Four Martin-made Bacons

surface in vintage markets

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     © 2021 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved

 

See also:    "Bringing Home the Bacon & Day"  —   posted Weds, July 15, 2020 

                       "Recent Bacon & Day Sightings"      —   posted Thurs, July 16, 2020

Four Bacon acoustic guitars from the early 1920s have surfaced in vintage guitar markets. One has a pearl Bacon logo on the headplate, while the other three have a die-stamped Bacon Banjo Co. indicia across the rear of the headstock.

The four guitars were produced by C.F. Martin Co. of Nazareth PA as a standard model with typically plain appointments and premium woods for Bacon Banjo Co. of Groton CT. Each was produced under the aegis of a build-and-brand contract that joined the firms for two years. 

So far only these four Bacons from the 1920s have been examined by vintage guitar players, dealers and collectors. There are other, as-yet unidentified Bacon guitars with a Martin pedigree. Martin is said to have built no more than two dozen Bacon guitars for the banjo maker in the mid-1920s.

The recently found units are rare, well-made and well-preserved guitars. Collectively, they cast new light on the first effort by the Bacon company, a well-known banjo maker, to market a line of premium guitars. They also illustrate Martin's bumpy road in selling private label guitars. 

By the 1920s Martin had been trying for half its existence to boost sales among several entities and venues in the music business, including retail shops, music teachers, sheet music publishers and regional distributors. These Martin-built sales deals usually took one of three forms: Martin-branded guitars; unbranded guitars; and privately labeled guitars. Some of these instruments had a Martin serial number. Some did not.

 

Martin may have had high expectations with Bacon, since it was dealing with a nationally distributed musical instrument firm or publisher, such as The Ditson Company, Southern California Music Co. or Rudolph Wurlitzer Guitars, which each generated sales of several hundred instruments for Martin. But Bacon's sales of Martin-made guitars were lackluster. In the end, it made and sold only a few dozen guitars with Bacon and the deal was short-lived.

 

Bacon logo, indicia stamp, dovetail S and Martin serial number

"A few guitars without Martin stamps were made for the Bacon Banjo Co. about 1924," said Mike Longworth, former company historian and the author of Martin Guitars, A History (4 Maples Press, © 1988, 2nd printing 1994), which presents what amounts to an etymological survey of Martin guitar styles, nomenclature, production totals, dimensions and pricing over a 160-year span.

 

Longworth didn't identify any Martin style numbers or production totals for the guitars it made for Bacon. He nevertheless added, "Some of Bacon[']s guitars were probably made by other firms, as well," without identifying any makers.

 

Only one of the four Bacon guitars has a pearl logo typically found on banjos it made from the firm's start in 1906 to its demise in 1938. The rest are die-stamped "Made by the Bacon Banjo Co. Inc., Groton, Conn, U.S.A." on the back of the headstock.

Three of the four newly found Bacon guitars are concert-sized and built with a design and materials similar to a Martin 0-21. Each has a 131/2-inch lower bout width, slotted headstock, neck with 12 frets to the body, ebony finger- board, bar frets and pearl dots at the 5th, 7th and 9th fret. Each is made with rosewood back and sides, spruce top and an ebony pyramid bridge.

The fourth Bacon guitar is identical to a Martin 2-17 model. The back, sides and top of this guitar are solid mahogany. It has the 12-inch lower bout width of a 2-17 model, neck with 12 frets to the body and bar frets on ebony fingerboard.

Guitars made under build-and-brand contract

The Bacon company owners, Fred Bacon and David Day, made a later attempt at selling premium guitars when banjo sales sagged in 1930. Since they didn't build guitars, they again used a build-and-brand contract with an outside firm. At that time they chose Regal Instrument Co. of Chicago IL, which produced nearly two dozen models of ornate and pricey guitars with a Bacon & Day label.

 

In the last 20 years these top-of-the-line arch-top and flat-top guitars by Regal, built between 1931 and 1939 for Bacon Banjo Co., have blossomed in collector esteem and monetary value among vintage guitar cognoscenti. 

 

Unlike these Bacon & Day guitars by Regal, few Bacon guitars by Martin from the 1920s were known to exist. So offering details on these newly unearthed guitars is intended to illuminate an otherwise overlooked period in the histories of Bacon Banjo Co. and C.F. Martin Co.

 

Bacon with dark and glowing russet burst

1924 Martin-made Bacon (no sn)

with S on surface of dovetail joint

The first of the three Bacon guitars matching Martin's 0-21 model features a spruce top finished in a dark and glowing russet burst. It has an ebony pyramid bridge, premium tuning machines and Bacon headplate logo indentical to those found on every Bacon banjo during the 1920s and 1930s. 

 

It does not have a serial number on the neck block to indicate Martin origin. Instead, the neck's dovetail joint, which was open during a recent reset, contains the letter S, a mark Martin employed to signify special editions of its instruments. 

 

This guitar was discovered on a Connecticut farm in June 2005 and listed for sale with Bernunzio Vintage Instruments, a retail dealer in Rochester NY. Bernunzio initially offered this vintage acoustic guitar for $6500. Within a year the dealer reduced its price to $5000. 

 

This guitar was built by the Martin factory prior to the installation of top bracing of sufficient strength for its use with steel strings. Pretty, delicate and precious, it is a one-of-a-kind instrument.

 

Bacon with Martin serial number

1923 Bacon with Martin sn 18909

The second concert-sized Bacon guitar has a Martin serial number — 18909 — on its neck block. This places the guitar's production in 1923.

Its design and construction is identical to a Martin 0-21 guitar. However, the spruce top on this Bacon has a natural finish, not a shaded finish like the Bacon described above.

It also has a herringbone rosette and herringbone backstripe as found on the typical Martin 0-21 of the 1920s. At that time it sold at retail for $50.

This rare bird does not have a Martin insignia or pearl Bacon logo on its headplate. Instead, the rear of the headstock has been die-stamped: "Made by the Bacon Banjo Co. Inc., Groton, Conn, U.S.A."

The neck on this instrument was reset by Elderly Instruments of Lansing MI in early 2018. At that time Elderly listed the guitar for sale at $7950.

 

Martin 0-21 with die-stamped Bacon brand

The third Bacon is also identical to a Martin 0-21. It was built with a concert-sized rosewood body, spruce top and 12-fret neck. It was produced without Martin branding or serial number. Instead, it was die-stamped on the nack of the headstock: "Made by the Bacon Banjo Co. Inc., Groton, Conn, U.S.A." 

 

This third Bacon guitar is one of many vintage Martin acoustics described and displayed with images by photographer and guitar collector Robert Corwin of Philadelphia on his website www.vintagemartin.com.

 

Tuning machines on 1923 Bacon concert guitar by C.F. Martin Co. Photo: Robert Corwin

 

Bacon ordered four guitars from Martin in 1922 "as samples, with the intention of selling a line of Martin made instruments with the Bacon [brand]," according to Corwin. "The guitars were stamped [with Bacon indicia] in mid-1923, one shipped on September 7, and remaining three shipped on November 23rd." 

 

Corwin asserts without attributing a source that Bacon originally requested the guitars delivered "in the white," or unfinished. However, the managers of the Groton CT firm "changed their minds and sent the first of them back to Martin to be finished," he said.

1924  Bacon 2-17  model

has Martin sn 20956 and

die-stamp "Bacon Banjo"

Martin 2-17 with Bacon die-stamp and Martin sn Martin also produced a parlor-sized mahogany guitar for Bacon Banjo Co. It is stamped "Bacon Banjo Co. Groton, Conn." on the back of the headstock. The present owner, Douglas Harrigan of Salem NH, said he didn't realize it was made by Martin until recently, "after doing some deep dives on the Internet."

This dimunitive guitar has a Martin serial number — 20956 — across its neck block. This number dates the instrument's production to 1924. During that year Martin built 500 of such 2-17 models and sold them at retail for $27.50. Of note is the fact that this guitar is among the first guitars Martin produced that were braced sufficiently for use with steel strings.

The guitar originally belonged to Harrigan's father. "He bought it second-hand sometime in the mid-1930s," he said. "It has been in the family ever since, though played very little."

 

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         © 2021 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved