C. F. Martin 2-17 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1926), made in Nazareth, PA, serial # 28124, natural mahogany finish, mahogany body and neck, ebony fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.
By modern standards the 2-17 is a small and unassuming guitar, but as Martin's first dedicated steel-string it helped change the course of the company's history. Even into the early 1920s the C. F. Martin Company considered gut-strung guitars the norm, with steel stringing a cheap and somewhat low-class anomaly. The popularity of Jazz, Vaudeville and Hawaiian styles made this a very redundant strategy, and in 1922 the all-mahogany 2-17 was introduced with steel strings as standard. It was clearly designed as a budget guitar, in keeping with the concept that only cheap players used steel strings!
The 2-17 is a very basic instrument, with all mahogany construction and minimal appointments. At the end of 1929 -- by which time nearly all Martins came stock strung with steel -- it was made more basic still by eliminating even the rosewood bindings on the top edge. This earlier model (built in late 1926) is a wee bit more elaborate with the discreet wood trim around the top and a larger soundhole ring. The 1926-7 list price was $32.50, a fairly paltry sum for a Martin, but actually still an expensive guitar by the standards of the time. You could get a pearl-trimmed rosewood instrument from Sears for less than that! The other appointments included a plain straight bridge, headstock facing and small-dot inlaid fingerboard all made of rosewood, the rest being mahogany.
The 2-17 proved the right guitar at the right time, a Martin mainstay through the 1920s right into worst years of the Depression. 1926 was the all-time peak production year with 1300 sold, an enormous total for Martin at the time. Even so many of these extremely lightly built, delicately scallop-braced guitars have not survived; this one some wear but remains a fine playing and sounding example with a sparkly tone and a surprising power and depth for its diminutive body. This model is most associated with Jimmy Rodgers, who played one early in his career before his Victor records successes enabled him to purchase the considerably more costly Custom 000-45 that became his trademark!
Overall length is 37 in. (94 cm.), 12 1/4 in. (31.1 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 in. (10.2 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/8 in. (619 mm.). Width of nut is 1 3/4 in. (44 mm.).
This is a lightly worn-in 95+ year old guitar that remains an excellent player. The top has some noticeable wear to the wood below the sound hole in the typical strumwear spot; the rest of the finish is relatively clean showing some small dings, dents, and scratches. The back of the body has some scuffing, the back of the neck is worn to the wood over some of its length.
Structurally this 2-17 is in better shape than many. The thin mahogany top is solid without the bulging as is often seen on this model. There are a couple of tiny sealed grain cracks along the sides on the lower bouts, otherwise the top, back and sides are crack free. The rosewood bridge and small maple bridge plate are original; the bridge top was lowered just slightly in front of the pins long ago. The bar frets and the unplated strip tuners are original as well.
The neck has been neatly reset, the original bar frets and fingerboard show some minor wear but not affecting playability. The thin brace under the fingerboard just above the soundhole has a small split repaired. As these somewhat fragile guitars go this is an excellent example, well cared for over almost a century. It represents a neat trip back to the times of the Singing Brakeman and thousands of other hopeful entertainers in the early days of "records and the radio!". Excellent - Condition.
