“You need to learn to play properly using the lower strings!”: What Johnny Marr told (probably) Noel Gallagher when he complained about him using Martin acoustics

Johnny Marr is a known Martin aficionado – and had some strong words for a “friend in a well known band” who always insisted its guitars had “unnecessary bottom end”.

Of course, the powerful bottom end on Martin acoustics is a distinguished feature of those guitars. For Martin, it’s a huge strength – and if you don’t agree, like his unnamed friend, Marr believes the problem might just be down to your skills.

• READ MORE: Johnny Marr on acoustics and his signature seven-string Martin

“I’ve got a friend in a well-known band and he’s sometimes peeved about my use of Martins because he says they have unnecessary bottom-end,” he tells Guitar World. “My retort is always: ‘Well, you need to learn to play properly using the lower strings and start writing songs in tunings.’ Because he’s a Hummingbird and J-200 freak.”

It may have been that Marr is referring to Noel Gallagher. It’s known that they are friends, and Gallagher favours a Gibson acoustic – and obviously, he’s in a well-known band.

Marr goes on to talk about his new signature models. In October, he unveiled his second signature, a rather quirky Martin with seven strings.

“But with my signature models, I’m trying to do that thing where they sound really good recorded and they will take that really punchy rhythm playing. That’s why I say it sounds a bit like The Who. I think a bit of that is down to them being slightly shallower than the dreadnought, but they still have the rest of those dreadnought dimensions.”

Marr also recently spoke about the signature model to Guitar.com, saying: “When I got the prototype, I realised it was for regular guitar players. “I hope that the experience comes across in the same way for you – that you do what you do, but it sounds like it has some extra production on it.

“If you take someone who’s written their song on a six-string, when they play it on there, they will hear the difference. And, of course, it doesn’t sound like a 12-string, and it doesn’t behave like a 12-string. But – and this is going to sound incredibly, incredibly obvious – but you can play anything the way you would normally play it on a six string, and just forget that that G string is there. Because it’s so un-cumbersome, but your ear tells you that something else is going on.”