Well it's been very interesting, exciting, stressful, and very educational.

Either I get offered late 40's/early 50s OOO-28's that are in absolutely deplorable condition, but the sellers are demanding top dollar because "Duh....hey it's old and vintage and it's a Martin!" - to the other extreme of having been offered some extremely gorgeous pre war beauties in practically mint condition that would require a second mortgage to purchase. I think not.

Then last week something that started out very promising turned to dogshit pretty rapidly. A private dealer in Tennessee who imports these mint and near mint beauties from Japan (from other Japanese Martin collectors he hobnobs with) told me he was in negotiations for a near mint '67 model, and the price seemed fair. I asked for first right of refusal when he got it in and before he threw it up on his web site. He agreed. I also decided to widen the search to include later 60's models.

Then I started to press him for details, and very matter of factly was told that it was near mint in every respect, but there was a minor, insignificant bit of work done to it. That little minor, insignificant piece of work, was the fact that the braces had been lightly scalloped!

Now I'm going to sound like a real knit-picking purist, guitar snob or nerd, elitist or whatever you want to call me, but sorry, this little piece of work is as significant an alteration to the instrument's originality (which was straight braced by the way) as is re-finishing the guitar. Therefore it is devalued by approximately 40-50% of what its legitimate market value should be, which in turn makes the asking price in my opinion ($4,850) ludicrous.

I wrote the dealer a polite and very diplomatically worded e-mail telling him I'll take a pass on this one, but that I had no doubt he'd move it in a matter of days once it hit his web site.

Thing is with this guy, he has an existing clientele of buyers who don't mind "conversion" instruments (meaning otherwise straight braced original Martins that have been given to luthiers and either re-topped with scalloped bracing, or simply scalloping the bracing and leaving the original tops on.)

There is most definitely a market for this, but not a collectors market. I consulted with two expert luthiers than I know personally who know more about Martins than I do, about this instrument. Their opinions were unanimous....and concurred with my feeling about it as well. I'm not only doing this from a playing standpoint but also from a bit of an investment stand point as well. (They always say "invest in what you love". I happen to love guitars as sort of playable art.) My concern was if I was to buy this instrument, and say for whatever the reason several years down the road I wanted to flip it (for perhaps an acquisition of something older) would I have trouble getting my money out of it?

And the answer is yes. Because once you enter that little private world of niche market collectors/investors who really know their stuff, a conversion such as this would be an instant turn off and a deal breaker. And most regular players wouldn't spend that amount of money on a guitar such as this as it's pretty expensive, so you'd need someone gullable and well heeled, and even if you found them, you'd know you were puttin' one over on them, and pickers shouldn't pull that kind of shit on each other regardless.

But, on the other hand if you factor in what it would cost you to purchase a new Brazilian rosewood OOO-28, then the $4850.00 seems like a bargain - provided you're going to keep it forever and just play the hell out of it without a thought to ever selling it.

With me and my G.A.S. attacks, nothing is forever. There's always a purdier, better sounding and looking axe out there just around the corner...so when I do make my moves, I try and do it in such a way that I'm gradually moving up the ladder and not only getting things that are fun and great to play, and but that over the long term will appreciate a bit, so that I too can move into that special niche market without having to take mortgages out to finance these things.

As for E-Bay, now there's a real market for the gullably inclined and uninformed. The majority of the dog shit that was offered to me, originated there. What kills me about that place with respect to shopping vintage, is that is many instances (and this is supposed to be an auction fer chisakes) that buyers end up paying the same or even more for these instruments than if they just went to a local vintage store and bought one there. E-Bay has practically zero credibility for me based on what I've looked at and seen happening there over the past few weeks. Whatever it is I wanted will not be found there.

In any event, I'm waiting to hear back from the Martin Custom Shop. I am just about ready to say fuck it and am now leaning towards ordering a brand new, custom OOO-45 to my exact specifications, and getting an instrument specifically made for me that I'll love playing and keeping, and that perhaps some day my kids can make a shit load of money on when I take up the harp and learn to use those damn wings.

So I'll have to wait a bit and see how this saga unfolds. (Thanks for indulging me.)