PRESS RELEASE: Steve Miller has eclectic tastes. It shows in his music, which - in a career that has spanned more than four decades - has ranged from blues and psychedelic to pop and rock, and back. And it shows in his Martin guitars.
The Martin 00-37KSM and 00-37K2SM Steve Miller Signature Editions from 2000 highlighted classic 12-fret style and distinctive - Engelmann spruce and flamed Koa - tonewoods. The Martin 000C Steve Miller Pegasus Signature Edition from 2005 paired a rounded cutaway with Engelmann spruce and quilted mahogany.
Now comes the Martin 000C-MR Steve Miller Custom Artist Edition. Again featuring a rounded cutaway, this guitar combines a warm and energetic sounding Adirondack spruce top with Pacific bigleaf maple back and sides for brilliantly clear tone and impressive dynamic range, but the appointment most will notice first is the color; highlighted by Martin's polished lacquer finish, both the body and neck are a rich Burgundy red.
Why a red guitar? "I've always been bothered by the need to have blemish-free, 'perfect' looking spruce for guitar tops," Miller commented. "It seems wasteful and I've found some of the less perfect-looking wood sounds better than perfect, fine-grained spruce. With that thought in mind I wanted to choose a color for this guitar that would mellow with age and become truly beautiful to look at and play, and that color is blood red."
The 000C-MR Steve Miller Custom Artist Edition's stylish appointments look spectacular against its deep red hue. A Style 45 rosette with a center ring of select abalone pearl is matched by a colorful Style 45 wood mosaic back strip. Intricate multi-layered black/white fine line purfling encircles the top and black/white/black fine line purfling accents the sides and back: all are protected by grained ivoroid binding.
The Modified Low Oval two-piece maple neck is topped by a polished ebony headplate that features the exquisite and rarely offered "alternative" torch inlay from 1902 that has been featured on every Steve Miller guitar, and nickel Gotoh open-back tuners.
The fingerboard also is ebony and is absolutely plain - without position markers or a signature. Both headstock and fingerboard are bound in grained ivoroid, and elegantly accented by mitered black/white fine line inlays.
The ebony belly bridge is fitted with a compensated bone saddle. Pearl dot-topped black ebony bridge pins and end pin, a beveled and polished black pickguard, and a chrome strap button complete the 000C-MR Steve Miller Custom Artist Edition's unique look.
Befitting a guitar with extraordinary stage charisma, the 000C-MR Steve Miller Custom Artist Edition is factory-equipped with Fishman Matrix Infinity electronics. Featuring an advanced, "next generation" undersaddle transducer, soundhole mounted controls and an internal endpin pre-amp, it produces impressive, lifelike "plugged-in" sound for both live performance and studio recording. Delivered in a heavy duty hardshell case, each Martin 000C-MR Steve Miller Custom Artist Edition guitar bears a special red interior label personally signed by Steve Miller and C.F Martin Director of Artist Relations Dick Boak, and numbered in sequence.
Authorized C.F. Martin dealers will begin accepting orders for the open-ended 000C-MR Steve Miller Custom Artist Edition - including for left-handed instruments, which are available at no additional cost - immediately and participating dealers will be listed on the Martin Guitar website.
For more information, visit Martin Guitars' official site
Information taken from official press release
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