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Thread: Martin mandolin?

  1. #1
    Registered User G7MOF's Avatar
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    Default Martin mandolin?

    Do Martin still make mandolins, If not, when did production finish?
    I have a mid 70s which sounds great, were the 70s considered to be good years or were the earlier ones considered better?
    I never fail at anything, I just succeed at doing things that never work....


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  2. #2
    Registered User LongBlackVeil's Avatar
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    Default Re: Martin mandolin?

    Martin stopped building their flatback mandolins in the 90s sometime.

    Generally, the 70s arent considered good years for anything, when it comes to musical instruments at least. There were good instruments made then, but i think this is when all the factories were becoming more automated, and they hadnt worked out the kinks yet.

    If you like it, who cares if it was made in a good year or not. IMO theres no such thing as good and bad years, just good and bad mandolins
    "When you learn an old time fiddle tune, you make a friend for life"

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  4. #3
    Registered User G7MOF's Avatar
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    Default Re: Martin mandolin?

    I should have also asked, Can you date Martin mandolins using the serial number like you can with Gibson?
    I never fail at anything, I just succeed at doing things that never work....


    Fylde Touchstone Walnut Mandolin.
    Gibson Alrite Model D.

  5. #4
    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
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    Default Re: Martin mandolin?

    "The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
    --Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."

    Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos

  6. #5
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Martin mandolin?

    Quote from BlueBook of Guitar Values:

    When Martin went through some tough times in the 1970s and early 1980s, mandolin production was down to as little as 10 per year. Martin offered mandolins in their catalogs and price lists through 1995, and took customer orders through 2002 when they ended mandolin production entirely with the exception of the Martin Backpacker Mandolin that was produced in Mexico and offered through 2006.

    The Mike Longworth book Martin Guitars: A History notes that only the mahogany-bodied Style A was being produced in the 1970's. Since this instrument has been basically unchanged since introduced in 1914 (well, in its first three years it had rosewood back and sides, but "went mahogany" in 1917 and stayed that way), doubt that a '70's model would differ much from earlier models. However, as noted above, Martin's mandolin production was heading toward disappearance; the Style A still showed up in their catalogs, but some years (1978, e.g.) they didn't make any, and the next year they made only ten of them.

    Martin was undergoing changes in the 1970's, as the "folk boom" ended and their experiments with European-built guitars (Vega) were not working out, along with their unsuccessful solid-body electrics. About midway through the decade Martin, like Gibson, faced the fact that their contemporary acoustic instruments were being widely compared unfavorably to "the ones they used to make." Martin introduced the HD-28 guitar, with herringbone binding and lighter bracing, in 1976, along with their D-76 "bicentennial" model; it was a conscious effort to reclaim earlier prestige. Around the same time (1978) Gibson started making the F-5L mandolin, responding to general dissatisfaction with their early-'70's F-5's.

    I'd be reticent to make any generalizations about 1970's Martin mandolins vs. earlier ones. The Style A is a pretty uncomplicated, though nicely designed, little canted-top flat-back, and the main worry I'd have is that Martin was clearly de-emphasizing mandolins in the '70's, so perhaps less attention was devoted to the few that were produced (767 in the period 1974-79). My Style A is from 1919, but I played several newer ones comparison shopping when I bought it, and while there were clearly individual instrument-to-instrument differences, I didn't find a clear pattern related to their vintages.
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