MARTIN Style 6/Style 6A Description
- rosewood bowl, bent spruce top, ivory bound body, fluted body joined with ivory, mahogany neck with ivory binding, 42 ribs, inlaid tortoise shell pickguard with pearl inlays, sound hole pearl and ivory inlay, ebony fingerboard with vine inlay, ivory bridge, German silver engraved tailpiece, fancy cutout headstock with four-per-side rear-mounted German tuners, available in Natural finish, mfg. 1898-1921.
In 1901, the headstock inlay was added and the fingerboard inlays at the end were discontinued. In 1904, the headstock, fingerboard, and guard inlays were changed to ivory. In 1914, the snowflake inlay was introduced, which is similar to the Style 45 Martin guitar.
There was also a Style 6A Mandolin made, but apparently was never put in the catalog. These were supposedly built for Joseph A. Handley in Lowell, MA. The only difference between this and the Style 6 is that the pickguard was moved to the side. Some models have been seen with no headstock inlay and top binding of black and white stripes.