C. F. Martin Style A Shade Top Flat Back Mandolin (1939)
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Item # 13620
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C. F. Martin Style A Shade Top Model Flat Back Mandolin (1939), made in Nazareth, PA, serial # A-16746, sunburst top, dark mahogany back and sides finish, mahogany body and neck, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.
This Martin Style A mandolin was built in the waning days 1939; it carries the next-to-last mandolin serial number registered that year. This was the company's most basic 8-string offering, a plain but very effective design that remained in production for many decades with only minimal changes. This example from Martin's pre-war "golden era" has one rare feature, a dark sunburst "shaded top" which was a catalog option but in practice rarely ordered compared to the standard natural finish. We feel this makes for a much sharper looking Style A, which is after all a fairly plain instrument normally.
This late pre-WWII example is built lighter offering a livelier sound compared to the commonly found 1950s examples. Exactly 100 of these $25 mandolins were sold in 1939, and only a very small percentage would have been finished in this "dark top" variation. This deep mysterious looking Style A is a nice survivor, played in but all original 90+ years along and looking and sounding lovely indeed.
Overall length is 23 7/8 in. (60.6 cm.), 9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm.) width, and 2 3/4 in. (7 cm.) in depth at deepest point. Scale length is 13 in. (330 mm.). Width of nut is 1 1/16 in. (27 mm.).
This mandolin shows the signs of some play time since Roosevelt was in the White House but no really heavy wear. The all-original thin lacquer finish shows some light checking and general wear, with small dings and scratches overall and noticeable pick marks on either side of the fingerboard and soundhole with noticeable wear to the lower edge of the pickguard.
It remains all original and complete, including the original Waverly tuners and oft-missing tailpiece cover which has some plating loss. The original bar frets have been polished out showing no subsequent wear. This Style A is especially cool looking in its dark sunburst livery, but also very good sounding with a bright bouncy tone and plenty of volume. This would make an excellent old time or recording mandolin, complete in a modern HSC that is a functional if inexact fit Overall Very Good + Condition.
This Martin Style A mandolin was built in the waning days 1939; it carries the next-to-last mandolin serial number registered that year. This was the company's most basic 8-string offering, a plain but very effective design that remained in production for many decades with only minimal changes. This example from Martin's pre-war "golden era" has one rare feature, a dark sunburst "shaded top" which was a catalog option but in practice rarely ordered compared to the standard natural finish. We feel this makes for a much sharper looking Style A, which is after all a fairly plain instrument normally.
This late pre-WWII example is built lighter offering a livelier sound compared to the commonly found 1950s examples. Exactly 100 of these $25 mandolins were sold in 1939, and only a very small percentage would have been finished in this "dark top" variation. This deep mysterious looking Style A is a nice survivor, played in but all original 90+ years along and looking and sounding lovely indeed.
Overall length is 23 7/8 in. (60.6 cm.), 9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm.) width, and 2 3/4 in. (7 cm.) in depth at deepest point. Scale length is 13 in. (330 mm.). Width of nut is 1 1/16 in. (27 mm.).
This mandolin shows the signs of some play time since Roosevelt was in the White House but no really heavy wear. The all-original thin lacquer finish shows some light checking and general wear, with small dings and scratches overall and noticeable pick marks on either side of the fingerboard and soundhole with noticeable wear to the lower edge of the pickguard.
It remains all original and complete, including the original Waverly tuners and oft-missing tailpiece cover which has some plating loss. The original bar frets have been polished out showing no subsequent wear. This Style A is especially cool looking in its dark sunburst livery, but also very good sounding with a bright bouncy tone and plenty of volume. This would make an excellent old time or recording mandolin, complete in a modern HSC that is a functional if inexact fit Overall Very Good + Condition.