I've had dozens of Bohemian violins and vintage Jap classical guitars, 60s some nice ones. But i never paid more than $200. with case, i never buy a instrument without a case......But on an impulse bought a Martin Style 1 from an established music shop up east, advertised as a 1967 martin soprano But i could see from photos that it had bar frets and it had the original Worchester "Crackerdial" case in good plus cond. Plus $25 shipping. Seems high but rates are up. ..... Arrived quick in good order USPS in 3 days. ......About Oct. 1st.. so i've been looking it over and trying it out.... You are buying a pig in a poke online, but i got lucky, this little thing is solid; no repairs, no separations, no cracks no gouges, no unseemly bonks.... I gave it the dark room flashlight test and it passed, it is solid. It's been played good all over, but never bonked. Keep in mind that these types of novelty instruments were used in places where alchy was consumed on weekends so just surviving in one piece is a minor miracle in itself......more.....
My Most Expensive Wooden Stringed Instrument --- $400. recent
- Thread starter tolona
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Jerryc41
Well-known member
Congratulations on your "new" Martin. They have a lot of sound for such a small instrument. As for that $25 shipping charge, that was a bargain. Of course, the price depends on distance, as well as size and weight. I generally pay over $50, and I've paid over $100. Yes, "The rates they are a changin'."
Congratulations. How are you finding the bar frets? Opinion seems to be divided on them.
merlin666
Well-known member
I doubt cases cheaper than $250 are worth it and protect your valuable instrument. Better get a decent one like this:
http://www.carbonfibercases.com/ukelele.html
When i first got this old Style 1 i put the obligitory nylaguts on it and i wasn't too impressed. It took about 30 days for these strings to settle in. But when they did i can hear what a superior instrument it is. It's clear and bright and has amazing volume and responce for it's body size. I always had trouble with keeping them in tune, this little thing stays in tune, in fact even when it's not quite in tune, it still sounds better than my cheaper ukes that ARE in tune. I know that sounds crazy but to my ear it's true... I'm not completely foreign to martin instruments, got an 0-17 mahogany at a garage sale once but i was too young and stupid to realize what i had so i sold it to buy a Gibson... I'm kind of looking for a martin concert now, maybe 40s or 50s but i'd like to see a case with it....
One other thing, now that i have an antique hollow wood thing i want to preserve it from drying out and developing cracks altho it's 80 yrs old and has yet to develope cracks, my house gets down to about 0% humidity in the wintertime. I have found that my unheated basement only gets down to about 50% relative humidity in the wintertime. So i tend to keep my valuable violins and guitars in the basement. It's a pain in the rectum to have to go down to get a certain instrument but that is the task we have taken on to preserve the old instruments. If these artisans can make them, we have the duty to at least conserve them....
