Martin as a line of guitars at affordable prices to compete with the increasing number of imported guitars from Japan and elsewhere. Sigma Guitars is a guitar manufacturing brand originally released by C.F. The only ones I really liked were Guild 12 strings and one or two old Yamahas, but the newer Martin 12 strings are really nice.Acoustic and classical guitars, acoustic basses, ukuleles I've never been a big fan of 12 strings and on the occasions I owned them, I got bored with them and got rid of them.
However, the store also got some new Martin 12 strings 16 series and X series which sounded fine and sold quickly.
Recently, our local store got in a Sigma 12 string with a solid top and it was amazingly nice for the price and sold quickly. You can find more discussions about Sigmas in this thread I paid $225 for it used with hard shell case expecting a beater, but it's far better than I ever expected. It may be an anomaly, but the guitar has warm sweet bass and mid and clear clean trebles. I also have a laminate top Sigma which is a beater with inferior tone, but the DR41 is comperable to Martins. It has scalloped braces and EIR laminated back and sides and was made in Indonesia. I played it hard for a few weeks and a surprisingly good tone emerged. The measurement is slightly deeper than my Martin dreads and the fingerboard is 1 3/4 at the nut. Although it was at least 8 years old, the guitar was still white in color and in mint condition.had never been played and the sound was okay. The fingerboard is a little wavy, but feels very good. The Sigma guitar line was discontinued in 2007.Ībout a year and a half ago, I bought a used Sigma DR41 for a back up guitar. After finishing, "Each Sigma instrument was brought into the Martin factory to be inspected and adjusted by Martin personnel before going to the authorized retail store for retail sale." Some solid body electric guitars were made by Tokai Guitars Company, LTD. Other instruments included mandolins, banjos, acoustic and electric basses and solid body and hollow body electric guitars. With the move of production to Korea in 1984 the paper labels were reinstated but of a different design. In 1980 the paper labels were discontinued and the back brace was stamped. Some guitars in some years however, particularly the classical range, will not have the headstock logo, but all had the inner label. Sigma guitars made in Japan from 1970 through 1979 can be distinguished by a headstock logo consisting of the single word "SIGMA" surmounted with Martins ("sideways M") logo in mother of pearl above it and an inner paper label giving model and serial numbers. In 1980, the model lines and designations were changed to capitalize on Martin model names: the DM-18, DM-19, DR-28, DR-28H, DR-35, DR-41, DR-45, but the older model types were also continued as well. There were also classical guitars in the C (Classical) series.
Sigma built the GCS (Grand Concert Series) to Martin's 000 body specifications. Some GCR-6 triple 000 and OM Series were built in Japan also. The first Sigma's were dreadnought acoustics, DR-1 through DR-7 (D for dreadnought and R for rosewood and the number denoting the grade, 7 being the top grade instrument).
Initial construction was in Japan, and those from 1970 to approximately 1978 were of solid high grade tonewood (top, sides and back) but from then onwards changed to laminated construction for the back and sides. In 1970, guitar maker Martin created a line of inexpensive guitars to compete with the increasing number of imported guitars from Japan and elsewhere.
However, the modifications I've made have improved them substantially.Įxcept for a select few, I believe all Sigmas were produced in either Japan or Korea (rumor had it that they were all sent to Nazareth for assembly at the factory), and it's impossible to date them by means of their serial numbers since they are not numerically chronological.īottomline: like a box of chocolates, with Sigmas you never know what you're going to get, so try before you buy. I have yet to hear of one that came close to its Martin counterpart. Most if not all Sigmas are laminates and vary widely in sound and tone, from awful to not bad. Hi Joe, I have two used Sigmas, a DM3 and DM4 for about $120 each three years ago, which I designate as my "beaters," and I also use them to try out various modifications before applying them to my "real" guitars.