This is what heaven must sound like....

[MikePrent]

When it’s my turn to enter the pearly gates, I imagine heaven sounding like this....the sound of angels... and it could be yours for a mere $60k (1941 D-28 lefty)

https://youtu.be/3Nrc1Uvptxw

[drive-south]

Something about that guitar doesn't look right. The headstock is the Gibson "open book" style and the tuners look like modern enclosed tuners.

[drive-south]

Okay I read the description on Elderly's site. The neck is factory original and built to accommodate some fine tuners which are long gone. I'm stunned that they copied the Gibson style.

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by drive-south

Something about that guitar doesn't look right.

The headstock is the Gibson "open book" style and the tuners look like modern enclosed tuners.

Originally Posted by drive-south

I'm stunned that they copied the Gibson style.

But the guitar was custom ordered by the original owner, a professional touring musician (the Martin records in fact reveal that it was a special order). That's the headstock style he wanted--which according to the commentators in the videos, below, looks somewhat like a Martin mandolin's from the early 1900s--and so Martin specially designed it to his specifications. The original tuners are long gone, of course.

If you watch the following videos at the Elderly site, the origin of that headstock is fully explained.

Video #1--Headstock origin discussed, beginning at around the 4:53 mark.



Video #2--Headstock origin discussed, beginning at around the 4:23 mark.

[vindibona1]

I've never seen a Martin headstock shape like a Gibson- even on '37s. I've never seen a vintage lefty either. Since this guitar is/was at Elderly I have to assume it's genuine.

As we've seen a number of recordings of true vintage guitars and most of us have fallin in love with their sounds, a few questions are burning in my mind: Do these vintage guitars sound as they do mostly because of the aging process? Or, are they just built better than modern guitars? Is it that in relative dollars (adjusted for inflation) we pay far less and consquently what we get is a good relative value, but not as good an instrument? Or is it as much or more of the tone in the fingers of the player and he'd sound just as great on a 2018 D28?

[Liam77]

it would be actually hell, to own a such nice pre-war D28, ... and being right handed

[MikePrent]

Originally Posted by Liam77

it would be actually hell, to own a such nice pre-war D28, ... and being right handed

I'd teach myself to play left handed to own that one!

[John K]

Originally Posted by vindibona1

I've never seen a Martin headstock shape like a Gibson- even on '37s. I've never seen a vintage lefty either. Since this guitar is/was at Elderly I have to assume it's genuine.

As we've seen a number of recordings of true vintage guitars and most of us have fallin in love with their sounds, a few questions are burning in my mind: Do these vintage guitars sound as they do mostly because of the aging process? Or, are they just built better than modern guitars? Is it that in relative dollars (adjusted for inflation) we pay far less and consquently what we get is a good relative value, but not as good an instrument? Or is it as much or more of the tone in the fingers of the player and he'd sound just as great on a 2018 D28?

As I understand it, they were built lighter, by top craftsmen, with the best woods available. And they are old. The builds got sturdier as some of the old ones broke down under heavy strings. That's the VERY short version..