NUD: Sort of..1940s Martin 1C is back from Jake Wildwood

CPG

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I snagged a 1940s Martins concert for a good price on Ebay a few months ago and posted a real NUD when I got it. It had a few cracks, but they were all well repaired, the setup wasn't bad, and the tuners were upgraded to Gotoh UPTs.

However, while it was good, it just wasn't as great as it could have been. The action was a hair on the high side for my tastes, and more annoying was that there were a few sharps fret ends and burrs that my pinky would sometimes catch on when moving closed position chords up the neck. I probably could have dealt with the burrs, but there wasn't enough saddle to lower the action the usual way, so I ultimately decided to send it off to someone who I knew had expertise in working on old ukes.

I don't remember where I first ran across Jake Wildwood, but at some point I became familiar with his work and his blog, so I gave him a ring and asked if he had time to set this up for me. Turns out this is his slow season so I shipped it off to him early last week.

Well he got the work done promptly and I got it back today. Jake was able to lower the action by resetting the neck a hair and he freshly leveled and smoothed out the frets. It is smooth and slinky. Plays and sounds great!

The uke made it onto his blog too, so rather than bore you with my crappy playing and lousy cell phone pics I'll just share the link to Jake's blog post where he includes a nice description of the uke and the work he did, along with some nice photos, and a nice video/sound sample.

https://jakewildwood.blogspot.com/2019/09/1940s-martin-1c-concert-ukulele.html

So glad I decided to send this too him!
 
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Fabulous Martin concert, congratulations. Excellent choice on having Jake do the work, I agree with him the tortoise binding looks great on the uke.
 
Fabulous Martin concert, congratulations. Excellent choice on having Jake do the work, I agree with him the tortoise binding looks great on the uke.

I was so excited that he had time to do it. He had an old message on his website that said anything shipped to him from out of town could potentially take a very long time. He had it done within two days of receiving it. Great guy to work with in addition to really REALLY knowing what he is doing. I would definitely send him stuff again if needed.
 
Nice! I had seen this on his blog and was wondering who was lucky enough to have this one.
 
Oh, you have rekindled a flame in my mind. I always assumed he was too busy to take my Martin Concert. Now I want to call and ask him! Congrats! I watched that on his blog and Wondered who the lucky duck was...YOU! Congrats!
 
Oh wow, very nice! I'm off to Oahu in a couple days and I think I'm gonna bring my old Martin Tenor to have HMS put some Gotoh UPTs on it. I've been going back and fourth about it for a while now but I think it's time.
 
Jake is so good ie. skillful and honourable that I have had him work on some ukes that were then sent to me in Australia.
 
@CPG thanks for sharing your experience and for this thread.

On his blog Jake commented on the tone of these Martin Concerts: “I often find Martin concerts somewhat bright and shiny and chipper on the tonal spectrum, but this one is somewhere between that usual palette and the soprano-sized Martins with their relaxed, sweet tone.“

I find that contrary to my usual expectations of tone (based on size) and a really helpful comment. Here in the U.K. it’s near impossible to get hold of an old Martin Soprano but if I lived in the States then my reservations about relative tone would have been lessoned (I don’t like bright and I do like relaxed, sweet tone).
 
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Oh, you have rekindled a flame in my mind. I always assumed he was too busy to take my Martin Concert. Now I want to call and ask him! Congrats! I watched that on his blog and Wondered who the lucky duck was...YOU! Congrats!

Yes. Get in touch with him. I sent him an email with some photos and called him. He's a one man shop so it might take him a day or two to get back to you, but he is a super nice guy and very responsive.

Oh wow, very nice! I'm off to Oahu in a couple days and I think I'm gonna bring my old Martin Tenor to have HMS put some Gotoh UPTs on it. I've been going back and fourth about it for a while now but I think it's time.

The previous owner had mine installed. Honestly, it's probably not something I would have thought to do on my own, but it sure is nice to have them there. Unless, there is something particularly collectible about your tenor I'd say do it.

@CPG thanks for sharing your experience and for this thread.

On his blog Jake commented on the tone of these Martin Concerts: “I often find Martin concerts somewhat bright and shiny and chipper on the tonal spectrum, but this one is somewhere between that usual palette and the soprano-sized Martins with their relaxed, sweet tone.“

I find that contrary to my usual expectations of tone (based on size) and a really helpful comment. Here in the U.K. it’s near impossible to get hold of an old Martin Soprano but if I lived in the States then my reservations about relative tone would have been lessoned (I don’t like bright and I do like relaxed, sweet tone).

I was actually surprised by that statement. This is the only vintage Martin concert I've played so I actually assumed most were mellower than mine. Comparing to the couple of vintage Martin soprano's I've played, I guess I would agree that is somewhat more brash. I wouldn't describe it as "shiny" and "chipper" in the way I usually think of those words because it does sound "bigger" to me than a Martin soprano. I do agree that there is a "sweetness" to Martin sorpanos that this doesn't quite have. The reason I don't say "bright", "shiny", or "chipper" is because I don't hear it as more high frequency (again it has "bigger" sound) but there is something a little less mellow about it compared to the Martin soprano's I've played. There is a bit of dissonance or grittiness or something in the natural tonality makes it sound a little more in your face then a a Martin soprano and it's really loud too. It's really hard to describe, but I do agree with Jake's general sentiment. It is halfway between and a Martin soprano and ...well something else.

Very nice. What's involved in resetting the neck?

I'm honestly not entirely sure, but Jake says this about neck resets on his website.

"Some instruments simply need the neck pulled and reglued with shim-ups and that can be around an hour's work ($70 or so), while others need the full steam-out, reshape, and reset which can run from $150-250 depending on the job. "

I got billed for 93 minutes of work for the entire job which involved the neck reset and the fretwork, so I would imagine with mine he at most had to do the former. It was a very minor adjustment.
 
Jealous!
Always wanted a Martin concert.
I don't need one more uke, but surprised what some have sold for on Ebay.

Thx for sharing your experience.
Pleased to hear that a neck reset can be not as big a deal as I thought, though I suppose it might be hard to tell if a minor or major overhaul is needed.
 
Jealous!
Always wanted a Martin concert.
I don't need one more uke, but surprised what some have sold for on Ebay.

Yeah they don't come up that often and when they do they're often over $1,000. I think this one was relatively inexpensive because it had several repaired cracks and a good bit of crazing in the finish. Really overall it's in quite decent condition and I was lucky to stumble across it.

Gryphon Stringed Instruments often has 1 or 2 but again they are usually around 1k. Keep an eye on Ebay, a less expensive one us bound to come up eventually.
 
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....... I was actually surprised by that statement. This is the only vintage Martin concert I've played so I actually assumed most were mellower than mine. Comparing to the couple of vintage Martin soprano's I've played, I guess I would agree that is somewhat more brash. I wouldn't describe it as "shiny" and "chipper" in the way I usually think of those words because it does sound "bigger" to me than a Martin soprano. I do agree that there is a "sweetness" to Martin sorpanos that this doesn't quite have. The reason I don't say "bright", "shiny", or "chipper" is because I don't hear it as more high frequency (again it has "bigger" sound) but there is something a little less mellow about it compared to the Martin soprano's I've played. There is a bit of dissonance or grittiness or something in the natural tonality makes it sound a little more in your face then a a Martin soprano and it's really loud too. It's really hard to describe, but I do agree with Jake's general sentiment. It is halfway between and a Martin soprano and ...well something else.

I’m wondering about the historical context of the Concert size Uke and how that impacts on things. Without today’s amplification a performer might be primarily interested in more volume and a sound that carries. I guess that the original Martin Concert does have those features over the Soprano size and that if some sweetness of tone did need to be sacrificed in order to match the performer’s needs then that was an acceptable trade. Today’s Concerts are, to my ears, typically more mello than Sopranos from the same supplier. I like a mello Soprano, for me they aren’t something to cut through what else is playing but rather to be played (sweetly) alone or as an accompaniment to singing. Perhaps the original Martin Sopranos were more for that purpose too.
 
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