Marty, age per se has nothing to do with it. Experience, judgment, and knowledge of Martins and instruments made by a lot of other companies and luthiers does.

Martin generally turns out a fairly good quality product, but Christian Frederick Martin would not be too happy with some of them. Nor would Christian Frederick Martin III who took over the company in the Forties. They used to be mostly hand made, but not anymore. There has been a dip in quality within recent years as a result of cranking them out to meet the demand. If yours is one of the earlier ones, count yourself lucky.

Don Firth