C. F. Martin T-18 Model Tiple (1924), made in Nazareth, PA, serial # 21613, natural top, dark stained back and sides finish, mahogany back, sides and neck; spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, black rigid foam case.
This is a very nice and quite early Style 18 Martin Tiple, from the first few years of Martin's manufacture of "The Uke that went to College"! The Tiple was basically a Martin invention, designed with New York based Hawaiian music entrepreneur William J. Smith to be an "upsell' for ukulele players, strung with 10 steel strings in uke tuning. They sold well for a time in the 1920s, and Martin amazingly kept them into the line well past the 1980s.
The T-18 is built to the same standards as Style 18 guitars; mahogany back, sides and neck with a fan braced spruce top, ebony fingerboard and bridge. The headstock overlay and binding are Brazilian rosewood; the tuners are unplated brass strips with celluloid buttons. The early models like this are fan braced and extremely light and resonant; later they were built more heavily (like the guitars!). The T-18 sold for $35 in 1924, more than enough to buy a good guitar from anyone who was not Martin. 375 of these shipped in 1924, the second full production year as a standard catalog model.
While not well-remembered today, numerous small African-American string-swing ensembles of the 1930s made extensive use of these small, loud instruments for both fast lead work and frantic rhythm strumming. Two of the best known were the Spirits Of Rhythm (featuring guitarist Teddy Bunn) and Cats and the Fiddle, where Tiny Grimes got his professional start. Comic Timmie rogers was the best known exponent of the instrument in the 1960s. This T-18 is a lovely early example that plays and sounds great. No better examples of these now somewhat obscure instruments have ever been made, and the Martin Tiple remains -- even if by default -- the world's standard.
Overall length is 27 1/4 in. (69.2 cm.), 9 in. (22.9 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 17 in. (432 mm.). Width of nut is 1 1/2 in. (38 mm.).
This 99 year old T-18 remains nicely original with the bright ringing tone these are known for and plenty of volume. The top finish shows checking and some minor dings, dents, and scrapes but no really heavy strum wear. The back, sides and neck are relatively clean with only small dings and dents.
Structurally the instrument is excellent with a nice, flat top, solid original bridge, and only one small tight crack near the lower edge of the top and a small spot of seam resealed on the back. The bridge has been reglued (nearly all of them have) but there are only minimal scars to prove it. Long ago someone added a small tailpiece (later removed) and the patched holes in the rim remain over the endpin, with a slight depression where it rested along the top/back edge. Playability is good, like most Tiples intonation becomes suspect higher up the fingerboard but that is generally the case with these. This early model is one of the best sounding Tiples to brighten our doorstep in a while. A modern hard foam case is included Overall Excellent - Condition.
