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1923 Bacon 0-21 - no sn
Corwin photo |
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1922 Bacon 0-21 - no sn
Bernunzio photo
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1923 Bacon 0-21 - sn 18909
Elderly photo |
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1924 Bacon 2-17 - sn 20956
Private photo
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For nearly 40 years Martin-made Bacons were believed to exist, but no one could say what they looked like. Most Martin experts could only echo Mike Longworth’s curt view of 1920s Bacons. “A few guitars without Martin stamps were made for the Bacons Banjo Co. about 1924,” said Longworth, company historian and inlay artist. “Some of Bacon’s guitars were probably made by other firms, as well.”
Unlike the better-known Bacon & Day flat tops and arch tops made by Regal between 1932 and 1938, the rarity of the Martin-made Bacons from the 1920s cannot be over-stated. Indeed, only four of the 100-year-old Bacons have surfaced in the past 20 years among players, collectors or dealers in the vintage guitar market.
For years these four Bacons were quietly and joyously played by their owners and families. Even with the nascent allure of vintage guitars at the turn of the century, they still were objects of dealer opining full of scant detail, historical error and stark speculation.
In the past 20 years these guitars were played on public stages. They were displayed in photographs, correspondence and provenance. And, in the last five years this quartet of Bacons became a subject of diligent research, timely reporting and feature articles on this website.
Martin built instruments for 26 vendors from 1895 to 1935
Hutton describes 26 vendors that participated in Martin's "Customer's Line" from 1895 to 1935. These entities included instrument builders and importers, jobbers, wholesalers, catalog firms, retail emporiums, department stores, music publishers and private instructors.
Of the 26, eight ordered nearly 3,00 instruments in batches of one or two and up to 100 at a time between 1922 and 1927. Like Bacon, they wanted to buy Martin-quality instruments — guitars, ukes, mandolins and tiples — at wholesale prices for resale to their customers, clients and students.
••••••••••• Martin's "Customer's" Line – 1922-1927 •••••••••••
Bacon Banjo Co. No Brand 1922 - 1924
Perlberg & Halpin Beltone Brand 1922
Buegeleisen & Jacobson S. S. Stewart Brand 1923 - 1926
H. & A. Selmer Inc. H. & A. Selmer Brand 1923
W. J. Dyer & Brother Stetson Brand 1922
Grinnell Brothers Wolverine Brand 1922 - 1924
Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. Wurlitzer Brand 1922
H. A. Weymann & Son No Brand 1923 - 1927
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Hutton's Guide to Martin Guitars 1833-1969
Martin first solicited Bacon's business in early 1922 at a music dealers' convention in N. Y. City, according to correspondence Hutton unearthed. In a July 7, 1922 letter to the Martin company, Fred Bacon, a 59-year-old music industry veteran, said he was approached at the convention by C.F. Martin III, the 28-year-old, fourth-generation scion.
Bacon recalled asking "Mr. Martin Jr. about making some Guitars for us in the white," or unfinished, "and we putting on our own special finish and selling them to our trade as Bacon Guitars."
In the letter Bacon also asked Martin to send "one style that you would list for about $25 and another (concert size) good spruce top, fine grain and rosewood back and sides, just joined without marquetry thru center of back, something you would list at $35 or $40."
Martin's specifications for two Bacon guitar samples
On July 24, 1922 Martin outlined two samples it would build and send to Bacon. The first, identified as "Our #2-17-C," was described as follows:
Amateur size, Mahogany back, sides and top. Rosewood bindings, Single
ring rosette of rosewood and ebony. Mahogany neck, rosewood veneered
head. Rosewood fingerboard & bridge. Seventeen nickel silver frets. Three
white position marks, six small side dots. Black bridge and end pins. Steel
strings. Ebony nut, bone bridge saddle. Net price, in the white.....$10.75.
The second, identified as "Our #0-21-C," was described as follows:
Concert size, Rosewood back and sides. Selected spruce top. Rosewood
bindings. Top edged with narrow rosewood & maple, Single ring rosette
of colored marquetry. Mahogany neck, rosewood veneered head. Ebony
fingerboard & bridge. Twenty nickel silver frets. Five pearl position dots,
six small side dots. Bone nut & bridge saddle. Ivory-celluloid bridge and
end pins. Gut and silk-center strings. Net price, in the white.....$20.00.
Martin quoted Bacon a net price of $10.75 for the 2-17-C model and $20.00 for the 0-21-C model.
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Waverly tuners on
1923 Bacon 0-21 |
For unknown reasons Martin didn't identify tuners for the sample guitars. However, of the four extant models we find Waverly #1005 or #1008 tuners on an 0-21 guitar (at right) and Dinsmore & Jager #33 tuners on a 2-17 guitar.
Hutton offers a dry but fascinating round-up of the tuning machines Martin installed on guitars during the 1920s. This section has several barely readable charts that itemize year-end inventories.
For example, Martin had about 40 sets of Waverly #1005 and #1008 tuners at the end of 1922, says Hutton. Martin's stock of these tuners grew to about 515 sets at the end of 1924.
We also find Martin had about 104 D & J #33 tuner sets at the end of 1920, but only three #33 tuner sets at the end of 1922. However, these D & J numbers are misleading, Hutton warns.
"The records show that Martin did purchase D & J tuners between 1926 and 1936, even though they do not appear in the inventory records," he explains. It exhausted its stock of D & J tuners "before the end of each year, so none would be counted in the January 1st inventory count."
Bacon did not apply its special finish to Martin's samples
For unknown reasons, Bacon did not apply its special finish on either sample guitar. Instead, on September 19, 1922 Bacon wrote it would return both guitars so Martin could complete them in standard "lacquer finish, natural color."
So, we may assume all of the 1920s Bacons received Martin's standard lacquer finish. However, due to this change in specs it raised net prices on Bacon's guitars to cover its supplemental costs for finishing. The 2-17-C was now $12.50 and the 0-21-C was now $25.00.
Simultaneously, Bacon began ordering more guitars from Martin. It asked for two 2-17 and two 0-21 guitars on September 20, 1922. A week later it asked for two 2-17 guitars built in the Hawaiian style.
"The guitars would have been set up for gut strings, as Martin did for their own Hawaiian guitars at the time," Hutton remarks, "but since no nut extenders were included with the shipment, these must have been supplied by Bacon Banjo."
"C" Line instruments with distinct components
Like other instruments delivered to "C" Line vendors, design elements on the 1922-1924 Bacons varied in discrete ways from the concurrent guitars in the Martin catalog.
Hutton does not explain why such variations occurred on Martin's client guitars. Such changes may have been a fussy fixation to design details by either party in the transaction. They also may have been coincidental attempts to customize guitar design to meet the priorities of a producer or to sate the vendor's demand for marketable instruments.
In any case, variable design details on "C" Line vendors included:
• inclusion or omission of a Martin serial number on a neck block;
• vendor stamp on the headstock or back brace;
• choice or quality of tuning machines;
• inclusion of side dots;
• paper labels inside client instruments;
• marquetry design and location;
• rosette details;
• fretboard inlays;
• variations in neck size or nut width.
Serial numbers on some — not all — Bacon guitars
Hutton pointedly notes serial numbers were stamped on neck blocks of half of the 19 guitars Bacon ordered from Martin in nine tranches from July of 1922 to March of 1924.
None of the eight guitars Bacon ordered in five tranches between July and September of 1922 received a Martin serial number.
All of the 11 guitars Bacon ordered in four sets between February, 1923 and March, 1924 have serial numbers. Hutton lists them as "Regular Martin models with serial numbers supplied but without Martin stamp."
As Martin guitar owners know, this small step makes a big difference. It means we can discern the year of an instrument's completion and even trace its ownership over time.
For the record, Hutton tabulates the Martin serial numbers for the 11 Bacons as follows:
Four 2-17 guitars ordered in February of 1923 received the
following serial numbers: 18251, 18254, 18280 and 18282.
Seven 0-21 guitars ordered in 1923 and 1924 received the following
serial numbers: 18909, 19327, 19333, 19339, 20090, 20091, 20094.
One of the four recently identified Bacon guitars has a serial number that is not among those itemized by Hutton. It is a 2-17 model bearing Serial Number 20956, a number dating its production to late 1924.
The current owner of this 12-inch wide mahogany-bodied instrument reports it was his father's guitar. "He bought it second-hand sometime in the mid-1930s," he said. "It has been in the family ever since, though played very little."
Bacon finish, logo, back stamp, rosette and tuners
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1923 Bacon 0-21 – sn 18909 – lacquer
finish, natural color, three ring rosette |
As noted above, once Bacon received its first guitars "in the white" as it requested, Fred Bacon changed his mind and asked Martin to apply a standard lacquer finish. As a result, all but one guitar Martin made for Bacon has this lacquer finish in natural color.
The standard finish is evident on the 1923 Bacon 0-21 (at right) with SN 18909. It also has a "regular three ring rosette of colored marquetry" as listed in Martin's specifications for 0-21-C guitars.
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1922 Bacon 0-21 — no sn, with
shaded top, single ring rosette |
Not all Bacons were finished with the standard natural color. Of the four Bacons we show in this post, the first 0-21-C ordered by Fred Bacon on July 7, 1922 received a vibrant russet-shaded top finish. This guitar also has the single ring rosette Martin originally listed in its specs for the 0-21-C sample.
Strangely, in the last sentence of Hutton's chapter documenting the 19 guitars Martin built for Bacon, he reveals a startling fact about this shaded top guitar. “None of these guitars received any special stamp,” Hutton says, “although the first 0-21-C has 'Bacon' inlaid in pearl in the head stock veneer.”
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| 1922 Bacon 0-21 - no sn |
Hutton does not provide documentation for how or where he acquired this info, nor does he say which firm affixed the logo. I think it was Bacon's handiwork, however, because the stylized typeface used for this pearl logo is identical to what Bacon installed on its banjo and mandolin headstocks between its start in 1906 and its demise in 1938.
Not long ago we learned the luthier who performed a neck reset on this shade-top guitar 20 years ago found the letter S inscribed on its dovetail joint. This is another indication of the esteemed lineage of a precious guitar.
Vintage Martin collectors deem the S mark a sign of a "Special Order" guitar, an instrument with one or more custom elements. In his huge chapter on "Technical Specifications" Hutton indicates Special Order guitars were more common in the early part of the 20th Century. Prior to 1930 he says the S was a suffix applied to a style number (0-18S, 0-21S, etc.) on the neck block, but omits comment on its appearance in the dovetail joint.
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| Back stamp on 1923 Bacon 0-21 |
Finally, Hutton declares all of the 11 Bacons with a serial number were made with "no name," "no stamp" and "no brand." So we don't expect to see the Martin name splashed across the back brace, neck block or headstock of any of these guitars.
Still, it was a pleasant surprise to find three of the four known Bacons have back stamps on the headstock. Of course, we all know these guitars were built by C. F. Martin & Co., but die-stamped words on these guitars clearly proclaim: "Made by the Bacon Banjo Co. Inc., Groton, Conn, U.S.A."
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••••••••• Bibliography & Resources •••••••••
Hutton's Guide to Martin Guitars 1833 - 1969 by Grieg Hutton, © 2022 by Centerstream Publ'g, Anaheim Hills CA.
Martin Guitars, a History by Mike Longworth © 1988, 1994, Four Maples Press, Minisink Hills, PA.
Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars by George Gruhn and Walter Carter, 2nd edition, © 1999, Miller Freeman Books, San Francisco, CA.
Martin Guitars by Jim Washburn and Richard Johnston © 1997, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA.
••••••• ••••••• •••••••
"Four Martin-built Bacons surface" — posted Weds, March 21, 2021 at
"Mike Longworth — The Martin Guitar Company's First Historian" — by Steven Stone, Vintage Guitar Magazine, February, 2000 — reprint available at:
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© 2025 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
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