Just scored a Martin!

N

noiseportrait

New member
I'm so excited that I just had to brag for a moment. I just scored a Martin today... for free!

There had been this vintage Martin guitar floating around in my family for ages that rightfully belonged to my mother. It had somehow ended up at the wrong end of the family because of some mix ups and they didn't want to give it back because of sentimental attachment. My mother never really cared to pursue it until I bugged her about it a good number of years ago when I started playing guitar. They didn't want to give up the instrument, so I dropped the issue and never thought about it again. Well, I guess they finally decided that now didn't need it anymore, and they gave it to my mother the other day when they were visiting. Total Surprise! Now it's mine!

I looked up the serial numbers and it dates to 1951! It's well worn, lot's of nics and dings, but no major damage. The neck seems to be in decent shape, but it does need a fret job badly. Is it even a good idea to get fretwork done on a guitar on a guitar this old? I'm not much of an acoustic guy, but I would like to get it in good playing shape. There's no way I could sell it, so I might as well use it right? Is there anything I should know about caring for this thing? It's scares me to even touch it, I hope I can give it a good home.
 
Hell yeah it would benefit from a refret!

Don't be skeered. Just love it like you would love any other great instrument.

Find a decent repair guy and have him go over it, refret it, and set it up. Don't be surprised if it needs a neck reset. That's not uncommon on older Martins. Have your repair guy check for braces coming unglued, and also for hairline cracks in the sides. Guitars from that era were assembled with hide glue, so keep that guitar out of sun and heat.

Whatever you do, don't have it refinished.

Then enjoy it for the rest of your life!
 
Totally Awesome

Now if my family would do the same for me. My dad has an old Guild 12 string....

I am jealous. I dream about your situation, every night.

Rock on.
 
I will now do a little bit of fortune telling –

When you bring that guitar into the repair shop, they will tell you it needs the following things; a neck reset, a total refret or a fret dress, a setup, possibly a bridge reglue, and possibly a pickguard reglue.


Amazing Creskin act finished.


Find a Martin authorized warranty center to do the work, and if you don’t know where the nearest one is, call Martin. The neck reset will cost about $300 done right, and the fret work will range from about $125 (for a dress) to $350 (for refreting a bound neck, $200-250 if it is unbound). A setup should be included with the fret work and the neck reset. There are guys out there, by the way, who will not do a neck reset without doing a refret, and they have a point. I don’t agree with them, but their reasoning makes good sense. Listen to your repair person on this one.

Make sure the shop you bring it to uses hot hide glue for all gluing operations where practical, though don’t insist when it comes to the neck reset. That is just a major pain in the ass to do with hide glue, and we, at least, charge an aggravation fee for it. It should certainly be used for the bridge reglue (if it needs it) and any loose braces. It really does make a difference in the sound one things where the glue is structural (it is not in a dovetail neck joint).

By the way, what model is it? If a D-28, you have just inherited an extremely valuable instrument. Even if it is not a D-28, it is still valuable. So let me know what it is, and I will try and give you an (extremely) rough idea of what it is worth.


Light

“Cowards can never be moral.”
M.K. Gandhi
 
Congratulations!

I recently inherited a '47 Martin flat top from my grandfather, which sounds great for recording.

One more thing: get a guitar humidifier.
 
Thanks for all of the advice guys.

Light said:
Find a Martin authorized warranty center to do the work, and if you don’t know where the nearest one is, call Martin. The neck reset will cost about $300 done right, and the fret work will range from about $125 (for a dress) to $350 (for refreting a bound neck, $200-250 if it is unbound). A setup should be included with the fret work and the neck reset. There are guys out there, by the way, who will not do a neck reset without doing a refret, and they have a point. I don’t agree with them, but their reasoning makes good sense. Listen to your repair person on this one.
Click to expand...

Wow, I knew it was going to be expensive, but there is no way I can afford $650 worth of repairs right now. The nearest Martin repair center is in Orlando, which is a 4 hour drive from where I live. Right now, it is obvious that it needs a fret job. After 53 years of use, the frets are well worn and are even starting to come unglued from the fretboard in a few places. I trust when you say that it probably needs a neck reset and the bridge reglued, but what are the tell-tail signs of these problems? The neck joint seems to be in great shape, the neck is nice and straight and the action and intonation is seems to be fine. I guess I'm just going to have to take it to a professional. I may be able to post some pictures later.

Light said:
By the way, what model is it? If a D-28, you have just inherited an extremely valuable instrument. Even if it is not a D-28, it is still valuable. So let me know what it is, and I will try and give you an (extremely) rough idea of what it is worth.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it's not a dreadnaught. It's a 00-17, which has a smaller body size and I'm guessing is much less valuable.

Cyrokk said:
One more thing: get a guitar humidifier.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I live in Florida, and I think pumping any more humidity into the air then what is already here would be overkill. But, if you still think it is necessary I will purchase one.
 
I too am a Floridian.

By any chance do you live north of Orlando?

I took my Martin to Music Emporium in Ocala. IIRC, I asked them if the luthier they send their guitars to was authorized, and they said yes.

And although it is more than humid in Florida, the humidifier is more for winter protection. Even though it doesn't get near as cold as up north, we do get winter freezes from time to time so I figure it's better to play it safe (humidifiers only cost $10 to $20 bucks anyway).
 
Thanks for the tip Cyrokk, I will have to pick one up for the winter months. I live in Venice, which is south of Orlando. Have you been getting these daily thunderstorms that keep knocking my power out?
 
noiseportrait said:
Wow, I knew it was going to be expensive, but there is no way I can afford $650 worth of repairs right now.
Click to expand...

Well I don't feel so jealous now. I inherited a Kay.:)
 
noiseportrait said:
Thanks for the tip Cyrokk, I will have to pick one up for the winter months. I live in Venice, which is south of Orlando. Have you been getting these daily thunderstorms that keep knocking my power out?
Click to expand...

Yes! It's driving me nuts!!!

Press record.. stop.. shut the power down... wait for the lightening to pass.. power out for ten minutes.. power back on.. power up the studio again.. press record.. stop.. shut the power down.. rinse and repeat.

And you should see my lawn.. It's a damn forest...
 
noiseportrait said:
Thanks for all of the advice guys.



Wow, I knew it was going to be expensive, but there is no way I can afford $650 worth of repairs right now. The nearest Martin repair center is in Orlando, which is a 4 hour drive from where I live. Right now, it is obvious that it needs a fret job. After 53 years of use, the frets are well worn and are even starting to come unglued from the fretboard in a few places. I trust when you say that it probably needs a neck reset and the bridge reglued, but what are the tell-tail signs of these problems? The neck joint seems to be in great shape, the neck is nice and straight and the action and intonation is seems to be fine. I guess I'm just going to have to take it to a professional. I may be able to post some pictures later.



Unfortunately, it's not a dreadnaught. It's a 00-17, which has a smaller body size and I'm guessing is much less valuable.



Thanks, but I live in Florida, and I think pumping any more humidity into the air then what is already here would be overkill. But, if you still think it is necessary I will purchase one.
Click to expand...


It is relatively easy to check for a neck reset, as long as you have a decent straight edge between 18-24 inches long. You lay the straight edge on the frets, and slide it towards the bridge. You, ideally, want it to be dead even with the top of the bridge. If it is not, then it is a question of how far off it is.

The one thing I can say absolutely is that that guitar is worth putting the money into it to get it right. I know it is expensive, but seeing as how the repair will take about 8-10 weeks (neck resets take time), you can make payments as you go, at least we do it that way. As for the bridge, I said it would likely need a reglue. Again, fairly simple to test for. You take a thin piece of paper – a post-it note is good – and see if it will slide under the bridge. If it can, then the bridge is loose, and you need to have it looked at. If it is solid, then you are cool on that. If the bridge is loose, do NOT wait on that. A neck reset, though major, can wait if it is still playable; but a loose bridge can fail catastrophically, which leads to a far more expensive repair; plus, it is never fun to get hit in the face with your guitars bridge. If the bridge comes flying off, it will usually take a bunch of bits of the top wood with it. This is a big deal. I don’t swear that the bridge is loose, but the chances are good.

The most important thing, however, is to have it looked at who knows their stuff. It is impossible for me to give you an accurate evaluation without holding the guitar in my hands. I have a lot of experience with old Martins; I know the likely problems, but I can not be sure without seeing it.

And three by the ways: I love those old small bodied Martins. The OOO is my favorite, but the OO is cool too. Also, with an OO-17, it has an unbound fingerboard, which makes a refret less expensive. Finally, the rule of thumb with humidifiers is that if you have the heat on in your house, you need to humidify, unless you live in a desert, in which case you just need to humidify all of the time.


Light

“Cowards can never be moral.”
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
It is relatively easy to check for a neck reset, as long as you have a decent straight edge between 18-24 inches long. You lay the straight edge on the frets, and slide it towards the bridge. You, ideally, want it to be dead even with the top of the bridge. If it is not, then it is a question of how far off it is.
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Is this with the strings on or off? It should be even with the piece of bone that the strings sit on, or the wood part? The bridge slants down toward the high-e string, which end should I use for reference?

I can slide the corner of a a post-it a few millimeters under the bridge on about and inch wide section near low-e side of the bridge, but the rest seems solid. I'm guessing it will need to be reglued, but it doesn't seem bad enough that it will pop off at any moment.

Thanks for all of your help Light. I don't know what I would do without this forum. If I had had this resource a few years ago, I would have saved myself a lot of headaches regarding equipment.
 
noiseportrait said:
Is this with the strings on or off? It should be even with the piece of bone that the strings sit on, or the wood part? The bridge slants down toward the high-e string, which end should I use for reference?
Click to expand...


Strings on or off, it doesn't make much difference. You should check right in the middle of the fingerboard. The bridge (the wood part), not the saddle (the bone part).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Well there are 2 painful things I have to say. The first one is, if you cannot afford to properly maintain that fine old instrument, do the right thing. Rather than letting it die of neglect (everyone loses), borrow the money, make the guitar right, sell it, and buy a perfectly good guitar. Then 2 people will have a guitar they can play, and the old Martin lives on.
The second thing is, if you sell it, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. So find the money to save that guitar, and play it with pride. You need to do one or the other. Don't kill that guitar through neglect!-Richie
 
Investing $650 in a 50-year-old 0017 is well worth it.

You got it FOR FREE!!!

AND it's a family heirloom!!!
 
I'm jealous. The only family heirlooms I have are the ones I'm buying now for my kids and future grandchildren. One of them better love my J45.
 
You may not be looking at $650, it could be much less.

I got a '52 00-18 in '87 for $200 from a jazzer friend, the frets were worn but they were ALL worn and it played well anywhere on the neck, so I've left them alone. Braces, top and bridge were loose but the neck was straight so I did everything myself with hot hide glue back then and it's been great ever since. Old Martins are easy to work on.

That said, you should still get a few opinions from authorized repair folks. Before you do that, tap around the body and listen for rattles, check out the bridge real close, look down the neck to see if it's straight, and press down on the first fret and check the clearance at the 13th (.010).

Congrats on your score.
 
Richard Monroe said:
Well there are 2 painful things I have to say. The first one is, if you cannot afford to properly maintain that fine old instrument, do the right thing. Rather than letting it die of neglect (everyone loses), borrow the money, make the guitar right, sell it, and buy a perfectly good guitar. Then 2 people will have a guitar they can play, and the old Martin lives on.
The second thing is, if you sell it, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. So find the money to save that guitar, and play it with pride. You need to do one or the other. Don't kill that guitar through neglect!-Richie
Click to expand...

I'm not trying to get out of fixing the guitar. I do plan on spending whatever amount of money is required to get it tip-top shape, but there is no way I could spend that kind of dough on it right now. The bridge seems well intact, and although it needs a fret job, it is still quite playable at the moment. I don't think another six months of neglect could do much damage when it has survived being played and negelected for the last ten years by my cousins who likely had little idea of it's age or value. There is no way I could sell this instrument. It has a large amount of sentimental value to my mother, as it had belonged her to brother, who died in a tragic accident. She wants me to have it, and I plan to keep it in the family.
 
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