Photo Finish


Finishes on C. F. Martin Guitars



Tinted Finishes on C. F. Martin Guitars


Various tinted guitars...




...including 1890's Martins with dark tint & pumpkin tint options, Southern California Music spruce top sample,
light tint Ditson Style 22, Ditson Style 11 with $1 dark tint option, Olcott-Bickford 0-44, and Wm. Lange Paramount.  

Note that every tint is slightly different.



The light tint Ditson Style 22, and Style 11 with $1 dark tint option:






Comparing the Martin with dark tint option with the Ditson Style 11 with dark tint option.





The martin has a darker tint.



Light tint Ditson Style 22, Spruce top sample Southern California Music, Pumpkin top 1890's Martin:



 


Spruce top sample Southern California Music, Pumpkin top 1890's Martin:



 


Spruce top sample Southern California Music, Olcott-Bickford Style 0-44, Pumpkin top 1890's Martin:









A few words about "over-finish" or "overspray", refinished Martins, and values:


In the early days of French polish finishes, it was natural for Martin to add a bit of extra polish to spiff up a guitar when it came back to the factory. When Martin moved to lacquer, they continued the practice. This tended to happen most often to their best guitars, and the ones built for show, which means more pearl Martins than any others received this treatment. In the days of Martin's best work, the company often considered a guitar with over-finish to be superior to the guitar with the original finish, and swore that they sounded just as good, if not better.

Martin also routinely refinished guitars if they had a problem when they reached the dealer, and sold them as new, and refinished almost new guitars if they had a problem covered by the warrantee. No one ever thought of these refinished guitars as inferior, and your guitar might just be one of them without you even knowing it!  I have one old Martin with a replaced back that I never would have known about from a simple inspection.

Refinishing usually involves sanding, which can thin the wood of the top, often making a guitar louder, but without the full sound and balance of the original guitar.  Martin has always been expert in refinishing guitars, and routinely does so with minimal noticeable thinning and little detrimental effect to the guitars.

Some folks automatically value any Martin without untampered original finish as being worth only 50%.  I believe that following this "50% rule" is painting with a very wide brush.  Or refinishing with a very wide brush, perhaps.  Old Martin factory finish work doesn't bother me at all, and to lump these in the same category as crude, amateur refins with thick globs of finish and thinned tops, makes little sense.  Fred Oster of Vintage Instruments in Philadelphia told me the best sounding Dreadnaught he had heard in decades was a 1944 D-18 with an old, light factory overspray.  

If it takes endless inspection and debate to decide if a guitar is indeed refinished or oversprayed or not, could it really be that big a deal?

As people understand the history and context better, I don't think these guitars will be devalued by more than 15% or 20% or so. They can be some of the best guitars out there.  Once we learn more abut the culture at Martin at the time the work was done, I think attitudes will change greatly.

While I don't believe in heavily discounting for quality, factory overfinishes, I would pay a premium for a totally untouched original example!