C.F. MARTIN & amp; CO. Guitar is one in a million

The landmark guitaris decorated with65 diamonds.
NAZARETH, Pa. (AP) -- C.F. Martin & amp; Co.'s millionth guitar sparkles with diamonds, emeralds and intricate pearl and abalone inlays -- and that's just the back of the instrument.
To mark its production milestone, the famed Upper Nazareth Township company crafted the most elaborate guitar in its 171-year history. Martin, which has made guitars for the likes of Eric Clapton and Johnny Cash, unveiled the guitar last month at a trade show in California.
The millionth Martin, the front of which also features detailed inlays and gemstones, came home to the Lehigh Valley last week. It joins other historic Martins on public display at company headquarters.
Some Martin aficionados think the guitar is too ornate, even gaudy, given Martin's history of building practical, unadorned guitars.
Others say the million-guitar milestone called for something out of the ordinary.
"There are people who think it's terrible to do that to a guitar," said Larry Robinson, the Valley Ford, Calif., craftsman who did much of the specialized inlay work. "You obviously can tell which side I'm on."
Planning
Martin began planning the guitar in January 2002, said Chris Martin, the company's sixth-generation chief executive.
Martin decided to base its millionth guitar on the D-45, one of its best-known models. The company turned to Robinson, who has worked on other special Martins, to decorate the guitar.
"We started with a D-45 and went crazy from there," Chris Martin said.
Chris Martin won't say just how crazy they went: The cost to build the guitar has not been released.
The company is offering 50 less intricate guitars based on the milestone instrument for $100,000 each -- the most expensive guitars on Martin's latest price sheet. A standard D-45 sells for $7,979.
A closer look
The millionth instrument, which does not have a name, boasts 141 gemstones, including 65 diamonds. Other materials used include fossilized ivory, copper, silver, and yellow and white gold.
The Victorian-influenced vine-and-arbor design on the back includes several nods to the company's past.
C.F. Martin, Martin's founder, gazes out from a small portrait near the instrument's bottom. Elsewhere on the back, angels and cherubs cavort with a series of Martin-styled instruments, including one that resembles C.F.'s earliest guitars from the 1830s.
Underneath it all is ultra-rare Brazilian rosewood, an endangered species that Martin stopped using in standard D-45s in 1969.
The spruce top, while not so ornate as the back, features more pearl, abalone and gemstones.
An intricate, lacy "rose" design covers the soundhole. A vine-and-leaf pattern winds up the fingerboard, and a golden eagle perches on the headstock.
The pickguard features pictures of saws, files and other guitar-making tools, as well as a depiction of the D-45's distinctive interior bracing, designed by C.F. Martin in the 1850s.
Martin employees built the basic D-45 body in Upper Nazareth, then sent the parts to Robinson in California for the inlay work.
He cut 3,500 to 4,000 parts by hand with a jeweler's saw, glued them into carefully cut niches in the guitar wood, and sanded them flat.
Company growth
The millionth guitar caps a period of remarkable growth for Martin. The company has built 500,000 instruments since 1990, after taking 157 years to build its first half-million.
C.F. Martin founded the company in New York City in 1833, shortly after arriving in the United States from Germany. He moved to Nazareth in 1839, and his namesake company has made guitars, ukuleles and other stringed instruments here since.
The private company employs 850 workers, 650 in the Lehigh Valley.