And now for something completely different

[Treble in mind]

Howdy, all. Here's one for the esoterica dept.:

I have a 1936 Martin Model 20--carved top, oval hole, 13" scale. It's a dandy little classical mando.

It lacks a pickguard, and I'm going to have a replica guard made for it. Luckily I have the original bracket and screws, and I've located a couple of b&w pics that show the shape of the guard quite well.

Most Model 20's were made in 1929, right before the Crash, and they had ebony pickguards screwed in at the point. The later ones like mine, which are few and far between, had plastic guards that didn't go out to the point; these were similar but not necessarily identical to the guards on the 2-20's, which have f-holes and a longer scale length.

My problem is that I don't know the correct color on the original guard, whether it was black or a really dark tortoise. And so far neither does anyone else I've talked with (and I've talked to a bunch of Martin mavens about this), at least not with certainty.

So: has anyone ever seen a Model 20 of the aforementioned late variety that had its pickguard intact, and if so, do you remember the color of the guard?

Thanks for listening.

Bob Abramowitz
Kalamazoo, MI [nope, no Loars in the classifieds here]

[Jim M.]

Here's a 1936 2-30 at Vintage Instruments. I assume it's similar. Looks black to me but you might want to call Lowell; he'd probably know. Or you could call Frank Ford at Gryphon, he'd probably know too.
http://www.vintageinstruments.com/photos/inst19/36style2-30ful.jpg

[Treble in mind]

Thanks for the lead. I have an e-mail in to Lowell: it looked black until I cranked the monitor all the way up, and now it looks dark tortoise.

Still, a 2-30 is two steps away from a 20, so it's indirect evidence only.

Richard and Frank both think the guard for the 20 would have been tortoise, but Fred Oster in Philly thinks black. And none of these guys is chopped liver.

So I'll keep hoping for sighting of the real thing. The good part is that if I find out later I was wrong, there's no damage done, 'cause there's no drilling necessary.

Bob Abramowitz

[Jim M.]

I've always liked the 2-20 oval and thought about getting one a while ago. I've seen some advertised as 2-20s with f-holes. Is that a variation, or is the seller confused?

There's a 2-30 at Gruhns with a tortoise pickguard but it says it's a replacement. Have you tried asking George Gruhn, Stan Werbin, or Stan Jay?

[Treble in mind]

Jim: there's a little confusion about models in your last post.

Style 20 (and the plainer Style 15) were natural top, oval hole, 13" scale length.

Style 2-20 (and the plainer 2-15) were 'burst, f-hole and 13 3/4" scale length. Style 2-30 is a fancier 2-20, and there may or may not be a Style 30 that's a fancier 20.

So there's no 2-20 with an oval hole.

Mike Longworth's Martin book lays it out pretty well if you want to know more.


Turns out that Lowell's mando has a replica guard. Good try, though.

Bob Abramowitz

[racuda]

The C.F. Martin company has kept fairly good records over the years. Perhaps it would be worth a phone call to Sandy Trach at Martin.

If you prefer, her email address is strach@martinguitar.com

[Treble in mind]

Duh...CALL MARTIN!! It was too obvious, wasn't it? I did call CFM, on Wednesday, and got a definitive reply today. We're talking dark tortoise plastic in the 30's, replaced by black in the early 40's. Same as with the Martin archtop guitars. If anyone's interested, thickness was 115/1000", a tad narrower than 1/8".

Everyone I talked with agrees that most of the guards that you see on the 30's archtop mandos for sale are replicas, since the old ones had a tendency to crytallize. Stan Werbin suggested that the reason so many of them are black is that the originals are so dark that they look black in photos, even color photos.

So the question is answered. Now for the fun part....

Bob Abramowitz