ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Dec 18, 2022 23:01:27 GMT
I must confess to being the buyer of the 1927 martin 0-18K from the auction (along with a Burns Bison bass). Nice one! And welcome to the Forum - great first post - hope you'll have fun here - maybe tell us more about the Martin when you've got to know each other...? Keith
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Post by bendigo on Dec 19, 2022 21:55:02 GMT
Having had several days to clean the guitar (it really was very grubby) I have had a number of thoughts about it.My reason for buying had nothing to do with Michael Chapman (the only guitar I have with regard to a previous owner is being the proud owner of Jack Hudson's Epiphone Texan) but as a companion to a 1925 0-18K which I have had for a number of years. On the downside the top and neck have had an overspray (I'm not sure if the original finish would have been nitro or french polish),and will probably benefit from a neck reset fairly soon.Having cleaned it,done major overhaul of the tuners and fitted a set of Martin silk and steels it has now revealed it's sound,which is quite loud for the body size and warm with good sustain.I played it today against a Wootton Washburn copy and the Wootton was louder and cleaner in sound as one might expect from a mahogany/sitka guitar but not as warm. I cant decide yet whether the Martin was a Hawaiian conversion or built spanish style.The frets seem to be original bar frets rather than "t" frets (Martin may have built Hawaiian guitars with flush fretting in 1927) and the bridge has a compensated saddle,almost certainly incorrect for that year. Curiously the guitar was originally sold by a dealer in Calcutta and has "made in USA" stamped above the Martin logo on the back of the headstock which was normal for Martin guitars exported from the US in this period and the dealer had his label stuck inside the body (the dealer is still in business).Martin did not put a logo on the front of the headstock until 1934. I'm sure that I'm going to get a lot of pleasure playing the two 0-18K guitars side by side in future years.
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