New Martin 5K?

It has been 8 years since the last post
. Martin raised its price to $4999 and the iconic 5K Soprano is still in their catalogue. Like the D-18 guitar iconic design has a following and unlike what others would have you believe there is a reason it is iconic because it is beautifully made, it has been played by famous musicians, and musicians still want and appreciate both the feel, the design, and the way it plays and sounds. I get it …many who do not have a spare $5000 and want their instruments to have value and get kudos for they way they are built, the way they feel, or the way they sound. That won’t happen because an icon is an icon. If you don’t have an icon it will take time tested examples in order for it to become one. Chuck Moore is a star luthier but he does not have an icon that he has built enough of to make it iconic. Yes great instruments but it takes more to make an icon and that more is time.
Gibson has several icons The Les Paul (electric guitar) The Master tone (banjo) The F 5 Lloyd Loar style mandolin to name a few, Fender has the Stratocaster. I don’t need to make a long list of iconic instruments as there are many. The thing all of them have in common is they are time tested..
You can put down Martin 5K’s as you wish but that won’t change the fact that these ukuleles are iconic.
The early ones are sought after and if you are lucky enough to find one and have $10,000+ to spend you can still buy an original icon If you don’t you have only one choice to find an icon and that is to buy a new one or at least a new one on the secondary market.
Are they worth it? You Bet, Because they are iconic and everyone who knows anything about the ukulele knows that the 5K Soprano made by Martin is iconic. The best news is you don’t have to spend $5000 to own one as used ones do come to market. Here is one I recently purchased. I already own a few early Martin Sopranos and they are special and having an icon means something, not only is it a great instrument to have in your tool box but everyone recognizes a Martin 5K Soprano It is universally accepted as one of the very best Soprano ukuleles ever made.

I learned a valuable lesson recently. First let me say I am a Martin guitar fan, and that extends to the company overall. However I purchased a 00-28 guitar a few years ago. Upon looking to sell, the going price was a very big reduction in dollars. Now having bought and sold musical instruments for 40 years, I am well aware of the value lost when buying new and reselling. Kinda like cars. It’s still painful.
So my lesson has been, Be absolutely sure you want the instrument and are going to hold on to it a while, before you buy. Otherwise the inevitable happens.
ya live, ya learn as Momma tried to tell me…….

Bobalonia said:

learned a valuable lesson recently. First let me say I am a Martin guitar fan, and that extends to the company overall. However I purchased a 00-28 guitar a few years ago. Upon looking to sell, the going price was a very big reduction in dollars. Now having bought and sold musical instruments for 40 years, I am well aware of the value lost when buying new and reselling. Kinda like cars. It’s still painful

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Understood but what buyers do not realize is that Martin does not sell these instruments for a retail price Martin sells to dealers and the last I heard is that dealers pay somewhere between 50-60% of the retail price The secondary market is just that and those prices are generally controlled by dealers. Dealers tend to charge somewhere between the Martin price and the retail price for instruments on the secondary market. That is your competition that you have to find a way to at least get near what a dealers ASK is. I would expect that that ASK will be between half and 75% of the retail price. Yes it is a loss unless you plan on holding on to the instrument. For example I bought an OM 21 back maybe 15 years ago Martin was asking $2000 back then I paid $1700 Now that same guitar is $3000 so I can likely get all the money and even a slight profit. As I clearly stated the element that comes into play especially for iconic instruments is always time. If you hold on to your 00-28 long enough you should get your money back. I am one that looks at the idea of playing instruments and I don’t care what they are eventually worth but if I make good choices they do hold their value over time. I still have my 1969 Stratocaster and I might get 30 times what I paid for that which proves my point. Then again I had to hold on to it since I was a kid but being iconic it has certainly held it’s value.

Maybe I'm crazy, but when it comes to ukuleles I prefer the look of a 'simple' instrument - like a Style 0, or possibly a Style 1. As you can see below - while I do love the look of body/headstock binding and fretboard inlays on an electric guitar, for some reason I am not attracted to them on ukes. Go figure.

Bill1 said:

it is just about getting attention to the Martin catalogue

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I think you need to go on the Martin factory tour, maybe when you go through the inlay department it may change your outlook. If that were true the D-45 would also be what you are calling a flagship model Built only for “getting attention to the Martin catalog”. It is very clear that a lot more work goes into a 45 than let’s say an 18 and a lot more work goes into a style 5 than a style 2. (Which Martin has brought back recently.) The price is based on materials and cost of work time.
If you think Martin just throws a price out there, think again. I have been on that tour many many times as I live an hour from Martin in the next County and I grew up even a tad closer than where I live now. It is quite clear the formula that Martin uses to price is Materials and the cost of work time. I have heard that question answered several times over 5o years and the answer has always been work time and materials. It certainly takes time to produce the detailing on a 5K Soprano ukulele. Martin never makes a large pile of the more intricate instruments making the cost of production more, not to mention the rigorous inspection process needed to approve an instrument before it is placed on the racks to be sold. If it isn’t perfect it doesn’t get sold until it is perfect and passes the inspection process.
I am sure the pay scale of someone making those inlays is not the same as someone pushing a cart of bodies to the finish room. The price reflects the cost of man hours and the cost of materials. The koa used on a 5K is not the same grade used on a 2K The reason Martin has the 5K in their catalog is not just for show, Martin brought back the 5K because the demand for the 5K is high. There is an uptick in ukulele building that started in the 1990’s Martin has built more ukuleles than any factory in the world. It was no longer cost effective to build in Nazareth and Martin saw the need for large production and started building in their plant in Mexico to cut down labor costs and produce better than average instruments at a lower price, but the 5K when re-introduced was made in Nazareth where the specialist builders who do the finer work were employed. It isn’t just a show pony , Dealers world wide have customers for the
5K and it is in the Martin catalog because Martin knows the market for ukuleles as well as anyone in the world, they are the oldest Company with the longest History of building the ukulele starting production in 1915 but built some instruments even earlier. Kamaka in Hawaii started building in 1916 and is the longest running Hawaiian ukulele Company.. Martin builds world class instruments and have earned the reputation of being one of the oldest and best ukulele builders in the world. The 5K is not just some show pony it is in the Martin catalogue because it is iconic and players want them. Even in Hawaii where there are many ukuleles being built Martin’s 5K is the quintessential instrument that others use as the high-bar to compare with. That is why great early examples of the 5K Soprano Ukulele can fetch more than $10,000 and if you are lucky enough to find an early 5K tenor it will cost a small fortune.

Jag-Stang said:

It has been 8 years since the last post
. Martin raised its price to $4999 and the iconic 5K Soprano is still in their catalogue. Like the D-18 guitar iconic design has a following and unlike what others would have you believe there is a reason it is iconic because it is beautifully made, it has been played by famous musicians, and musicians still want and appreciate both the feel, the design, and the way it plays and sounds. I get it …many who do not have a spare $5000 and want their instruments to have value and get kudos for they way they are built, the way they feel, or the way they sound. That won’t happen because an icon is an icon. If you don’t have an icon it will take time tested examples in order for it to become one. Chuck Moore is a star luthier but he does not have an icon that he has built enough of to make it iconic. Yes great instruments but it takes more to make an icon and that more is time.
Gibson has several icons The Les Paul (electric guitar) The Master tone (banjo) The F 5 Lloyd Loar style mandolin to name a few, Fender has the Stratocaster. I don’t need to make a long list of iconic instruments as there are many. The thing all of them have in common is they are time tested..
You can put down Martin 5K’s as you wish but that won’t change the fact that these ukuleles are iconic.
The early ones are sought after and if you are lucky enough to find one and have $10,000+ to spend you can still buy an original icon If you don’t you have only one choice to find an icon and that is to buy a new one or at least a new one on the secondary market.
Are they worth it? You Bet, Because they are iconic and everyone who knows anything about the ukulele knows that the 5K Soprano made by Martin is iconic. The best news is you don’t have to spend $5000 to own one as used ones do come to market. Here is one I recently purchased. I already own a few early Martin Sopranos and they are special and having an icon means something, not only is it a great instrument to have in your tool box but everyone recognizes a Martin 5K Soprano It is universally accepted as one of the very best Soprano ukuleles ever made.


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The wood on this uke does not look like a 5k at all and that endpin is just as wrong as it gets.

A friend of mine (lucky blighter!) has a 5K replica built by Dave Means (Glyph ukuleles). This is it:

merlin666 said:

The wood on this uke does not look like a 5k at all and that endpin is just as wrong as it gets

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Times have changed and tuners have changed Martin used Gotoh UPT’s with gold accents and an endpin to match Martin often changes tuners to what they envision as more modern and having better Function. They certainly are an upgrade. As technology changes so do accessories Martin never made their own tuners. I don’t think they view the 5K as something that is an exact replica. It has the same specs but not necessarily the same hardware. Unlike luthiers that copy the 5K and attempt to make the same instrument, Martin adds what they find to be best…I would rather have the UPT’s they are smarter better functioning tuners. I suppose the endpin could have stayed the same but it is 2023 and end pins are also more functional that those used 100 years ago.

What gets to me is the idea that we should buy instruments as investment.We should buy instruments to play and enjoy them. Value is in the eye of the beholder. So what if Martin shows the talent of its workers by using good materials and beautiful clean inlay. They are copied all the time because they are beautiful instruments. The. Copies may look better to some but they are not Martins and they likely will not fetch Martin prices. I get it that an old car can be an investment but I don’t see new instruments as investment because one has to hold on to them for a long time just for them to be old and scarce. . Buying new anything is simply the “luck of the draw”. For instance Moog was just bought out by a large. Company that paid off all employee stock and fired most of the workers. So these American built synthesizers will be built overseas. The older or limited Moog synths have skyrocketed. Even limited production items from 4 years ago like the Sirin have tripled in price. If you bought a Moog you likely have something that will not be made here again and will go up in value. It isn’t much different for most things Great luthiers seem to fetch the most money once they are dead. Some get press while they are alive and become the top tiered builders but for the most part good luthiers are well kept secrets until their instruments are seen in publications or websites or until someone famous is playing them. Prices are controlled by popularity while wonderful instruments seem to lie beneath the surface waiting for someone to bring attention to their existence.
The building price of the 5K Martin Soprano is less than half of the retail price as Martin must make a profit in order to sell to it’s dealers. Their cost is very much inline with a Martin copy made by a reputable luthier. The 5K copies I have seen certainly approach $2,000 plus mark. Martin sells to its dealers at close to that price. Real value is likely closer to $2500 not $5000 The reality is dealers make the prices as they agree to advertise at the retail price. I have a modern Martin 5K Soprano purchased on the secondary market for under $2000 and if I had the choice of buying a Martin copy of a 5K from a luthier for $2000 or buying a Martin. I think I would stick with the Martin. It is good quality and Martin has proven that they make quality instruments. I trust they will hold value. I may never make a profit but I buy because I like the feel, the playability and the sound. I am happy with many of the instruments I own and I do not care about investment as much as having a quality instrument. That Martin makes a crappy sounding 5K is BS and because dealers ask $4999 for one is simply capitalism. Martin sets a retail price but they get nowhere near that price so lighten up we do live in a Capitalistic Society and dealers will be dealers.

New Martin 5K Tenor? Not mentioned on Martin's website. $5,720.


I have read that for a couple of years, IIRC the late 40s, you could custom order a 5K Concert or Tenor. If this is true one of those would be $$$.

serious bread