"Bark" restored to the Sandburg Guitar
Historic treasure reveals its powerful poetic pedigree
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© 2012 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
Posted Aug 2012 — Revised Feb 2013
Comments in FEEDBACK at article's end
___________________________________
© 2012 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
Posted Aug 2012 — Revised Feb 2013
Comments in FEEDBACK at article's end
Recent repairs and set-up work on my 1933 Martin OM-18,
an auditorium-sized acoustic guitar once owned by Carl Sandburg
(1878-1967), have dramatically improved its playability and enabled this
vintage instrument to sonically blossom to its full potential.
An OM-18 from the 1930s is among the lightest and most
responsive 14-fret guitars C. F. Martin & Co. ever made. Today, it is
treasured as much by vintage instrument collectors as by musicians seeking a guitar
with an authoritative bass, crisp mid-range bark, clear treble voice and
throbbing sustain.
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| The Sandburg Guitar — 1933 Martin OM-18 |
The body and proportions of the OM, or orchestra model, were designed by Martin in 1929 for guitar players who wanted volume and playing ease. To do this, the OM introduced a longer-than-conventional neck (14 frets to the body, not 12 frets), longer-than-conventional scale (25.4 inches, not 24.9 inches) and musician-friendly neck (1.75 inch wide at the nut).
It is not known how many of the 765 OM-18 models made between 1930 and 1933 and sold for $60 have survived, but many that remain sound phenomenal. As someone who has owned, repaired, played and sold more than 150 vintage acoustic guitars in the last 17 years, I'm eager to report this historic American artifact now plays and sounds really nice.
Repairs by Hanson and Crawford
The repairs and set-up work that restored the Sandburg guitar's playability and tone were completed in November 2011 by luthiers Greg Hanson and David Crawford, who are based in Durham NC. They have worked on all but a few of my guitars since 2002 and know how I like to play an acoustic guitar:
Musical tastes: pre-war ragtime, jazz and swing.
Playing habits: flat picking, single-note musical lines, comping, two- and three-note chords, down strokes, upstrokes, raking, and heavy right-hand attack.
Set-up specs: high string heights, wide nut spacing, compensated and intonated saddle, and high break angle for power and volume.
Using a small piece of maple rescued from a 100-year-old piano, Hanson glued an overlay onto the original bridge plate. It has beveled edge (lip) along its back edge (facing the tail block) should removal be necessary in the future.
The existing saddle was replaced by Hanson with a new compensated and intonated bone saddle. He also installed a new bone nut with the widest string spacing possible to accommodate left hand comfort. String heights were set between 5/64th and 7/64th inch to accommodate my flat-pick playing.
Meanwhile, Crawford re-glued a bass-side stretch of plastic binding under the armpit that had come loose. And finally, to my great relief, he patiently and properly crowned and dressed the guitar's bar frets!
Older repairs revealed
Beginning in the 1910s, Sandburg owned and played many guitars during his long life. He bought this fine old Martin OM-18 (SN 54123) at an L.A. pawn shop in 1957 or 1958 while visiting his friend Mildred Norton (Loewenthal), a classical music critic for the L.A. Daily News and other periodicals. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Sandburg worked as a script consultant for movie producer George Stevens, and wanted a personal guitar for his use while on the West Coast. It remained in Norton's possession until June, 2000, when a Southern California guitar dealer bought it six months before Norton's passing at age 90 in December, 2000.
Early on I discovered the bridge plate surface was chewed up by years of use. Nearby, three small holes in the top near the sound hole were filled and two holes drilled in the bridge and bridge plate for an electric pick-up mount were plugged.
What's more, the spruce top, which was sanded to even out scratches, dings and pick wear, had received a lacquer over-spray, while the mahogany back, sides and neck were lightly sanded and refinished. Topside, a forgery-grade ebony bridge had been installed.
One source, writing with the pseudonym "Fingerstyle 2" on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum website in January, 2006, said luthier Jim Prior of Pioneer Music in Portland, OR performed the splint repairs and refinishing work in 2000. However, in 2011 the staff at Pioneer told me they had no record of the work and that Prior had retired. The shop has since closed.
Norton sells Sandburg's guitar
In late 2008 I was able to confirm that Laguna Beach CA guitar dealer Dan Yablonka bought the Sandburg guitar and most of its provenance from Mildred Norton. The former classical music columnist was in her late 90s when Yablonka visited her twice in June, 2000.
Norton was a small-statured woman, Yablonka recalled. "She was thin and in fairly good shape for a woman her age," he said. "She had a husband [Irving Loewenthal] who was sitting in a chair on oxygen and didn't look well."
Norton had located Yablonka from a reference by one of her neighbors in a retirement community. "She was so cagey about [selling the guitar] that I was glad to get out the door the first time," he said. "It wasn't till I was leaving that I found out it once was Sandburg's, but I got out of there not thinking he would add that much value."
Yablonka re-thought the impact of Sandburg to the value of the guitar and visited Norton a second time to obtain the papers, letters, photographs and articles that now accompany the instrument. "She wanted more money for the papers, which I am pretty sure she was willing to consider giving me the first time as I thought back, so a few hundred more was exchanged."
Mildred wasn't what you'd call "charitable or at least not on that day," Yablonka told me. "She was a haggler and to be honest she got in the mid-four figures for the guitar with its papers and all."
Yablonka later was told by vintage guitar experts at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville TN and Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island NY not to do any repairs on the instrument. He has confirmed that no repairs or refinishing work were made on the guitar while it was in his possession. The guitar was maintained in the condition he found it for historical sake, he said.
Norton sells Sandburg's guitar
In late 2008 I was able to confirm that Laguna Beach CA guitar dealer Dan Yablonka bought the Sandburg guitar and most of its provenance from Mildred Norton. The former classical music columnist was in her late 90s when Yablonka visited her twice in June, 2000.
Norton was a small-statured woman, Yablonka recalled. "She was thin and in fairly good shape for a woman her age," he said. "She had a husband [Irving Loewenthal] who was sitting in a chair on oxygen and didn't look well."
Norton had located Yablonka from a reference by one of her neighbors in a retirement community. "She was so cagey about [selling the guitar] that I was glad to get out the door the first time," he said. "It wasn't till I was leaving that I found out it once was Sandburg's, but I got out of there not thinking he would add that much value."
Yablonka re-thought the impact of Sandburg to the value of the guitar and visited Norton a second time to obtain the papers, letters, photographs and articles that now accompany the instrument. "She wanted more money for the papers, which I am pretty sure she was willing to consider giving me the first time as I thought back, so a few hundred more was exchanged."
Mildred wasn't what you'd call "charitable or at least not on that day," Yablonka told me. "She was a haggler and to be honest she got in the mid-four figures for the guitar with its papers and all."
Yablonka later was told by vintage guitar experts at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville TN and Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island NY not to do any repairs on the instrument. He has confirmed that no repairs or refinishing work were made on the guitar while it was in his possession. The guitar was maintained in the condition he found it for historical sake, he said.
Still, the question remains: Were these repairs made while the guitar was in Mildred Norton's possession or prior to Carl Sandburg's purchase of the guitar in the late 1950s?
Long road to restoring playability
In late 2001 possession of the guitar moved to Mandolin Brothers, which offered the instrument and its provenance for a few years. Unsuccessful at moving this historic relic, in late 2005 the guitar was sold in an eBay auction for $10,000 to guitar dealer Buzzy Levine at Lark Street.
When I first played the guitar at the Lark Street shop in late 2007, it sounded O.K., but needed a neck reset, fret dressing and other set-up work
to facilitate my playing style. String height over the fingerboard was high and
much left-hand pressure was needed for noting. Also, it was hard to
get and keep the instrument in tune.
In March 2008 Levine hired luthier Stephen Sauvé of North Adams MA to reset the neck. According to Sauvé, he also dressed the frets in the area of the body joint and installed a bone saddle.
The tone was now enticingly sweet and woody, but thin or constrained. Questions remained: Was the soundboard's ability to vibrate compromised by the sanded top and thick lacquer coat? How much was the bridge plate harmed by previous repairs and inadequate string-ball contact? Could the string slots across the nut take a wider spacing to accommodate my preferences for left-hand comfort?
In March 2008 Levine hired luthier Stephen Sauvé of North Adams MA to reset the neck. According to Sauvé, he also dressed the frets in the area of the body joint and installed a bone saddle.
The tone was now enticingly sweet and woody, but thin or constrained. Questions remained: Was the soundboard's ability to vibrate compromised by the sanded top and thick lacquer coat? How much was the bridge plate harmed by previous repairs and inadequate string-ball contact? Could the string slots across the nut take a wider spacing to accommodate my preferences for left-hand comfort?
The guitar has a nut width of 1.75 inch, but string spacing
was set at less than that, making play difficult with my big hands and playing style. In addition, a previous player's thumb had ground a slight swale into the mahogany neck
along the second fret of the bass-side edge.
Adding confusion to the job of assessing condition and the needed repairs was a website listing by Philadelphia instrument dealer Fred Oster. When he offered the Sandburg guitar for sale on his website for four months in early 2009, he said the bridge plate was a replacement and its Grover tuners were original. In fact, neither assertion was correct.
His erroneous views were exacerbated by the armchair-quarterbacks on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum between 2009 and 2011. A popular listserve for guitar players and collectors, UMGF members offered a few unsubstantiated and conflicting views on the condition, value, previous repairs, usage and sound of my guitar.
So I had the Sandburg OM examined by several vintage guitar dealers, independent luthiers and Martin experts, including Michael Dickinson, head of repair and customer service for C.F. Martin Co. in Nazareth PA, which briefly considered buying the instrument for its factory museum. Dickinson's assessment of the guitar and its condition was a single-sentence non-sequitur: "Don't let our lack of communication lead you to think we're not interested," he said.
I later showed the instrument to well-known luthier Steve Kovacik of Scotia NY, who confirmed the bridge plate is indeed original, 1.375-inch wide and properly tucked in under the top braces. What's more, the bridge plate and nearby interior surfaces exhibit no signs of tool work, modification or excess glue, he said.
When I bought the guitar it was fitted with six open-back, seamed butter-bean Grover tuners that were made in the late 1940s with spider gears and peened-over rivets. Not original and not working well, I replaced them with butter-bean Grovers cannibalized from a 1934 Martin 0-17 that worked only slightly better. Then, last fall Hanson and Crawford replaced the second set of tuners with new Grover butter-bean replicas that work very well. Both vintage sets are now stored in the guitar's case pocket.
Adding confusion to the job of assessing condition and the needed repairs was a website listing by Philadelphia instrument dealer Fred Oster. When he offered the Sandburg guitar for sale on his website for four months in early 2009, he said the bridge plate was a replacement and its Grover tuners were original. In fact, neither assertion was correct.
His erroneous views were exacerbated by the armchair-quarterbacks on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum between 2009 and 2011. A popular listserve for guitar players and collectors, UMGF members offered a few unsubstantiated and conflicting views on the condition, value, previous repairs, usage and sound of my guitar.
So I had the Sandburg OM examined by several vintage guitar dealers, independent luthiers and Martin experts, including Michael Dickinson, head of repair and customer service for C.F. Martin Co. in Nazareth PA, which briefly considered buying the instrument for its factory museum. Dickinson's assessment of the guitar and its condition was a single-sentence non-sequitur: "Don't let our lack of communication lead you to think we're not interested," he said.
I later showed the instrument to well-known luthier Steve Kovacik of Scotia NY, who confirmed the bridge plate is indeed original, 1.375-inch wide and properly tucked in under the top braces. What's more, the bridge plate and nearby interior surfaces exhibit no signs of tool work, modification or excess glue, he said.
When I bought the guitar it was fitted with six open-back, seamed butter-bean Grover tuners that were made in the late 1940s with spider gears and peened-over rivets. Not original and not working well, I replaced them with butter-bean Grovers cannibalized from a 1934 Martin 0-17 that worked only slightly better. Then, last fall Hanson and Crawford replaced the second set of tuners with new Grover butter-bean replicas that work very well. Both vintage sets are now stored in the guitar's case pocket.
Power, tone and sustain restored
Once I acquired the Sandburg guitar I parked my
considerations about tone, playability and appearance. I wanted to explore a host of
provenance issues that surround this important piece of American history.
For example: Why was Sandburg the poet, folk-song collector, journalist, children's book author and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer writing movie scripts in Hollywood? What role did Mildred Norton, Marilyn Monroe, Lucy Kroll and his wife Paula Sandburg play during the last decades of the vagabond poet's life? What other documents or ephemera associated with this guitar and the Sandburg-Norton relationship can we locate? And what other guitars did Sandburg play?
For example: Why was Sandburg the poet, folk-song collector, journalist, children's book author and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer writing movie scripts in Hollywood? What role did Mildred Norton, Marilyn Monroe, Lucy Kroll and his wife Paula Sandburg play during the last decades of the vagabond poet's life? What other documents or ephemera associated with this guitar and the Sandburg-Norton relationship can we locate? And what other guitars did Sandburg play?
In 2010 I began playing the Sandburg guitar at my Vintage Music
Concerts across the East Coast, but by the spring of 2011 found it necessary
to attend to the playability issues. Its bar frets needed dressing so I could
finger notes and chords and move up and down the neck on any tune. I also
realized it needed a bridge plate patch to provide a solid surface for string
attachment and enable the guitar to properly vibrate.
Then, in April 2012, five months after Hanson and Crawford completed
their work, the guitar's tone, volume and sustain "kicked in" like a
turbo-charger. And to my pleasant surprise, the sound all of a sudden gained an
astonishing depth, liveliness and air.
Finger-picked, the tone is beguiling and note separation is crisp. The
tone is warm and liquid. Flat-picked, it speaks has a strong bass, horn-like
mid-range, ringing trebles and church-bell overtones found only in a long-scale, mahogany-bodied, 79-year-old Martin.
The Sandburg guitar "speaks"
The Sandburg OM has opened many interesting doors for me as a writer, musician and historian. I plan to update this website account as I receive fresh input, comments and corrections. And as I play this fine and historic guitar, I will continue researching the multi-faceted Carl Sandburg, his lifelong interest in Hollywood, his many female admirers and the guitars he played.
Owning the Sandburg guitar and its provenance has led me down many interesting roads. I've shown it to a lot of people at my concerts, spoken about it on the radio and written about it in a number of places. Some people esteem the guitar as an important musical relic. Some see a fine old Martin or covet it as a collectible guitar. Others cluck like schoolmarms over the love letters in the provenance package and postulate what they reveal about an historic figure.
Yet few people know who Sandburg really was. He's lost to American history even as he remains a vital part of it. Among other things, he was a socialist before socialism was a bad thing. He glorified the art and artists of film making long before talkies, 3D and the Coen brothers. He wrote poetry that made people aware of their feelings for nature. And years ago he collected hundreds of American folk songs that people still sing today.
Yet, alas, some people think he was the white-haired old man who read poetry at JFK's inauguration in January 1961.
Though I've helped restore Sandburg's OM to good playing condition, I don't really own it. I've discovered I only possess it in order to learn about Sandburg — his life, work, travels, friends and writings — and pass on what I've learned to the next owner. It's a wonderful instrument to play, but it's also my teacher.
Owning the Sandburg guitar and its provenance has led me down many interesting roads. I've shown it to a lot of people at my concerts, spoken about it on the radio and written about it in a number of places. Some people esteem the guitar as an important musical relic. Some see a fine old Martin or covet it as a collectible guitar. Others cluck like schoolmarms over the love letters in the provenance package and postulate what they reveal about an historic figure.
Yet few people know who Sandburg really was. He's lost to American history even as he remains a vital part of it. Among other things, he was a socialist before socialism was a bad thing. He glorified the art and artists of film making long before talkies, 3D and the Coen brothers. He wrote poetry that made people aware of their feelings for nature. And years ago he collected hundreds of American folk songs that people still sing today.
Yet, alas, some people think he was the white-haired old man who read poetry at JFK's inauguration in January 1961.
Though I've helped restore Sandburg's OM to good playing condition, I don't really own it. I've discovered I only possess it in order to learn about Sandburg — his life, work, travels, friends and writings — and pass on what I've learned to the next owner. It's a wonderful instrument to play, but it's also my teacher.
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© 2012 by Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
A journalist for nearly 30 years before launching Vintage Music Concerts,
Ken Lelen sings ragtime, jazz and swing and plays vintage guitars for niche
markets, diverse groups and sundry venues across the East Coast. He has
played acoustic guitar since the summer of 1963.
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