Post by CTGull on Aug 25, 2019 12:19:35 GMT -5
I thought I had a chance at getting the "Holy Grail" of the FG series, the 12 string FG-2500, on Shopgoodwill.com. Alas, it was not to be. I don't deserve it, I can't afford it, but I tried anyway. www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/74446395 It ended at 11:21pm, a bit late for me. I thought I'd stay up for it but at 10:30pm I was tired and threw a $2100 bid at it. I was the high bidder!! But at 10:55pm (I was still up) I was notified I'd been outbid. Since the time remaining was 24:24 I thought it was fitting that I up my bid to $2400, still assuming I'd be out bid. I did not stay up to see the result. I checked this morning to find the winning bid was $2401!!! It's possible if I bid $2501 I might have won it, but that's WAAAAY TOO MUCH MONEY for a guitar for someone who barely plays. Maybe it's a trophy, an investment, or money thrown away if it's not in as good of shape as it looked in the small pictures.
The FG-2500 (and the FG-1000, 1500 & 2000) are the top end hand made models. The FG-2500 was made 1971 to 1975, listed for $1050 ($6600 in today's dollars), solid Ezo spruce top, solid Jacaranda back & sides (as all of the above models did), Honduran mahogany neck, and ebony fingerboard & bridge.
I've made a list of the few serial numbers I've been able to find for these rare models. 18 so far. From what I've read and discovered, they only made about 2000 total of these models between 1971 and 1975. That's a lot, about 500 per year, for hand made guitars. There is one signature that is common to most of them. I don't know if he was the builder or the inspector.
There's always been discussions if Jacaranda is another name for Brazilian rosewood. Technically, Jacaranda isn't even in the rosewood family. But it seems many guitar manufacturers used the name Jacaranda for anything that looked like rosewood OR to hide the fact that the wood was actually Brazilian rosewood. The only possible way to tell is to examine the color. Brazilian rosewood is a chocolate color, Jacaranda is more orange.
But, here's an article on distinguishing Brazilian rosewood from other rosewoods. www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/distinguishing-brazilian-rosewood-from-east-indian-and-other-rosewoods/ It talks about Brazilian rosewood being more redish than the dark chocolate or purplish brown of Indian rosewood. There's also a difference in the amount of pores in the end grain and the smell.
On our first trip to the Martin factory we stopped at the old factory which now houses the "Guitar Makers Connection" where they stock lots of raw guitar parts, some of which are factory rejects. In a basket by the door are headstock cutoffs, which they do when they find a neck is defective, assuming so no one can use the full neck on another guitar. Almost all of these headstock cutoffs have Indian rosewood head plates. EXCEPT for ONE that day!! It has BRAZILIAN rosewood. It has a "B" written on the cut end and it has an ebony truss rod, indication it is a reproduction of a vintage model. I've done some tests on them and found the Brazilian one definitely smells different, nothing like Indian rosewood, and it seems to have less pores on the endgrain. I haven't tried the fluorescence test.
TO BE CONTINUED... I'll eventually write a better article about Jacaranda vs. Brazilian Rosewood vs. other rosewoods.
The FG-2500 (and the FG-1000, 1500 & 2000) are the top end hand made models. The FG-2500 was made 1971 to 1975, listed for $1050 ($6600 in today's dollars), solid Ezo spruce top, solid Jacaranda back & sides (as all of the above models did), Honduran mahogany neck, and ebony fingerboard & bridge.
I've made a list of the few serial numbers I've been able to find for these rare models. 18 so far. From what I've read and discovered, they only made about 2000 total of these models between 1971 and 1975. That's a lot, about 500 per year, for hand made guitars. There is one signature that is common to most of them. I don't know if he was the builder or the inspector.
There's always been discussions if Jacaranda is another name for Brazilian rosewood. Technically, Jacaranda isn't even in the rosewood family. But it seems many guitar manufacturers used the name Jacaranda for anything that looked like rosewood OR to hide the fact that the wood was actually Brazilian rosewood. The only possible way to tell is to examine the color. Brazilian rosewood is a chocolate color, Jacaranda is more orange.
But, here's an article on distinguishing Brazilian rosewood from other rosewoods. www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/distinguishing-brazilian-rosewood-from-east-indian-and-other-rosewoods/ It talks about Brazilian rosewood being more redish than the dark chocolate or purplish brown of Indian rosewood. There's also a difference in the amount of pores in the end grain and the smell.
On our first trip to the Martin factory we stopped at the old factory which now houses the "Guitar Makers Connection" where they stock lots of raw guitar parts, some of which are factory rejects. In a basket by the door are headstock cutoffs, which they do when they find a neck is defective, assuming so no one can use the full neck on another guitar. Almost all of these headstock cutoffs have Indian rosewood head plates. EXCEPT for ONE that day!! It has BRAZILIAN rosewood. It has a "B" written on the cut end and it has an ebony truss rod, indication it is a reproduction of a vintage model. I've done some tests on them and found the Brazilian one definitely smells different, nothing like Indian rosewood, and it seems to have less pores on the endgrain. I haven't tried the fluorescence test.
TO BE CONTINUED... I'll eventually write a better article about Jacaranda vs. Brazilian Rosewood vs. other rosewoods.