Martin Headstock Question

BigLicks67

While i've been looking for a D28 I've noticed that at the rear of some standard series headstocks there are 2 lighter strips either side of the tuners, (see pic 4 on eBay link below). Is this a finish issue or some dodgy woodwork?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-Martin-HD28-acoustic-guitar-reduced-price-/141875579088?hash=item21087188d0:g:eNkAAOSw4UtWS-7p

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Jalapeno

Dodgy construction/finish IMHO

eSully

I always thought Martins had a one piece headstock. Gibson headstocks are like that I believe, with 3 pieces of mahogany. The center piece being the same width as the heel.

BigLicks67

eSully said:

I always thought Martins had a one piece headstock. Gibson headstocks are like that I believe, with 3 pieces of mahogony. The center piece being the same width as the heel.

Yep, my OM is a one piece headstock, which is why I was wondering.

Lewy

It's not uncommon to see post-2000 mahogany necks on Martins with these "wings".

As I understand it it's driven by the increasing scarcity of the quality of mahogany Martin use. As an aside, you'll notice from a lot of Martin's spec sheets that necks are described as "Select Hardwood". That means that they will either be mahogany or spanish cedar, depending on what Martin can get hold of. Spanish Cedar is less scarce and less likely to use headstock wings.

I believe - but don't quote me - that the width of the neck block also has a bearing on whether the headstock will have wings or not - the wider the neck block, the less likely the headstock will be to have them because it is going to have to be a wider piece of wood anyway so you wouldn't be saving any wood.

They have no effect on tone whatsoever and are only visible from the back so if I liked everything else about the guitar it wouldn't bother me. I wouldn't call it dodgy manufacture per se - it's to get more guitars out of less wood which I'm ok with (although I probably draw the line at stacked neck heels...)

Sambostar

But technically Cedar is a conifer, a softwood, similar to x leylandii but it's leaves smell of apples.

Lewy

Sambostar said:

But technically Cedar is a conifer, a softwood, similar to x leylandii but it's leaves smell of apples.

Spanish Cedar is angiosperm and therefore hardwood.