the first Martin he heard put every guitar he had ever played to shame. "It was like the guitars I had been playing were like a honky tonk piano, and this guy picked up something and put it before me that was like a Steinway. It was so beautiful."

Marshall and Artz have been performing together for 30 years. Between them they own nine Martin guitars. In fact Martin guitars are the only guitars they play.

Blues-rock legend Eric Clapton loves Martin guitars so much he'd like to come back in his next life as one. It is the guitar he chose when he "unplugged" for MTV.
　
Dick Boak has worked with musicians like Eric Clapton and Sting² to custom design Martin guitars for their needs

And when Sting wanted a special sound for his "Sacred Love" album, he commissioned Martin to design the instrument. "Sting wanted a little guitar that could be strung an octave above pitch in order to get a shimmering³ treble response," says Dick Boak, the man Sting came to with that request.

As director of artist relations at C.F. Martin and Company, Boak has worked with some of the best known guitarists on the planet, from Paul Simon to John Mayer.

"In many cases we know exactly where a guitar is going," Boak says. "Not only do we know [that], but we'll see [the guitar] on television a few nights after we have strung and tuned⁴ it with [the artist] playing the guitar on stage, and it is a tremendous thrill."

C.F. Martin and Company makes several hundred models of guitars. They come in different sizes and can be made of different woods. Some are ornately inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

No matter how they look on the outside, they all share something in common, Boak says: the Martin sound.

"Our historian⁵ Mike Longworth used to have a nice way to describe the Martin phenomenon," Boak says, "and that's that 'we start with the Martin sound and build a box around it.'"

The Martin phenomenon began in 1833, when Christian⁶ Frederick Martin, Senior came to the United States from Germany with his family and set up a shop in New York. Six years later they moved to Pennsylvania.

"They were unhappy in New York," Boak says. "They moved to Nazareth, because it reminded them of their hometown of Markneukirchen, Germany. And in Nazareth, he really found his style of guitar-making, and the guitars that C.F. Martin built really came to define⁷ the instrument."
　
Attaching the neck to the body is one of about 300 steps in the process of building a Martin guitar

Six generations later, they still define guitar standards. Today, nearly 500 employees work in the factory in Nazareth. Most of the guitars they make are handcrafted in a process that involves about 300 steps.

This year, in honor of the company's 175th anniversary, a limited number are being crafted just as they were in 1937, using rare woods and animal hide glue.

"Going back to the old glues, old process and old woods, just produces something very, very special," Boak says, adding some have compared the quality of those pre-World War II Martin guitars to that of a Stradivarius Violin.

But, as Kevin Artz notes, even Martin Guitars crafted with more modern methods are valued by musicians as something special. "If you're an acoustic player, Martin Guitars tend to be your dream."

 

1 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

2 sting   

vt.激怒，刺痛，刺伤，蛰伤；n.刺痛，刺伤

参考例句：

• Most flies do not sting.大多数苍蝇不叮人。
• The scorpion has a sting that can be deadly.蝎子有可以致命的螫针。

3 shimmering   

v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The sea was shimmering in the sunlight. 阳光下海水波光闪烁。
• The colours are delicate and shimmering. 这些颜色柔和且闪烁微光。 来自辞典例句

4 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 define   

vt.解释，下定义，阐述，限定，规定

参考例句：

• Please define the words.请解释这些字的意义。
• It's hard to define exactly what has changed.很难解释清楚到底发生了什么变化。