Looking for advice on Vintage Martin

Two weeks ago I was on ebay and saw what looked like a lovely style 2 soprano from the 1920's. On a whim, I placed a bid about a week out and forgot about it only to awake one morning to the news that I won the auction. This uke was part of an estate sale. It was found in an old canvas case in the back of a closet and nobody in the family ever remembers seeing it played.

I received the ukulele and at almost 100 years old, it sings out beautifully with great tone and sustain, and great clarity. It is easy to play, the neck is straight, but there are two hairline cracks in the back.

My question is: Do I leave it as is, or do I get it repaired? I don't believe this will be a life-long keeper for me. I prefer tenors over soprano and I already have a number of excellent sopranos that will do for me. I love my vintage Martin Tenor, but I feel that at some point, I will probably sell the soprano but I don't want to do anything that will hurt its value in a resale. I want to do what is best.

Please share your ideas.

Unfortunately, it looks as though somebody has slobbered glue through the sound hole, in a misguided attempt to deal with the cracks. This might make it more difficult for a repairer to do the job properly. You should seek expert advice.

John Colter

Fixing cracks changes the sound a uke makes.. I have 2 vintage ukes I have had cracks repaired on (back cracks).

If you want to cracks repaired, first find some one who has worked on vintage ukes (gryphon strings is local for me and they do know their ukes and repairs.. and that is why I was confident to get the repairs done). Second, do it only if you are ok with the sound changing..

If the cracks are stable and purely aesthetic, you can get away with not fixing them.

I would have it fixed by someone skilled enough. Stabilizing these cracks isn't that expensive, although John's right about the difficulty of fixing the sloppy glue residue.

It's worth it. The ukulele will grow on you, as it sounds like nothing else.

Does that white trim mean that it's a Style 2?

Jerryc41 said:

Does that white trim mean that it's a Style 2?

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Yes, to my understanding the style refers to the trim.

ukulelekarcsi said:

I would have it fixed by someone skilled enough. Stabilizing these crack isn't that expensive, although John's right about the difficulty of fixing the sloppy glue residue.

It's worth it. The ukulele will grow on you, as it sounds like nothing else.

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On Saturday, I brought it to a place called Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia. They have luthiers there who work on vintage instrument. They also buy and sell. I wanted to get their opinion on it. I should have checked their website first because I found that they are closed on weekends. I will need to go back into the city another time with the ukulele.

ukantor said:

Unfortunately, it looks as though somebody has slobbered glue through the sound hole, in a misguided attempt to deal with the cracks. This might make it more difficult for a repairer to do the job properly. You should seek expert advice.

John Colter

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Yes, I could not see the glue in the original post on ebay (the picture with the white background).

ukulelekarcsi said:

I would have it fixed by someone skilled enough. Stabilizing these crack isn't that expensive, although John's right about the difficulty of fixing the sloppy glue residue.

It's worth it. The ukulele will grow on you, as it sounds like nothing else.

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I did not pay much for this ukulele and it plays absolutely beautifully. The word "Stabilize" is the right word for what I am looking for.

You also have the option of just leaving it alone, and maybe try a course of humidification, especially if they are just hairline cracks. The cracks may be very old, and already pretty stable. It would be interesting to see if they close up after humidification. If not you could always fix it later.

If the cracks are stable and old, and the uke sounds good and plays right, I’d leave it as is.

My Martin concert’s got quite a few cracks, and a broken wood dent on the lower bout, treble side. But I have no plans to repair it as it plays nice and sounds wonderful.

From what I've heard, if you can find a Martin certified luthier, it's worth taking it in...