Hello all! Some time ago I posted in a thread about Martin mandolins my desire to find one from the ‘80s or ‘90s. I had never played a Martin mandolin other than a Backpacker, but I just thought I would like it for old time and Celtic. My theory was that the newer it was, the less likely it would be to have issues. However, the factory output was so low during those decades fewer than 400 if I remember correctly) that chances of finding one are slim. Well, I had my chance a couple of months ago when Mandolin World Headquarters has a 1980’s example. But I hesitated and it didn’t last long. So, when an opportunity came up to buy a 1973 example with its original case, at a reasonable price, I pulled the trigger. I normally don’t like buying site unseen. I called the store for an in hand description. I was assured that there were few if any signs it had been played, that their tech had gone over it, that it had been strung with new Martin strings, and it was ready to go. Well, it arrived 2 days ago. Turns out the store wasn’t completely forthcoming. The strings were new at some point I suppose, but they were very tarnished and dead sounding. Good news: hard case exterior was in decent shape, needed cleaning. Instrument had a straight neck,sound body, no obvious damage or repairs, no loose braces. Bad news: case lining pulling away at edges, needed to be reglued. Instrument finish had quite a bit of weather checking (not unusual for these from what I’ve read), frets 2-7 were pretty grooved (few signs of being played?). I thought about returning it for being misrepresented, but on thinking about it there was nothing there that I probably couldn’t correct for myself. So I cleaned up the case, reglued the lining (which was in good shape), took off the old strings, gave the frets a light leveling and re-crown, cleaned the grime off the body, oiled the fretboard, and restrung it with fresh light Martin strings.
After tuning her up, I played a few tunes and wow! I’m glad I decided to keep it. So sweet sounding, so different from the tone of my Webers. Tone and sustain for days. And the short scale, wider fretboard plays so easily. The combination of short scale, wider nut, and course spacing being closer is very comfortable for me. This will be my go to for old time and Celtic from now on I think. I still think I would enjoy a later example that’s a bit closer to mint. If anybody hears of one let me know!
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