"It was back in 1974 that I converted this Martin F9 archtop guitar into a flattop. It became a well known fact that the Martin archtop guitars, even for all of their meticulous craftsmanship, were not considered to be the best examples of the carved family of archtop guitars of their generation. While not a great success they were however among the most expensive guitars in the Martin catalog. Matt Umanov was the first among us luthiers to convert these guitars into flattops because of their saving grace that both F7 and F9 bodies were made with Brazilian rosewood; much the same as a regular flattop guitar. It also became known how great these conversions would sound and have a more useful and better life for the musician. Matt converted an F7 at that time for David Bromberg. The body size of the F9 was between the 000 and the Dreadnought sizes and it proved to become a welcome addition to the flattop family. This idea is what later led the Martin Co. to offer their Quadruple-0 or jumbo model (M SERIES, ed.) in their catalog lineup. This particular 1937 F9 #65905 came into the Mandolin Brothers when I was just two years doing repair and restoration work for them. There was an F7 that also came into their store for flattop conversion around the same time. The original headstocks and fretboards were carried over when they were converted to flattop. Because of the archtop neck angles a new mahogany flattop neck blank was prepared for them. I had saved the original archtop for all of these 51 years in the back of my workshop until I noticed that this very same guitar is being currently listed for sale at Lark Street Music. For its unique opportunity and historical importance I thought it would make a great and proper pairing to provide the guitar along with its original top. I couldn’t pass it up. They belonged together. Buzzy was thrilled to have it and you can now see this reunion on his website" You will be astounded at the tone of this guitar, exc, hsc..$39,500
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