falling in love with my vintage Martin concert

Swamp Yankee

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After spending the past few months in a plastic bag with a spice pouch filled with ground coffee stuffed in the soundhole to rid it of some heinous perfumey deodorizer some prior owner sprayed it with, the uke now has a wonderful smell to it.

Now I can play it as long as I want without feeling as though I'd break out in hives if I continued. And boy howdy this uke can sing its heart out! Loud, wonderful tone with lots of chime when played hard and warmth and depth when fingerpicked.. it's superb, cracks, divots and all.

Wondering what the little dot inlays in the fretboard were made from, I shined a bright light on it and peered close. I was pleasantly surprised to see they're made from grained ivoroid, and I was tickled to see the builder had carefully aligned the grain on each of the four dots so all pointed to 10 o'clock. Cool.

That's all... just gushing a bit over a ukulele that's 70 years old or so...
 
Glad you got the odor under control! It must have been hard to keep such a nice vintage uke in quarantine for so long!

I had it out a few times a week for visits, but the perfume was too much, so the visits were brief. That coffee treatment really did the job! Much better than baking soda and charcoal... at least for absorbing perfume stench.

Now that heating season is over and the house is at 45% RH, I can let all my ukes out of their bags :D
 
Wondering what the little dot inlays in the fretboard were made from, I shined a bright light on it and peered close. I was pleasantly surprised to see they're made from grained ivoroid, and I was tickled to see the builder had carefully aligned the grain on each of the four dots so all pointed to 10 o'clock. Cool.

That's all... just gushing a bit over a ukulele that's 70 years old or so...


Actually, on a 70 year old Martin that would be real ivory. Congratulations on successfully cleaning and bonding with your Uke! How about a sound sample...?

Scooter
 
^^^And pic's...

Enjoy! I sure enjoy my 1933 Martin style 0! Fortunately no stench...
 
Actually, on a 70 year old Martin that would be real ivory. Congratulations on successfully cleaning and bonding with your Uke! How about a sound sample...?

Scooter

For real? It doesn't look like real ivory... more like grained ivoroid.
Grained ivoroid was in common usage in musical instruments and had been since the turn of the century. I'd honestly be surprised if it was real.
 
Pics are easier than sound... though I'm still contemplating getting a Zoom H5, besides that, I have the mic on this cheesy Amazon Fire tablet.
 
Congratulations with your Concert. My "not at any price" keeper is a WWII made Martin Concert, they are all 1Ms from those years. It hangs right beside me as I post this and it is calling for a few strums.
Dave
 
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