1953 Martin A Natural, Good, Original Hard, $899.99

Summary: Martin introduced their mandolins in 1895 because they noticed the popularity of the instruments throughout America & they were doing a ton of repairs on mandolins made by other companies. At a time in the late 1890’s Martin mandolin production was actually out-numbering the guitar production! This little dreamy Martin is from 1953 and it features a solid spruce top with mahogany back & sides

Body: A style mandolin with a solid spruce top & solid mahogany back & sides. The body has rosewood binding on the top & the back. The top is a bent top which was by design from the Martin factory.

Neck: Mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard, dot inlays, 20 frets, 13.25” scale length, 1 3/16” nut width. The frets do show a little wear they are in pretty good shape but for an instrument that is over 50 years old & they still have some life left in them. The tuning keys are 4-in-a-line with white plastic buttons.

Pickups/Hardware: No electronics, chrome hardware, 4 on a side tuning keys, rosewood bridge, tortoiseshell pickguard, tortoiseshell body binding, dot inlays.

Cosmetics: This instrument shows wear that is consistent with a well-loved instrument from the 1950’s – there are several dings & nicks on the body, some cool checking in the finish in various places, and a small place on the back of the neck where the top layer of the finish has worn off, but overall this instrument is in good playable condition.

Playability: This Martin plays & sounds great! The action is low, the neck is straight and we recently set it up with new strings.

Modifications: N/A

Weight: 1 lbs, 8 oz.

Case: Vintage hard shell case – this may be the original Martin case but it doesn’t have any markings on it, however, I can tell it is an old Geib style case with green interior and the original comfortable handle.