1932 Martin 00-17 52077

Hi
My family has what we believe to be a 1932 Martin 00-17. The reason I say "we believe" is because we cannot find a guitar to compare it to. The serial number 52077 does not seem to exist. However what I can find says that this serial number would fall into the 1932 lot of numbers.
The guitar was refinished in the 70's and has since been sitting in its case in our storage. The only cosmetic damage to the guitar is a small piece of the bridge is missing (one of the pegs that holds the string in) We would say this guitar is in good condition all together.
We have done a lot of research trying to figure out what we can get for this guitar and have found nothing but dead ends! We hope that you are our answer or can at least point us in the right direction.

Thank you for your time.

The Noel's

ANSWER

Hello, Noel's--

The serial numbers for 1932 end at 52590. Those for 1931 end at 49589. Therefore, your guitar would indeed appear to be a 1932 model.

Here is the general info:

00-17 SECOND VERSION
- Grand Concert body style, mahogany top, back, and sides, round soundhole with three thin W/B/W rings, no binding, thin black back stripe, mahogany neck, 12/19-fret (1930-34) or 14/20-fret (1934-1960, 1982-88) rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays, slotted headstock (1930-34) or solid headstock (1934-1960, 1982-88), three-per-side open-style tuners (1930-34) or regular tuners (1934-1960, 1982-88), rectangular rosewood bridge, no pickguard (1930-34), tortoise pickguard (1932-1960), or black pickguard (1982-88), available in Natural finish, total production of 13,407 instruments, mfg. 1930-1960, 1982-88.

The pricing info:

1930-1945
Excellent $3,000 - 3,500
Average $2,000 - 2,500

Unfortunately, a refinish is one of the huge DON'Ts when it comes to vintage guitar values.
That alteration will drastically reduce the value of the guitar as far as collectors go. It is difficult to determine by how much without seeing the guitar, but I would guess that the refinish would put the value down below $2,000.

Lynne