Swiftsailor98
Well-known member
While I visited home over the holidays (Allentown, PA), my son and I took the opportunity to visit the C.F. Martin factory for the museum and tour in nearby Nazareth. I’d highly recommend the stop if you’re in the area or passing through. They do a fantastic job of showing you everything step by step from solid wood billets to finished instruments.
[A random unrelated comment from the experience: I found it odd one of the other tour takers was wearing a Fender ball cap. I thought it was akin to wearing a Pepsi shirt and visiting World of Coke in Atlanta, or is it a generational thing that I’m more brand loyal.]
As you worked your way around the factory, they had a display representing their plant in Navajoa, Mexico, where they produce all their strings and several ukuleles and guitars. The three Navajoa-produced ukuleles they had on the display were a T1K (Solid Koa Tenor), an S1 (Solid Mahogany Soprano) and an OXK (HPL Soprano). These same ukes were hanging on the wall in the 1833 Shop where I got to play each one.
Recently, feeling my collection was not complete, I’d been looking at solid mahogany ukes, but mostly in the concert scale. However, picking up the S1 felt so good, and it made that sweet jangly ukulele sound with every strum. I was hooked. I wasn’t even too bothered by the friction pegs which I’ve avoided to date.
That S1 stuck in my mind as we returned from our trip. Enter Reverb…. I found a great deal that I couldn’t pass up.
So, yesterday was New Ukulele Day for my Martin S1!
I spent some time cleaning and conditioning the fretboard, cleaning the neck and body, and installing some Martin M600 clear fluorocarbon strings.
As I cleaned up the fretboard, it looked more like Rosewood than Sipo (the fretboard material listed for current Martin S1’s) which made me think this is older than I thought. I found several discussions talking about the lack of dating/tracking of Martin ukulele serial numbers. Then, I found AustinHing’s post "Trying to date my Martin S1” (https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?136866-Trying-to-date-my-Martin-S1). Based on his serial number and mine (4116), I’m estimating this S1 is circa 2012-2014.
Can anyone else provide a better estimate?
Getting to play it some today, it sings like a mahogany ukulele should. I feel like the extra years have treated it well, and it’s well on the way to the solid wood being fully opened up.
Here's what it looks like now.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
[A random unrelated comment from the experience: I found it odd one of the other tour takers was wearing a Fender ball cap. I thought it was akin to wearing a Pepsi shirt and visiting World of Coke in Atlanta, or is it a generational thing that I’m more brand loyal.]
As you worked your way around the factory, they had a display representing their plant in Navajoa, Mexico, where they produce all their strings and several ukuleles and guitars. The three Navajoa-produced ukuleles they had on the display were a T1K (Solid Koa Tenor), an S1 (Solid Mahogany Soprano) and an OXK (HPL Soprano). These same ukes were hanging on the wall in the 1833 Shop where I got to play each one.
Recently, feeling my collection was not complete, I’d been looking at solid mahogany ukes, but mostly in the concert scale. However, picking up the S1 felt so good, and it made that sweet jangly ukulele sound with every strum. I was hooked. I wasn’t even too bothered by the friction pegs which I’ve avoided to date.
That S1 stuck in my mind as we returned from our trip. Enter Reverb…. I found a great deal that I couldn’t pass up.
So, yesterday was New Ukulele Day for my Martin S1!
I spent some time cleaning and conditioning the fretboard, cleaning the neck and body, and installing some Martin M600 clear fluorocarbon strings.
As I cleaned up the fretboard, it looked more like Rosewood than Sipo (the fretboard material listed for current Martin S1’s) which made me think this is older than I thought. I found several discussions talking about the lack of dating/tracking of Martin ukulele serial numbers. Then, I found AustinHing’s post "Trying to date my Martin S1” (https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?136866-Trying-to-date-my-Martin-S1). Based on his serial number and mine (4116), I’m estimating this S1 is circa 2012-2014.
Can anyone else provide a better estimate?
Getting to play it some today, it sings like a mahogany ukulele should. I feel like the extra years have treated it well, and it’s well on the way to the solid wood being fully opened up.
Here's what it looks like now.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers,