UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
1976 = "Vintage" ... yer right
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I just saw a 1976 Martin 000-28 advertised for $7995 AUD (= £4269 or about £4700 including VAT). No, not by some crack-smoking bedroom flipper, a reputable Sydney consignment dealer. (In fact the place I bought my little leftie Maton from.)
As I understand it, the 1970s were bad, bad years - not just for Martin, Gibson too, and Fender. Over the preceding decades, Martin had slowly, step-by-step morphed their builds away from the iconic classic forms which used thin tops and very light, hand-carved bracing, and necessarily had to be made by highly skilled, experienced craftsmen. To cut costs and especially to reduce warranty returns, Martin switched, bit by bit, to thicker timbers and much heavier bracing. This allowed them to use lower-skilled workers and made it possible to live with the sloppy tolerances of their worn-out equipment.
By mid-to-late 20th Century they had long since run out of the prime cut Brazillian Rosewood of the 1930s and were reduced to using the dregs, or else switching to Indian Rosewood.
I'm not sure when the worst Martin years were, but I don't think 1976 is regarded as a good year. And here I see a 1976 000-28 (a model you can buy brand new for $5419 AUD) for asking $7995. Link here:
https://www.premierguitars.com.au/collections/acoustic/products/vintage-martin-000-28-usa-1976 The body text rabbits on about Brazilian Rosewood - ahh, I thought, that's why they are asking at least $3500 too much. Nope. It is ordinary Indian Rosewood, same as a new one.
"Vintage". Yer right. Fact is, it's just old. For the same money, I'd have a new one any day.
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The 70s one doesn’t have a truss rod for one thing... some people think that makes them sound better - most people would prefer to be able to adjust the neck.
Based on my ‘71 D12-35, they certainly did make some very good guitars in the 70s.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Doesn't mean it's less shit than it's always been. It's still a gas guzzlling rubbish handling rustbucket.
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
(runs and hides)
As we say here in Oz, tell 'im he's dreamin.
(Here in Oz, you could take them to Consumer Affairs - or probably just threaten to as every retailer and importer knows what the law is by now - and have the instrument fixed anyway. Possibly the EU has similar laws.)
It’s worth a fair bit more than you paid for it too, although not quite in real terms. (£60 in 1976 is now £377 in today’s prices.)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
I have mentioned my brother's CBS 12-string from about 1973 here before: an outstanding instrument made by (probably ) Tokai, badged CBS, and sold for about $700, which was two or three weeks' pay, so not cheap. All-solid, of course, and as good today as it ever was (though it had a neck reset and partial fret bob in 2020). 50 years before neck reset for a 12-string isn't bad going. And it's always had lovely tone and playability.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
You are way more of an acoustic aficionado than me but if the consignment seller is usually fair then maybe this is one of those things where the consignee has pushed for the max, could be a recent family loss so they want the most, and sure the store has advised as this would be the total upper end and unlikely to sell but they have said list at that and we might take offers.
Ultimately from my perspective only considering Martin from a narrow window of pre-war Brazilian Rosewood wide-cut Adirondack etc probably does a huge disservice to a ton of good Martin guitars.
One of the more interesting aspects of the whole golden age theory to me is usually about 6 out of 10 blindfolded experts can't tell Brazilian from Indian in a modern built Martin using the old processes and spec HHglue etc. Once aging comes in they can't tell Brazilian from Cocobolo and least of all old growth larger tree EIR, even the old Koa Martins can confuse in a blindfold test and they have a distinctive sound.
`I am sure for whatever reason that guitar is overpriced is it a piece of shit who knows it looks like a nice bit of old-growth rosewood not seeing such nice colour and patterns on standards these days.
YMMV
Fender certainly proved incapable of making good acoustics when they tried to move Guild production to their Corona (California) factory early this century, then had to hurriedly buy a company which did have the expertise (Tacoma) and shift production to their plant in Washington State.
They will never be forgiven for subsequently closing Tacoma down and pissing all that hard-won expertise and valuable IP up against the wall. We can at least be thankful that, having rooted Guild, they at least sold the remains of the company off to new owners who have nurtured it and brought it back to something like its former glory.
But this quick run through sums it up best.
So WTF was Fender doing in (say) 2005 when my Thunderhawk was made? The Thunderhawk has the famous Tacoma orange peel - but my Guild, made in that same factory at about the same time, does not! Where was their management skill? (Ans: they didn't have any. It was a massive screwup all the way down the line.)
And why did they not sell off that priceless IP if they didn't want to keep on making any of those very special guitars? They were happy enough to sell Guild off and keep the brand alive, why not Tacoma?
I wanted a second baritone, same as my Thumderhawk. Could not buy one for love or money. In the meantime I've been offered (and declined) double what I paid for it. I ended up commissioning a local luthier to custom-build me one.
Not sure management of skills was ever that joined up.
As for the Tacoma IP probably again comes down to not being worth a lot at the time no offers to buy the brand as said may be they thought they were going to do something with it. did any of their bracing wing stuff even get patented, looking at trademarks Tacoma was left to die in 2014.
The point of management skills (or rather, lack of them) is that Fender had people who knew how to do finishes right not only in the organisation but actually on-site, and yet they failed to join the dots. Someone should have been fired for that.