"I have no doubts in saying that Martin is an admirable guitar
firm having been so consistent and so powerful in their acoustic guitars throughout the
ages and throughout my life since 1968 when I bought this guitar. I believe that Paul
Simon played a guitar similar to this but I believe he had an open headstock model. I saw
an ad and bought the guitar and actually played it pretty much for twenty-five years until
I met Dutch guitar maker Theo Scharpach who made me a guitar.
"Nevertheless, this guitar has not gone away. I used it for part
of the 'Pulling Strings' tour and it still shows up in my recordings and my work. I almost
broke the guitar once by stepping on it while live on German television. The guitar had a
crack in it for many years until Martin finally got the guitar from me and put it right.
"What is it about simple guitars? This guitar, right from 1968, was
exactly the guitar I wanted to play. After spending about eight years on an archtop
guitar, I welcomed this guitar and looked after it. It is actually my number two guitar
right behind the ES-175. This guitar was treated like number two, often carried by me and
usually secured, watched over and maintained by me (but repaired by Martin).
"I've got Theo Scharpach's Applied Acoustics electronics in it now.
It is a wonderful, wonderful guitar. I played 'Roundabout' on it and all the acoustics on
all Yes records were done on it. I do recommend a good 00-18. You can't really go wrong
with a Martin, an old one or a new one."