blue_knight_usa
Well-known member
I just received my Martin 51B and wow is it a gem. Came with original case (have no idea who made it, no marking) that is probably an 8.5 out of 10 which for that age was really exciting. Latches are still good with original plastic handle.
https://soundcloud.com/ukulele-jay/1962-1963-martin-baritone Here is it's first voice heard in over 50 years.
The Story (like my 1932 Martin Style 2...a great story): A 95 year old man walks into a guitar shop (I guess you can have a bar in a guitar shop too) and tells the owner he wants to sell his uke because he never played it, and it's been in his closet for over 50 years. He ordered it in 1962 or 1963 from Martin directly. He couldn't remember which year but that narrowed it down. It took him 6 months to get it from Martin. So the owner of the guitar shop took it on consignment.
I caught wind of it, contacted the shop and made an offer. Well, the 95 year old in that short time, passed away. He outlived his son, and so the shop had to deal with the grandson, and he agreed to my price.
This uke is pristine as if Martin made it last week. There is just something special about the Mahogany Martin was using back then and the sound is that rich baritone sound you'd want assuming you don't want to change it to GCEA tuning. I'll be keeping this one DGBE because it's just such a cool sound to me. Maybe one day I'll be motivated to learn baritone chords that equate to my linear and re-entrant tuned ukes, but for now playing solo, won't matter.
https://soundcloud.com/ukulele-jay/1962-1963-martin-baritone Here is it's first voice heard in over 50 years.
The Story (like my 1932 Martin Style 2...a great story): A 95 year old man walks into a guitar shop (I guess you can have a bar in a guitar shop too) and tells the owner he wants to sell his uke because he never played it, and it's been in his closet for over 50 years. He ordered it in 1962 or 1963 from Martin directly. He couldn't remember which year but that narrowed it down. It took him 6 months to get it from Martin. So the owner of the guitar shop took it on consignment.
I caught wind of it, contacted the shop and made an offer. Well, the 95 year old in that short time, passed away. He outlived his son, and so the shop had to deal with the grandson, and he agreed to my price.
This uke is pristine as if Martin made it last week. There is just something special about the Mahogany Martin was using back then and the sound is that rich baritone sound you'd want assuming you don't want to change it to GCEA tuning. I'll be keeping this one DGBE because it's just such a cool sound to me. Maybe one day I'll be motivated to learn baritone chords that equate to my linear and re-entrant tuned ukes, but for now playing solo, won't matter.
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