Where Can I Get My Vintage Martin (1840) Restored? - now restored

Chiliwailer

ICBM said:

Chiliwailer said:

Thank you, glad I’m not alone about the bridge! It’s gets played regularly, I have to keep remembering that it is as you say a serious piece of history! 

When I saw the first pic I honestly was shocked that anyone, at any time, even when vintage guitars were just seen as old instruments to be used and repaired as necessary, would have thought that ridiculously oversized modern-style bridge was appropriate.

In some ways it’s a shame the damage can’t be hidden, but I think you’re right to leave it - it is part of its story, and refinishing the top to make it less visible would be worse, I think.

That it’s one of the earliest guitars by what many still see as the world’s top acoustic guitar manufacturer and is still being played is fantastic. I also find it slightly hilarious that electric guitarists are now describing instruments from the 1980s as ‘vintage’, when this one is not far off 200 years old .

Haha, that last comment made me laugh! So true. Nice what you said about the story too, cheers. 

This guitar has really been through it, at some point it looks like it had a trapeze bridge before the horror show large one - I presume as they were looking to use steel strings, which were on it when I got the guitar. The nylons sound really sweet though so I also can’t imagine why on earth people thought it was ok, or respectful, to change it in such a way - especially when it’s not even braced for steels. So undignified too. 

ICBM

Chiliwailer said:

Haha, that last comment made me laugh!

Thinking more about that, if you really want to put it into perspective, this guitar was made only ten years after Faraday discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, which is the cornerstone of our entire modern world - as well as how electric guitar pickups work - and before the first practical electric generator.

Chiliwailer said:

This guitar has really been through it, at some point it looks like it had a trapeze bridge before the horror show large one - I presume as they were looking to use steel strings, which were on it when I got the guitar. The nylons sound really sweet though so I also can’t imagine why on earth people thought it was ok, or respectful, to change it in such a way - especially when it’s not even braced for steels. So undignified too.

To be fair, they also increased the neck pitch of Stradivari and other early violins and fitted taller bridges to make them suitable for (then) modern strings and playing! So it’s perhaps not *that* surprising...

I’m not an expert on old instruments by the way, I just like to see the history in something like this. It’s a wonderful thing and it’s nice to see it being played and not in a museum or a bank vault.

Chiliwailer

ICBM said:

Thinking more about that, if you really want to put it into perspective, this guitar was made only ten years after Faraday discovered the principle of electromagnetic induction, which is the cornerstone of our entire modern world - as well as how electric guitar pickups work - and before the first practical electric generator 

Absolutely, every time I see something on TV or film that’s around this guitar’s era I think about how it’d fitted in, E.g. the places it’d be played and what the people were wearing. I’ve been told this would have been likely played by a young lady from a wealthy family, as apparently men weren’t playing guitars as much back then…. Guess they were waiting for the electromagnetic revolution  

Chiliwailer

ICBM said:

To be fair, they also increased the neck pitch of Stradivari and other early violins and fitted taller bridges to make them suitable for (then) modern strings and playing! So it’s perhaps not *that* surprising...

I’m not an expert on old instruments by the way, I just like to see the history in something like this. It’s a wonderful thing and it’s nice to see it being played and not in a museum or a bank vault.

Definitely, I do feel blessed and privileged to get to play it - would be shame for it just to be a collection piece, it’s far too sweet for that. 

Interesting about the Strads,  nice one. 

Stuckfast

I'm curious about the whole steel vs nylon/gut strings thing. When were steel strings introduced? And did guitar makers immediately realise that the instruments needed to be stronger or was that a gradual thing?

The old Lyon & Healy parlour guitar that I have is from the 1880s, and probably about the same dimensions as your Martin. It needed a neck reset when I got it, but it seems perfectly happy with conventional steel strings (13s no less). 

ICBM

Chiliwailer said:

I’ve been told this would have been likely played by a young lady from a wealthy family

Who, if the guitar was bought new for her when she was about 21 or 22, would have been the exact contemporary of a young minor princess who had less than five years earlier become... Queen Victoria.

BlueStrat

What an amazing piece of history - just think what this guitar has lived through. The American Civil War, rise and fall of British and Ottoman empires , unifications or Germany and Italy,  breakthroughs in science and social change, universal suffrage, wars and peace, depressions and prosperity, cars and planes, the whole modern world

brucegill

BlueStrat said:

What an amazing piece of history - just think what this guitar has lived through. The American Civil War, rise and fall of British and Ottoman empires , unifications or Germany and Italy,  breakthroughs in science and social change, universal suffrage, wars and peace, depressions and prosperity, cars and planes, the whole modern world

And me playing shit blues on it when I get round to @Chiliwailer next time

Chiliwailer

brucegill said:

BlueStrat said:

What an amazing piece of history - just think what this guitar has lived through. The American Civil War, rise and fall of British and Ottoman empires , unifications or Germany and Italy,  breakthroughs in science and social change, universal suffrage, wars and peace, depressions and prosperity, cars and planes, the whole modern world

And me playing shit blues on it when I get round to @Chiliwailer next time

It’s the nylon strings that easily confuses you eh?  

guitarjack66

BlueStrat said:

What an amazing piece of history - just think what this guitar has lived through. The American Civil War, rise and fall of British and Ottoman empires , unifications or Germany and Italy,  breakthroughs in science and social change, universal suffrage, wars and peace, depressions and prosperity, cars and planes, the whole modern world

And all Dr Sam Beckett needed to avoid all his strife was to Quantum Leap back into a guitar.