Doc_J
Well-known member
Over the years I've had a couple Favilla baritones, a Silvertone (Harmony) baritone, and most recently a Martin baritone. All were mahogany and sounded great, but somewhat different. Currently I have nice examples of a Favilla and a Martin baritones, and found it interesting to compare/contrast them. There has been some discussion on UU about these two models in particular. BTW the Silvertone I had last sounded every bit as good as the Favilla I had at the time. Although the action on the Silvertone was quite high.
First, Martin & Favilla seem quite a bit different to me, beyond the obvious physical differences. The Favilla has a more guitarish sound to me and the Martin is more uke-sounding to my ears. My Favilla has a Flamenco guitar quality to the sound, not unlike a baritone from Les Stansell (which now sell for about 10x what a Favilla costs). Both are responsive and sound very different to me, even their resonance sounds different. I prefer the Favilla played fingerstyle rather than strummed. I like the Martin better as a strummer. The Martin has a little reverb/echo quality to the resonance, while the Favilla is more typical resonance of a single tone, great played fingerstyle. Both are very responsive.
The physical differences are interesting. The Favilla body is wider and deeper, but a bit shorter than the Martin. I'm sure that bigger size has a factor in the resulting Favilla sound. Favilla's have a 19" scale, vs. 20" for the Martin. The neck on the martin is thinner and flatter similar to high end tenors I've played. The Favilla neck is stout, so is the fretboard 1.45" width at the nut vs. 1.34" for the Martin. Not sure of my preference, but I'm leaning towards the Martin.
Just wanted to get a conversation going about these old baritones.
Here's a sound sample of each and pics.
Martin with D'addario nylon strings (?)
https://app.box.com/s/0k8jpwqp6lf8oebvymkr4n5av5t5nn49
Favilla with Martin FC strings
https://app.box.com/s/0q7vz6z9zhc4xjvcnrorz6885zu5ffja
I also dug up an old recording of the Silvertone with Aquila Nylguts for comparison.
https://app.box.com/s/3qz943sbntfigaezjcc6vrz5g8z3mf3i
P1090243 by hejenkins, on Flickr
P1090246 by hejenkins, on Flickr
First, Martin & Favilla seem quite a bit different to me, beyond the obvious physical differences. The Favilla has a more guitarish sound to me and the Martin is more uke-sounding to my ears. My Favilla has a Flamenco guitar quality to the sound, not unlike a baritone from Les Stansell (which now sell for about 10x what a Favilla costs). Both are responsive and sound very different to me, even their resonance sounds different. I prefer the Favilla played fingerstyle rather than strummed. I like the Martin better as a strummer. The Martin has a little reverb/echo quality to the resonance, while the Favilla is more typical resonance of a single tone, great played fingerstyle. Both are very responsive.
The physical differences are interesting. The Favilla body is wider and deeper, but a bit shorter than the Martin. I'm sure that bigger size has a factor in the resulting Favilla sound. Favilla's have a 19" scale, vs. 20" for the Martin. The neck on the martin is thinner and flatter similar to high end tenors I've played. The Favilla neck is stout, so is the fretboard 1.45" width at the nut vs. 1.34" for the Martin. Not sure of my preference, but I'm leaning towards the Martin.
Just wanted to get a conversation going about these old baritones.
Here's a sound sample of each and pics.
Martin with D'addario nylon strings (?)
https://app.box.com/s/0k8jpwqp6lf8oebvymkr4n5av5t5nn49
Favilla with Martin FC strings
https://app.box.com/s/0q7vz6z9zhc4xjvcnrorz6885zu5ffja
I also dug up an old recording of the Silvertone with Aquila Nylguts for comparison.
https://app.box.com/s/3qz943sbntfigaezjcc6vrz5g8z3mf3i
P1090243 by hejenkins, on Flickr
P1090246 by hejenkins, on Flickr
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