Re: 1898 Martin Style 6. What should I do?
Fair play to you, B. Covey.
I'm usually not a fan of the blinged up Martin bowlbacks, but this one catches my eye.
What will catch folks' eye is your first photo, which shows the mandolin's neck woefully out of position and a pretty impossible playing action.
Unfortunately, these mandolins don't have a truss rod or any unobstrusive means to adjust the action.
I've seen some Martin bowlbacks that have had an imbedded steel bar in the neck under the fretboard to ostensibly add some stiffness.
As you hint, a neck reset is likely needed to get this playable as the bridge / saddle doesn't appear to offer any wiggle room.
And the neck is pretty far out.
The good news is that the neck is likely attached to the neck block via a dovetail or similar joint.
I have done extensive repair work on a range of US and Italian bowlbacks (that were my own) so I've got some sense of what this will take.
The bad news is that all that bling and the cowling at the neck / bowl joint will make any such repair that much more complicated and certainly expensive.
It looks as if the neck rotation upward is a consequence of some top sinkage, or the two events are intertwined.
But that will need repair attention, too.
The market for bowlback mandolins in the States is a small one as it is. For a mandolin needing this level of work it is likely to be even smaller.
And to make it even harder to gauge value, the number of folks willing to take on this scope of work is exceedingly small.
$1K price and $1K in repairs yields you a $2K Martin 6. Might be worth it to someone, but it will be a small pool.
Trading with another builder / luthier who would relish the task might be the lucky way to go.
Maybe trading it for a guitar or bass that also needs extensive work might reel in some ringers.
Good luck!
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
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