Help! That pesky Martin Headstock Scribble!

[Rockysdad]

Easy solution,......... purchase a *Martin* decal, leave the house with the Sigma swap out the decal on the headstock and return hours later and present your wife with her new *Martin*.

Okay, not really, if she'd prefer the Martin, then so be it.

[CharlieBman]

Your story reads more about what you wanted than your wife. Sometimes when women as for opinions, what they really want is to be told what "they" want is ok. Give her what she wants...even if she's not sure. She'll figure it out eventually.

[lowrider]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Billy Strings plays kind of Bluegrassy sometimes.

He don't need no steenking Martin.

That's funny because I just looked a t Google pictures, and every guitar he's playing is either a Martin or a much more expensive copy of one.

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

Billy Strings plays kind of Bluegrassy sometimes.

He don't need no steenking Martin.

Except that that’s not true. There’s a very touching thread on the UMGF from 2010 where a young William Apostol pleads with a member who has posted a D-93 for sale, not to sell the guitar to anyone but him. He doesn’t have the cash to pay the $2,100 asking price, so he implores the member to allow him to pay for the guitar in installments. The guitar belonged to his father, but his father sold the guitar to pay bills, and now young William Apostol is desperate to be reunited with his father’s guitar. After several messages back and forth and installments paid, he finally got his father’s Martin back.

Once Mr. Apostol made enough money to buy pretty much any guitar he wanted, he purchased a 1944 D-28, which he referred to as the “Holy Grail.” I suppose it’s fitting that an Apostol would end up with a Holy Grail.

[A Scot in Otley]

Hi, folks. Thanks for your helpful, and waggish suggestions. It's possible I was influencing my domestic CEO in the choice, but not consciously. I had given her as much time as she wanted. She came looking for me to help her decide. I did suggest leaving it for a day and come back. Not entirely certain I've recovered from the Paddington hard stare.

Anyway, sit rep. She who must be obeyed has cleaned and polished the guitar, and we changed the strings. Just needs a strap pin put in the heel, and new bone bridge pins - the pins need shaping (they all do) at the bottom and I thought I'd get new bone ones. It is looking very pretty. She's determined to get used to the slightly wider Gibson style neck, but she likes the shorter scale. So is it all hunky dory? Seems so. But ...... she mentioned that I might want to get the Martin SC13E! Hmm. I said I'd rather get a Sigma for myself. ...

But that wee Martin is right up my street. Oh, dear. .....

TBC

[Robin, Wales]

Malcolm,

My story is the reverse! My wife chose my last guitar. Lots of possible options but she picked out a second hand standard D-18 because "It sounds like an acoustic guitar is supposed to sound". And it is a dread that I can sing with? Not quite sure why that is though? I had a Seagull S6 spruce top that was just WAY too much guitar for my voice. And I was playing at a friends house a few nights back and he has a cedar S6, which was still way too much guitar for me. The D-18 is just as loud (I think) but in a different sort of way. I can really dig into it and still get across the top of it with my voice - very strange!!!! I think it is because it is very subtle and blended in the strum but bold on the single note runs. Anyway, I do much less damping on that D-18 than I need even on my A&L Legacy 000 or plywood 5th Avenue archtop.

I should really start a thread about how "quiet" Martin bluegrass guitars are - but in a good way! That would get the pack going!

[ewalling]

For me, the experience of owning multiple Martins, Taylors and Gibsons cured me of headstock snobbery. It took some years to realize that the same, if not better, quality could be had elsewhere and at much cheaper cost. I barely even look at the big three these days.

Originally Posted by CharlieBman

Your story reads more about what you wanted than your wife. Sometimes when women as for opinions, what they really want is to be told what "they" want is ok. Give her what she wants...even if she's not sure. She'll figure it out eventually.

Wow, I thought I was living in 2023. Turns out for some people it's still 1953. :/

PS Don't think men don't do the exact same thing.

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by sinistral

Except that that’s not true.

Once Mr. Apostol made enough money to buy pretty much any guitar he wanted, he purchased a 1944 D-28,

My mistake.

I've mostly seen him play the Thompson.

I just think the Bluegrass/Martin "law" is childish and never understood it.

[sinistral]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

My mistake.

I've mostly seen him play the Thompson.

I just think the Bluegrass/Martin "law" is childish and never understood it.

Yeah, sort of like religion, politics and sports teams (which really are all one and the same... ).

[jwing]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

...
I just think the Bluegrass/Martin "law" is childish and never understood it.

Maybe because the Bluegrass/Martin "law" exists only in the Acoustic Guitar Forum. Speaking only for myself, trying to understand something that doesn't exist seems senseless.

[A Scot in Otley]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

I should really start a thread about how "quiet" Martin bluegrass guitars are - but in a good way! That would get the pack going!

Go on, I dare you

[rllink]

Originally Posted by Murphy Slaw

My mistake.

I've mostly seen him play the Thompson.

I just think the Bluegrass/Martin "law" is childish and never understood it.

Originally Posted by jwing

Maybe because the Bluegrass/Martin "law" exists only in the Acoustic Guitar Forum. Speaking only for myself, trying to understand something that doesn't exist seems senseless.

I've not run into it. I mean, sure, I've run into Martin worshipers preaching the gospel but they are everywhere. I see people playing other guitars at bluegrass festivals all the time. I play a mahogany Guild and I've never been arrested. I've never even gotten a warning ticket.

[Tnfiddler]

Originally Posted by jwing

Maybe because the Bluegrass/Martin "law" exists only in the Acoustic Guitar Forum. Speaking only for myself, trying to understand something that doesn't exist seems senseless.

Some truth to that. I played a 1995 Taylor 810 for many years at bluegrass festivals and jams and I had MANY snide comments made to me about playing a Taylor in bluegrass! I also was told on many occasions to get a Martin. Hasn’t happened in the last 5-7 years, but 12-15 years ago, “If it ain’t Martin, it ain’t Bluegrass”, was the mantra of many!! Their own Martin stickers, that they handed out at SPBGMA, in the Martin booth, said that exact thing. Now that I own a Martin, I don’t subscribe to that ideology, at all! I much prefer my Bourgeois for playing bluegrass!!

[Dave Hicks]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

... My story is the reverse! My wife chose my last guitar. ...

I tried out a Gretsch resonator when they came out a few years, and my wife told me I needed it. She was right, too.

D.H.