Wild to think that this guitar was already 50+ years old when they repaired it in 1900.

The guitar sounds great! Looked into Martin guitar repairman J.J. (John Jacob) Knecht and found a few things: Born 26 Sept 1872 in Northampton County, PA and was living with his wife Bertha (1873-1914; married 30 Oct 1895) in her family's residence in Nazareth in 1900, where he was listed in the census as a "guitar maker". By 1910, Knecht was working as a pattern maker in a foundry, by 1918 was a Teamster, probably never worked as a guitar maker again. Died in 1946, New Jersey. Didn't seem to be a "senior craftsman", or if he was, it appears other work paid more or was more satisfying for a married man with a growing family. He also descended from a long line of native born Knechts going back until at least the 1700's.

A pleasure to watch you work on such a wonderful instrument, thank you.

Quite a privilege to work on that antique Martin!. But it's still a player, as it was meant to be. As usual, thanks for the mini history lesson. They are much appreciated and enjoyed.

Yeah I can just imagine that guy doing the repair work in 1900. “Let’s try and preserve some of this guitar’s history and originality, heck it’s 60 years old!” Lol I wonder if he had any inclination that guitar would still be making music an additional 122 years later and still going strong!

I thought that this time you missed the drill.. "Polishing, polishing, polishing", but it turned out that there's another cool one, "Radiusing, radiusing, radiusing". It's always a joy watching your videos nonmatter what the job, the story, or the drill is :) with love from Lebanon :)

I've never heard before of a "birds mouth" joint, or that the headstocks used to be grafted onto the neck. Pretty interesting. And what an amazing thing to see a guitar that old and in that kind of shape. What a cool thing to see. And I've said this before, but I really love your guitar playing, Ted.

What a great piece of Marten history. Thank you Ted for walking us through the inside of this one. Great sound sound two.

I'm a competent hobbyist mechanic, poor guitar player, and appreciator of craftsmanship. I stumbled upon your channel just recently and watched several of your videos. I must say, you have to have a huge amount of patience as well as nerves of steel to do this type of work. For most of us watching, it's not hard to imagine each step going horribly wrong and leaving an eye sore, or worse yet a ruined instrument. It's good to see this level of craftsmanship still persevering in our country today, Cheers to you my friend

Wow, what an amazing guitar. To think it’s almost 200 years old and looks that good and even been fixed over 50 years after being built by Martin is incredible history. What is the name of the song you were playing at the end? It sounded so beautiful.

Having been lucky enough to spend a few years working (in sales) at “Mandolin Brothers “ in Staten Island, New York I did have the opportunity to see and play some antique Martins. What always struck me was that , despite their age, size and string type, you could close yours eyes and immediately identify the “Martin Sound”! They also had a top rated repair shop in the basement and I spent lots of time watching their talented staff repairing and restoring- which makes me really appreciate your skills and knowledge of fretted instruments. I’m totally addicted!

That is the best nylon string guitar sound I have ever heard.

Absolutely beautiful and incredible instrument. An honor to work on it for sure. It tells much of your skills and character.

Enjoyed your walk through on this guitar. I worked for Martin guitar in the same shop that this guitar would have been built. Fascinating to see such an old guitar still operational after all these years. It brings me back to the attic of that plant where the "old parts" were stored. There were tops, backs and sides from guitars, mandolin's and ukes up there from all kinds of era's. The bridge on this guitar you question looks to have been replaced in my opinion. A true pyramid bridge would have had very defined points. I've seen a bunch of them over the years at Martin and I've never seen one like this bridge. The saddle in some would have had the dog ears but that was dropped early on over the straight slot. Also like the idea of the knot on the strings in place of a ball end. We would however use a stopper knot or barrel knot over what you tied as those knots wouldn't slip like the overhand knot you tied. Again great video and a walk through time. Oh and it does get dry in the winter at the Martin plant. However in the basement their runs a small stream year round. Maybe that was to add moisture to the plant. I always thought it odd it being there and planned as it was built into the concrete floor to be channeled through the basement for some distance before it exited. Just thought of that when you talked about being dry.

It's good to see that this guitar survived for so long. It's one of those things where it was very well built, but also very fragile to the elements. It reminds me of all the Strad violins that survived, and also makes you wonder how many were destroyed over the years from house fires, wars, being improperly kept, etc. Right now as I am typing this, I wonder how many original Les Paul '58-'60 bursts are sitting in damp basements, or super hot, and humid attics just inches away from being unsalvageable...Or any other prized vintage guitar for that matter.

I wasn't expecting that shoutout to Emma! She's a great player and a wonderful person.

I've taken the Martin factory tour twice (my son attended university near Nazareth) and they were fun and informative . . . but I've learned far more about their history and guitars from watching Ted's videos. Thank you, sir. You are a font of information and an excellent presenter (and your guitar repair work ain't half bad, either).

What a treat! Always amazing to see you work

Yay! Love your channel, thanks! Live a few miles from Martin guitar so I love seeing these old Martins in your videos

You repair guitars so well it makes me jealous. Your grasp of the history of guitars is awe-inspiring. The only thing missing is seeing you build an acoustic guitar from scratch. I feel as though it would be perfect. I also feel as though it would make an amazing video series.

One of my favorite episodes yet! The guitar and your info is fascinating of course, and I especially loved the little history lesson highlighting the importance of women as guitar players in that era and of Delores de Goñi. I love learning new stuff like this! Further evidence that there was more going on in American music than the minstrel realm, not that that didn't produce some valuable music that in turn led to other things...

Another great video!! Live the history that comes with your videos too. You have a wealth of knowledge

Outstanding Video as always. The little tune at the end was amazing!

Great show as always.

This Guitar has been strung w/ Nylon Strings when it came to you, & that's a success because these old Acoustic Guitars were originally designed for Gut Strings (what would now be Nylon).

As always awesome content. I truly love watching your Martin repair videos, and I like the way you point out how they were made. I hope someday to own a affordable modern Martin and these videos motivate me toward that goal.

As always the information and history explanation is above the bar, thank you for the content!

i can always tell when you really like a guitar- your playing at the end speaks volumes! nice work and thanks for sharing this old gem with us twoody.

Stunning guitar, thanks for showing it.

What a lovely guitar and history lesson! Thank you!

This is a treat. This parlor is a gem! This old lady (1840) is in great shape. I like the tool used for the saddle 11:42, ingenious! Thank you Ted for the tip for the strings (knot)!

What a wonderful piece of history! And the tone - wow! Absolutely gorgeous. As great sounding as anything I've heard. Thanks for sharing.

Really love your forensic observations regarding previous repairs. I learn so much.

Best yet! I could spend hours watching a tour through this guitar like this. Great job!

Oh man! This is huge! Thanks so much.The historical value of this instrument is immense. I had no idea that X bracing went back this far. This is guitar Genesis.

What a wonderful video, thanks for posting!

Beautiful instrument, sounds amazing!!

What a beauty! I love it, and you are the only person I would trust to work on it. Great job!

I appreciate your sense of awe. Many workmen have lost that. Very few instruments I would consider ancient, or approaching ancient, have ever made me think ''Daily Player''. That little guitar is definitely a daily player - alone, in a padded room with 4 deadbolts, after a manicure and dipping my hands in degreaser then washing them 4 times, of course.

Cool stuff, dude! Thanks for showing it.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Ted. Your work is always impeccable! 👌 I know I've tried more than my fair share of stuff thanks to your channel. Not because you did anything specific. I was just able to pick up info along the way and put it to use. 🙏 Thanks again, Ted!

You are an incredible luthier! Its truly wonderful to see someone in their element, giving their take, and the research. Toby Kieth gave my wife a guitar back in the early 90's. I had the bridge reset in the early 2000's by a respected local luthier. He used hide glue and didn't score away the finish under the bridge. It lifted again after about two weeks. I reset it Wednesday and will string it up tomorrow.

Great shape for the age and it sounds fantastic too! Thank you for your videos Ted!!

Sticking a candle in the sound hole was frowned upon Hendrix: Hold my lighter fluid

This is turning out to be my favorite channel on youtube. I've been binging all of the videos here. This episode is a great one. That Martin is awesome... Thanks!

I think I've seen nearly every one of your videos. I'll never cease to be amazed at your knowledge of guitar history and the meticulous, precise way you do your repairs. This shows your great love for the guitar, itself.

sounds amazing..nice work

Gorgeous guitar, beautiful work, I always feel rested after watching Ted's videos. It is like a form of meditation.

“Sticking a candle in the sound hole was frowned upon” 🤣🤣🤣

This video was fabulous.

This was a great video. Thank You.

Fantastic! Thanks for letting us hear the old gal sing

Incredibly good work on an incredibly beautifully voiced instrument! That little gem is a cannon relative to it's size, and oh my, what a harmonically rich voice! Thanks Ted!

Great sounding old Martin, and great video.

I have watched many many many of your tutorials and I feel that each one is a master class, so I am going to refer to you as "Perfesser" Woodford from now on. Thanks Prof !

Great playing demo at the end too.

Great video. Thanks for the info on Emma Rush and Madame De Goni as well.

Fascinating. Thank you

There you go... CF Martin himself had his hands, eyes and soul on this guitar as it came together. What's better than that! Love my D28 Custom.... great video. Thanks

How cool is that. It looks great, when you plucked it, it sounded great.. Man, I'd love to own something that old and that amazing. Great video no doubt.

Thank you for what brings you joy.

Very beautiful instrument..sounds amazing..nice job you have done,caring for it...

That Martin was an absolute privilege to see, even at the remove of "via a KZfaq video". You also coincidentally answered a few long-standing questions I've had about the combination of pin bridges and nylon strings, so thank you for that! I'll admit to having done things "because you said so", but I was trying to use your knowledge as the basis to learn for myself. About all I took from your guidance was that I should do small batches of shellac, and start with a 2lb cut. Everything beyond that, I've been learning by doing, and it's been working out well.

“A really diminutive little heel” is now my new favorite insult.

This beautiful Martin is almost as old as I. Your videos have provided tips that I have transferred to furniture repair, wood bed frames, and ‘budget’ out of the box entertainment centers for TVs and the like. Those pieces should never become loose and wobbly. Thanks for all you do.

I really appreciated your reflected hand movements in the back. Pretty cool

Great job, sounds good too!

That fretboard is stunning. What a cool instrument!

And sound great ! Thanks for sharing ! (and teasing next video :p )

Very Good. I really enjoyed your story.

Thanks for showing/sharing this one. I hadn’t seen this style rosette on a Martin before. This is a pattern that is relatively easy to make from veneer. I might make one for the 1-21ish guitar I am building now. Thanks!

That guitar really has a beautiful tone! What a gem!

Dang, some of your BEST playing at the end. (My third viewing of this one and there will likely be more. Great history and a difficult repair done with great sensitivity.)

wow. This was really fun. Thanks!

Sounds amazing.

Great video, I knew very little of the Martin history. I love classicals😀

Wonderful to happen upon you sir...extremely interesting... Thank you

And it sounds wonderful.

“STICKING A CANDLE ON THE SOUND HOLE WAS FROWNED UPON.” 🤣 😂

Absolutely incredible

Great video! Thanks! Keep doing. So interesting.

You are the Bob Ross of guitar repair. Your videos are so relaxing in a very stressful time!

Fascinating video and history. Your mention of Madame Dolores Narvaez de Goni lead me to a wonderful video on the history of other women in the early history of Classical Guitar. Thanks

So amazing, Thank You

EXcellent alliteration!! 😉 And lovely, patient, craftsmanship.

Incredible guitar! Ted you must be very very famous now because you are working on the best!

natural reverb....great soothing sound

Luthier is an art You know your way into it Thank you for sharing Great sound, love it Another piece of history

That was a real treat!

I like the look of that reinforcing volute where the neck meets the back of the headstock. Perhaps if Gibson did something like this they wouldn't have so many broken headstocks.

sounds beautiful

Interesting history of the guitar and company......thank you.

Informative & Educational video Thank you 🙏✌🏼

That's one awesome instrument... sounds great too!

Love the history of that instrument!

this thing just blew my mind, what an amazing guitar, a piece of history

I think I figured out why I like your channel so much even though I can't play any instruments or sing. your channel appeals to me because of the forensic nature you examine the guitars in question. Also, the information that you provide is very entertaining.

Love the history and the mystery.

Wow ... This was so cool!

I continue to learn and enjoy it! Lol. Thanks Ted.