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Martin Vintage Guitar Owners
cbxjeff
Member Posts: 17,601 ✭✭✭✭
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Thousands do! Don
Could you filter that down to forum members Don?
I saw a D-45 for sale at $44,000.I dont think it was a vintage.Not many casual pickers are going to own one.
I always keep and eye out for one, cheep..😁...always wanted one but they were/are way too many dollars for me so a number of years ago I settled for a rode hard & put up wet and needing some maintenance work a 50's Gibson J-50 which to me sounds just as sweet.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Good Lord, that's waaaaaaaaay too much for a D45. Unless it belonged to David Crosby or something.
I got a wild hare that I needed an older Martin so I put some cash together and went looking. All the big names had the D45 in the past so I wanted something different. I settled on a D42 Special. It has the same dimensions as a D45 and it has the same forward shifted scalloped X bracing. They both use the top grade tonewoods but the D45 has a little more abalone inlay than mine and there's the $2,000 price difference.
I played every Martin I could find from the OOO to the D18s and D28s to the mighty D4x series dreadnoughts. They all sound good, but have different tonal personalities. In the end I went for the highest grade woods and most precise assembly with the top line models.
I have a VERY rare 50 year old Guild dreadnought that sounds amazing all across the tonal spectrum, then the D42 arrived at my home (it came from Florida). I let it settle in for a week and tried it. It more than lived up to its reputation. You know on a stereo when you flip the Loudness switch, it brings out the deepest and highest octaves at low volume? That's the Martin. I can make my Guild produce any sound I want, but the Martin does it without being asked. Pick a nice piece like "Heal Over" by KT Tunstall, and the Guild sounds good. On the Martin it makes the hair stand up on back of your neck. The deepest bass notes are effortlessly, openly there, without being muddy. And there's a sizzle and zing off the extreme highest overtones that's impossible to describe until you've played it awhile, then from then on you will always be able to tell a Martin on a recording. It's not overly bright, it can't really be described. It's the texture of your fingertips coming off the strings that makes them hiss just the slightest.
Some songs I can play well on the Guild, and on the Martin it's like it's playing itself. It's like power steering. It's like the music is already all in there, you just need to touch the guitar and it all comes spilling out effortlessly. Like "Kashmir" by Zeppelin. I can rock that on the Guild and it's great but it's work. I try it on the Martin and jumping all over the neck up to the 9th and 11th frets from the first, my fingers hit the 2-string chords and bends every bloody time, without missing. First few times I did that I just stopped and smiled at the fingerboard like "what IS this magic thing??"
Intonation? My luthier and I have spent years and countless different saddles and nuts trying to get it perfect on the Guild. It's nearly perfect now, close enough that I'm leaving it alone. Playing open chords up around 12 is almost perfect, there's just the slightest slightest dissonance somewhere that I'm sure nobody else hears but my lizard brain picks it up. It's nice but the back of my brain goes rigid and I reach for the tuners to try and get it perfect. Then I play it on the Martin and the intonation is * perfect *. It's like all the angels in heaven are harmonizing and it's just............ absolutely perfect. That's another thing you'll hear on recordings and know it's a Martin. It has bone and ivory pieces so they're not changing either.
The Martin has open gear tuners, amazing wood and comes in a crazy strong hard shell case. I love it. Now what was it you're wondering about?
I asked because I sold my 1955 D-18 at auction this year to a store in NYC. I have an original Martin price list of instruments and accessories dated 1962. I thought some Martin owner might want it. B.T.W., my D-18 sold new in '62 for $210.00!
Wow I hope you got a good price for that beauty. As long as it didn't just sit, those old guitars have developed amazing tone by now. I know there's huge demand for "pre-war" Martins.
I've got a 1908 Washburn in the "parlor" size and it has huge tone. My Guild is from 1976 and needs lots of regular playing to keep it limber. The Martin just flat sounds amazing. Wonder what the secret is?
Martins are magnificent. I own one of these Custom Gibson Les Paul's
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324922663004?hash=item4ba6e6605c:g:0JkAAOSwiLZhd4k7
The secret = it takes an acoustic guitar at least 40 yrs to realize it's not a tree anymore then it starts to develop it's own unique tone 😊
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
The secret to a Martin guitar is the spirit that lives within! 🙂
Sweetest tone ever !
Once heard no guitar will ever sound as good.
1939 Martin 000-42 and some guy.
This is the guitar that Clapton played on MTV Unplugged on January 16, 1992. He played it throughout most of the show – which was highlighted by an acoustic version of “Layla”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMICE6GR4NQ