1930s Martin Style 1 Soprano Ukulele





There are Martin ukes and then there are tremendous Martin ukes. This one is owned by a customer and it's in the latter category. Almost all '20s and '30s Martin ukes you'll pick up will have excellent tone and at-least good volume. This one has more oomph and cut than any other Martin soprano uke I've heard yet. It has what I like to call reserve power. You don't have to bang on it to get your chords to chop -- you can strum away light-to-medium and remain confidant that you're being heard. It's power I'm more-used to hearing from older Kamakas, Sam Changs, and nicer Regals -- not the more-reserved Martins whose bracing seems to be more about stability and tone-coloration (creaming-up?) than output.

Anyhow, work was very light on this -- it got a fret level/dress (bar frets are always just a bit "off"), new Gotoh 4:1 geared pegs, and a setup. It's now playing on-the-dot and happily.


Martin Style 1 instruments are a basic upgrade from Style 0 -- there's binding at the top and back of the body. In this case, it's tortoise celluloid.













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