A nice one sold recently for £900, and a refurbished tenor for £1,000. I wouldn't think even a nice soprano, with the benefit of a rebuild by a well regarded technician, would make more than a grand.Hello, I am reluctantly going to be selling my Soprano. It's in silver plate and has recently been rebuilt/restored by Paul Carrington.
What sort of price should I be asking?
Thanks.A nice one sold recently for £900, and a refurbished tenor for £1,000. I wouldn't think even a nice soprano, with the benefit of a rebuild by a well regarded technician, would make more than a grand.
I won't be doing that!OK ask 3k!
Interesting. I've had several Martin Handcraft altos and tenors over the years and I now have both alto and tenor Lewin "Martins". I cannot find any difference in quality of build between these stencils and the "real mccoy". In fact the Lewins are better in the intonation dept., whereas I have had problems with this on previous Handcrafts. I'd go further and say that the tenor is one of the most in tune vintage tenors I've ever owned, and a real pleasure to play - I'm gigging it at the present time because I like it so much! I haven't owned a Martin soprano, but I borrowed a good condition 1927 example once, and found it had a lovely tone but the tuning wasn't it's strong point.I had a Lewin Bros (Martin stencil) that I bought for around £400 but it needed full overhaul/restoration. When my tech finally did the job it was a bit underwhelming so I ended up selling it for around £750 or £800 and just about broke even.
I then stumbled on another Martin soprano (a proper branded one this time and not a stencil) which was quite reasonably priced (about £650 iirc) and in decent playing condition. It's a great instrument and I still own it. I generally prefer my Conn curved soprano(s) but still have the Martin and it's probably my favourite vintage straight soprano.
Interesting. I've had several Martin Handcraft altos and tenors over the years and I now have both alto and tenor Lewin "Martins". I cannot find any difference in quality of build between these stencils and the "real mccoy". In fact the Lewins are better in the intonation dept., whereas I have had problems with this on previous Handcrafts. I'd go further and say that the tenor is one of the most in tune vintage tenors I've ever owned, and a real pleasure to play - I'm gigging it at the present time because I like it so much! I haven't owned a Martin soprano, but I borrowed a good condition 1927 example once, and found it had a lovely tone but the tuning wasn't it's strong point.