What's up with the Martin C1K?

The colour of the wood will change over time. In 80 years it might look completely different. Obviously the Martin stash of koa wood is not the same as the stash used by other makers, and there is only so much wood that can be harvested from a single tree. If we follow the last 100 years of history, the Martin C1K will still be sought after at the end of this century. If you are lucky enough to have one in its early life, maybe you could take some photos and make some sound recordings to inform the lucky owners in the 2090s?

I love the ignorance in the discussion about the bridges. There will be a good reason if the bridges fitted at Nazareth are different to the bridges fitted in Mexico, I don't know the reason. Unless you know the reason, most discussion about how it looks it irrelevant. if you pay $1800 for a uke, the best thing to do is play it, then play it some more, and then keep playing it, and leave the finish alone unless you are following instructions in the Martin care and maintenance guide.

Wait 80 years? Sorry, I'll let you do that, not me, I don't have that long. If Martin can't put out a decent, traditional looking koa uke (Martin is all about tradition, right?), then they should either switch to an alternate wood, ilke acacia, or dye that light koa, which would improve the look immeasurably, YMMV. CITES is over. I say bring back dark rosewood boards, and lose the cheesy, light bamboo-looking bodies. Unfortunately, upon deaf ears, my pleas do apparently fall, so far.

If you pay good money for a new Martin uke, from either country of origin, and it looks lousy, you should either send it back, and get an earlier used model which will appeal to both your eyes and ears, or get a vintage Martin
 
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The same wood variety can come in many shades. I have a cocobolo uke from Nicaragua which is brown streaked with tan. Other luthiers in Nicaragua make cocobolo ukes that are red. I guess one tree makes many ukes and different luthiers have different logs.
 
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Yes, those 3 look pretty good. I do want one, and will get one eventually, most likely an older used model, so I can get the darker look I prefer, with a rosewood fretboard. I know one thing: if I ordered one sight unseen from an internet vendor, based on a stock pic like below, and opened it to find a very light colored version, I would not be happy. I know, ordering sight unseen is silly, but I'm sure this happens all the time. It happened to me once, with another brand, but won't again.

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The latest listings from Mim look pretty good...

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I think they are pretty sexy too! And they sound super good! The one thing all Martins need right now is an action adjustment. But with a little Mim-love, they play super well and really are full and robust!
I need to make a demo video because I think people are not giving them a change due to some issues with setup, because they literally set them up to the 1920s specifications which has a higher 12th fret action.
But that can be modified. And they really do have a nice open sound!
 
BTW, I have been invited to Nazareth for some face to face to talk about all things ukulele. I have been there once to pick out some custom woods, but this will be more thorough and directly with some VPs so some cool things should be happening in the future.
 
BTW, I have been invited to Nazareth for some face to face to talk about all things ukulele. I have been there once to pick out some custom woods, but this will be more thorough and directly with some VPs so some cool things should be happening in the future.

Sounds good!....
 
That's cool MIM, hope you have a great meeting with Martin, and looking forward to your C1K demo video. It would also be interesting to find out if they plan to use rosewood for fingerboards again on the Made in Mexico ukes, instead of sipo, now that the CITES restrictions have been lifted.
 
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They're in the unenviable position where several companies who make copies of their instruments make better instruments than them.

An old Martin is a joy, but I have never met a modern one I thought was interesting. I certainly don't feel like owning one.
 
I don't think there is competition between owning old or new. They are clearly different things. There is a school of thought that the Martins that still exist from decades ago managed it because they were better than the others. The bad ones weren't played and eventually ended up as kindling.

The question is really are the current generation of Martins good enough to deserve the status that the old ones do? I think they aren't, personally. They're boring, factory produced instruments and most of the price is the name on the box. I'd much rather own a modern Ken Timms copy of a Martin than an actual Martin. If I wanted a new, factory produced ukulele I'd buy a Bruko over a Martin. Better made and 1/4 of the price.
 
OK. If you must have a concert, and it must be made of koa, you can buy a Martin. But whatever you say, the instruments are not as good as some of the competition. Kiwaya are another company that makes better Martins than Martin.

I'd be astonished if you could tell the difference between a selection of Koa ukuleles and ones made from other woods if you were blindfolded. If you've only heard sound samples of the instruments on Youtube, I don't see how you can make a proper judgment.

Oh, and Bruko make pretty much anything you want if you ask them.
 
OK. If you must have a concert, and it must be made of koa, you can buy a Martin. But whatever you say, the instruments are not as good as some of the competition. Kiwaya are another company that makes better Martins than Martin.

I'd be astonished if you could tell the difference between a selection of Koa ukuleles and ones made from other woods if you were blindfolded. If you've only heard sound samples of the instruments on Youtube, I don't see how you can make a proper judgment.

Oh, and Bruko make pretty much anything you want if you ask them.

I own a new C1K and love it. (I mostly play sopranos, FWIW.) If I were buying a concert again, however, I would get a Kiwaya. They do make better Martins than Martin does today. My laminate Famous/Kiwaya is unreal. Playability, sound, resonance, all amazing for a laminate.
 
I own a new C1K and love it. (I mostly play sopranos, FWIW.) If I were buying a concert again, however, I would get a Kiwaya. They do make better Martins than Martin does today. My laminate Famous/Kiwaya is unreal. Playability, sound, resonance, all amazing for a laminate.

I recently picked up a Chinese-made Kiwaya KCU-1 for my wife. For the $170 I paid for it, it's a great playing and sounding ukulele. She loves it!
I did notice a difference between the neck profile on that uke and on my other Kiwayas, including the Japanese-made KS-1. The MIJ Kiwayas all have a slimmer neck profile than the MIC concert I just bought a few weeks back. But hey...for $170 new...it's tough to beat.
 
I recently picked up a Chinese-made Kiwaya KCU-1 for my wife. For the $170 I paid for it, it's a great playing and sounding ukulele. She loves it!

I've been trying to find one of these for someone, can I ask where you got it?
 
The thread is about Martin C1K ukes, so I suppose those reading it would actually be interested in a Koa concert ukulele made by Martin. If they wanted something else they would not be reading this thread except for some entertainment. If they wanted something else, they may not bother reading this thread?

And yes Bruko do custom work if you ask, but how much does it cost for a custom koa Bruko? Has anyone bought one recently who can give us the ball park for the price of a custom Koa Concert sized uke? Or have most buyers just decided to find a C1K or a K brand Koa Concert sized uke?

I looked up the Kiwaya KCU-1 and it looks like it is made out of mahogany. I love solid mahogany, but it is not koa and it is cheaper to buy mahogany wood than koa at the moment, so the price of a mahogany concert ukulele should be lower than the equivalent koa model. And there no doubt that a solid Mahogany concert sized uke like a Kiwaya KCU-1 is good value. I see them for sale at Uke Republic and they seem to be sold out at World of Ukes. But of course they are not a concert sized koa uke like the C1K.

The introduction of the C1K at the current price has been and good sales strategy. A sub-$1000 solid Koa Concert sized uke made in North America by Martin Guitar Company. While it seems to be getting some competition from Mahogany ukes made elsewhere, it does seem to be competing well with actual Koa wood Concert sized ukes. And I would still like one please, but don't want to spend the money it costs to get one into Australia.

I was not aware that Brüko made koa ukuleles, even as customs.

The KCU-1 is not only mahogany, it's a laminate, and Chinese-made unlike most of Kiwaya's other models. I can't speak for this model in particular, but Kiwaya is said to make the best (production) laminate ukes, at least from Japan. Possibly because of the coronavirus and Japan Post halting international exports, Kiwayas seem to be scarce right now, and I haven't seen the KCU-1 anywhere except at inflated prices.

The only other laminate models I've heard as high praise for are Martin's HPL ukuleles, but they are only produced as sopranos, and they're not really laminates in the same sense. But I would love to try a Martin HPL concert or even a tenor. They would weigh twice as much as any other uke their size, but for sound and durability they'd probably be great for outdoors and travel.

I have to agree about the (very far) south of $1000 (USD) Martin C1K being a great sales strategy. Or, I don't really know about sales, but I like that they offer it. And a tenor for not much more; I wonder why they don't also offer a Mexican-made "S1K" while they're at it. That would be a nice option.

Does Martin not have retailers that carry ukuleles in Australia? Or did you just mean they have high markups because they're imports?
 
I found it locally at a shop about an hour’s drive from my house. Acousticmusic dot org

In my search I had found their website, but they didn't have the concert. They did have two Kiwayas listed: a longneck soprano, and a koa laminate soprano which looked really interesting. But I'm after the KCU-1 because it's a cheap, laminate concert with a pretty good reputation. Thanks for the heads up.
 
In my search I had found their website, but they didn't have the concert. They did have two Kiwayas listed: a longneck soprano, and a koa laminate soprano which looked really interesting. But I'm after the KCU-1 because it's a cheap, laminate concert with a pretty good reputation. Thanks for the heads up.

Yes, I nabbed it as soon as I saw it online. Paid over the phone, Made the drive down, Curbside service.
Nice folks there. I got my Kiwaya KTT-2K there last fall.
 
I would like a Ken Timms model as well, unfortunately he only makes sopranos and the ones he makes are not easy to get. I think almost every UU member who wants a soprano would feel the same. But the C1K is a concert ukulele, not a soprano.

I would also be looking at a Bruko over a Martin if I lived in Europe and wanted a Mahogany Concert ukulele. I would probably looking at driving to the factory in Kitzingen to pick it up as well. However, Bruko do not sell a Koa wood concert model ukulele as far as I can tell. The Brukos are at a competitive price with other mahogany ukuleles, currently fine koa wood costs more than mahogany so the Koa ukes cost more.

Many buyers look at buying a Martin ukulele, some of them don't care if it vintage or not. In the USA (and maybe in a few other places) a C1K is at a competitive price for a Koa Concert ukulele. Many buyers are going to be comparing it with a vintage concert Martin ukulele and picking the one they like most. A new C1K is also going to be more easy to find in many places.

Hi Bill,

You make a lot of sense. I've had more of the new Martins than most people, except maybe with the other guy in this thread with all those new Koa Martins and an IZ tenor! hehe I used to buy ukuleles just by looks and that was a big mistake. So much money wasted for a nice looking uke that sounded shamefully lame, or bad intonation, or tuning problems, etc... The C1K and the T1K (I had one) looked somewhat bland but they have a great sound. I have the new C2K that I actually used in my most popular YT video and it sounds fantastic. I brought it once to the local Uke jam group and a guy rushed up to me with his C1K and wanted to try my C2K. He played it and said, "I love that my C1K sounds almost the same as your C2K." I replied unpretentiously, "Now you know." I played his C1K too and I had already played one years back in the 12 Fret Store in Toronto. They sell high-end guitars and ukes. I've also played vintage soprano Martins before, but I still prefer the new ones. I like creating my own sound in my time. cheers... - Pete

BTW- I forgot to mention that I have a custom Bruko soprano and had two other Bruko sopranos. I have a Kamaka longneck Pineapple, and even a Sitarlele. I have a soprano Risa stick that is great for travelling but freaks out airport security scanners when they see that beast going thru the scanner!!! hehe. The only ukes that I would like to have is a Mya-Moe or a Kiwaya soprano.
 
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I recently picked up a barely used Martin T1K tenor uke, for a great price. Love it! It's Koa is not the prettiest I have seen, and it is a bit on the light side, appearance and color wise, however it does sound great. It sounds loud, rich, resonant and musical. Comparing it to my Koaloha KTM-00, sound wise, they are both very close. I would give the edge to the Koaloha, but just barely so, by a hair.

My one gripe with the Martin is the nut width, I wish they were more generous with nut width. I realize that they are following their old designs, but a wider nut would be very welcome. The same uke with a 38 mm (1.5 inch) nut would have been a dream, instead the nut on their tenor is not even 1 3/8th of an inch but even narrower than that at 1 11/32''.
 
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