What would you replace your Matin with ? ?

rxkevco

rxkevco

New member
Hyperthetical question really, , , and i suppose only applies to martin owners past or present.

I have a MARTIN HD-28 with fishman pup, , ,which i have owned for 3 years ( wanted one for 30 years ! ), , and i adore it for many things. Its weight, the neck, the tone wether finger picking, strumming or banging out a few irish jigs ! !

BUT, , Unfortunatly, i am seriously thinking about selling it :(:(.
The credit crunch has got me by the balls and as i dont make any money out of it , as i only record my own songs for my website and dont play live, , i cant warrent it sitting there.

If you had to sell your MARTIN HD-28 with Fishman pup, , ,(or any martin ), , what would you buy as a replacement if you only had half of the sale price to work with.

I am hoping that it sells for about £1500 , and i might throw in my fishman aura acooustic blender floor unit to make that price if i am having a hard time selling it.


SO, , sell the martin for £1500 and use £600 to £700 to get another new or even used guitar ! !

What would you be looking at buying, ? ? ?

Thanks for looking, kev
 
I havent seen many Taylors in the uk for under a grand , , not new anyway, and you just dont see many used ones knocking around either !
 
advice

Don't do it man! You'll regret it later. You'll always kick yourself. Been there, done that.
 
Tough one.

You might look for a used 15 series Martin (all mahogany) like an 00-15. I've seen those go for @$750 or so and they sound and play great.

Some of the new Guild guitars are in that price range and I've been pretty impressed with some of those, even after being bought by Fender.

Seagull also makes some nice guitars in that price range.
 
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rxkevco said:
Hyperthetical question really, , , and i suppose only applies to martin owners past or present.

I have a MARTIN HD-28 with fishman pup, , ,which i have owned for 3 years ( wanted one for 30 years ! ), , and i adore it for many things. Its weight, the neck, the tone wether finger picking, strumming or banging out a few irish jigs ! !

BUT, , Unfortunatly, i am seriously thinking about selling it :(:(.
The credit crunch has got me by the balls and as i dont make any money out of it , as i only record my own songs for my website and dont play live, , i cant warrent it sitting there.

If you had to sell your MARTIN HD-28 with Fishman pup, , ,(or any martin ), , what would you buy as a replacement if you only had half of the sale price to work with.

I am hoping that it sells for about £1500 , and i might throw in my fishman aura acooustic blender floor unit to make that price if i am having a hard time selling it.


SO, , sell the martin for £1500 and use £600 to £700 to get another new or even used guitar ! !

What would you be looking at buying, ? ? ?

Thanks for looking, kev
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Keep your Martin. If your portfolio is like many other people's, the Martin may be the only thing you have which is appreciating in value. And if your taking care of it, your Martin is appreciating.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Don't sell it. What's the extra 7 or 8 ton gonna go on? Food?

Just starve for a few months!

You'll regret it otherwise.
 
i had a D-15 - excellent, fine guitar, i loved it. it's no 28, but really nice, got it when they first came out ('98?).

i needed the money, but also didn't like the fear factor - i like a nice guitar, but want to take it to jams, bonfires, beach, etc.

at that point i realized that i won't like all-plywood acoustic, so i tried a cheap solid-top chinese guitar. Brownsville is a Sam Ash "house" brand, likely made in the Samick factory or similar. This guitar is a loose copy of Gibson Songwriter Ovangkol.

I've never looked back, i love this guitar. And I don't worry about dinging it.

granted, these guitars can vary widely. i tried 2 of the same model - didn't like the other one. but isn't that also true of expensive guitars?

these days you can really find a cheap, decent, solid-top acoustic. You can even buy online - most large places let you send stuff back with zero loss. Especially if you don't like it. So test-drive and you might be surprized.

Some will say that these cheap guitars won't last. Maybe. Mine is over 8 years old, good as new. If anything happens or it needs a refret - well, i'll just buy a new guitar :D
 
I also own a Martin HD28 with a Fishman. It would be the last guitar of my collection I would sell if money got tight. You have to do what's right for you and your family but if you can sell something else do it and keep the Martin.
 
might i just point out that monetary value appreciation has no relevance unless you intend to sell.

not saying you SHOULD sell, but there are better reasons for holding on to a guitar than its increasing monetary value.

of course, it also depends on how strongly you need the money. people are more important than guitars.

and guitars aren't a good investment, actually not an investment at all if you like playing them. a CD or bonds are investment, because you have no other use for them except to sell to realize the gains. don't let the value appreciation cloud your thinking.
 
Keep it, and go busking in the tube down in London. Bit of a commute, but....

You could look at Blueridge; they are Martin (and Gibson) knockoffs;

Get a Martin D-15 from Thomann. I have one. Love it.

IMO, Taylors are not going to give you the same sound or feel as a Martin.

If you'd like a real 'dark horse' suggestion, look for a Seagull Entourage Rustic Burst Mini Jumbo. I got one last month, and it is an amazing guitar for the money. Again, buy it from Thomann, about €400.00.

In any case, I'd do whatever I had to do to hold onto the HD-28. Guitars like that don't come around too often for most people.
 
Keep it - My core guitar is a 1972 D-28 that was bought new by my Dad's brother, who died and left it to my Dad, who doesn't play, and so I sort of walked out with it when I moved out. I swear it sounds better now than it did when I started playing it in the mid-80s.

The only guitars I've played that don't make me completely wish I was playing the D-28 are some from Collings, but I think they cost even more. Certainly there are other spendy and non-spendy ones that I haven't played which are awesome, too.

I've got a couple of beaters (a Samick and a counterfeit Gibson) which are fine for what they are, but if I was going for a budget one, I'd definitely look at the Seagulls.
 
Think about it this way: I have a customer whose dad bought a brand new D28 in 1934 for about $150 (or something like that). I know for a fact this customer (who inherited his dad's guitar) has been offered $100,000 for it. That is a better rate of return than you are going to get out of just about anything. Now, yours probably won't do that, but it IS getting more valuable (something which will never happen with, say, your car or your computer).



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
It's kind of hard to predict what current production Martins will do in terms of appreciation. I'll admit some doubt as to whether they will even mirror the increase seen in 1960s Martins, much less a prewar instrument. But who would have thought that 1970s telecasters would go for $3000-4500? Sigh. At any rate, I suspect that if you keep it, your Martin will hold its value better than most any other comparable mass produced guitar.
 
Light said:
Think about it this way: I have a customer whose dad bought a brand new D28 in 1934 for about $150 (or something like that). I know for a fact this customer (who inherited his dad's guitar) has been offered $100,000 for it. That is a better rate of return than you are going to get out of just about anything. Now, yours probably won't do that, but it IS getting more valuable (something which will never happen with, say, your car or your computer).



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Click to expand...


For what it's worth, compounded annually for 74 years (1934 to 2008), that comes to an annualized return of about 9% a year. Not bad by any means, and certainly better than broad market indices have done by a couple percentage points, but also not unattainable by any means, and as you freely admit a new Martin is unlikely to accrue value as strongly.

That said, would I rather own and enjoy a Martin for 74 years, or own and, um, "enjoy" an investment returning 9% a year? That strikes me as a no-brainer. :D
 
Light said:
Think about it this way: I have a customer whose dad bought a brand new D28 in 1934 for about $150 (or something like that). I know for a fact this customer (who inherited his dad's guitar) has been offered $100,000 for it. That is a better rate of return than you are going to get out of just about anything. Now, yours probably won't do that, but it IS getting more valuable (something which will never happen with, say, your car or your computer).



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Click to expand...

That's an interesting point. But how many D28 were made in 1934 vs. how many of any of their current models are made each year. A 1984, 1994 or 2004 Martin will never be worth as much as a 1934 Martin - especially when you consider how many top quality instruments from various makers are out there these days. The 1934 is special due to it's rarity.

I do agree that any quality guitar will sound better with age. So if you have an older instrument - just the fact that it's gone through the aging process might be a reason to hang on to it.
 
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