Martin Sigma SG

crashing88

I friend of mine has a Martin Sigma SG. I didn't know they made SGs. It's pretty banged up and rusty but it plays pretty good. Does anyone know anything else about these? Thanks.

who's_pearljam?

Those are pretty decent guitars!

Martin had several tries at making electrics through the years.
The one you're talking about was a Korean made-to Martin specs.
Some of those lines are great guitars and they're cheap these days.

The Stinger is one that was their Strat-like guitar. Made in Korea, too.
The necks and bodies are well done,,, the electronics can be a bit iffy, but if you want a cheap really well built Strat knockoff for $100 - $200 you can find them on E-bay. Throw some pickups and controls in them, and you're good to go! pick them up everyonce and a while and fix'm up and either give them to someone that could use them, or sell them cheap to students.
The SSX is the better one. It has a rounded edge on the headstock. The scary pointy headstock ones aren't as good.

If you want an amazing guitar made in America by Martin in 1979/1980,,, look out for the em18. I have a couple of them. They're going up in price a bit but only to about $700. They have 2 humbuckers and in/out of phase and coil splitting switches, made of maple and heavy! They're some of the best sounding and playing guitars I've seen.

Now I forget what the question was!

ianvomsaal

I've heard nothing about the Martin Sigma SG - I'm assuming it's probably one of the cheaper overseas knockoffs (probably one of the Korean-built Stinger line of solid body electric's, or maybe from the Shenandoah line of Japanese-produced parts/U.S. assembly). Remember, real Martins are still made in Pennsylvania.

As far as I know Martin only had a few different kinds of electric's (most all of them are still quite inexpensive in price these days):

1) E-Series (E-18, EM-18, E28) these guitars look kinda cool with a solid offset round double cutaway body (looks sorta like a spector), mahogany neck, round wave crest style peghead, and 3-per side tuners, made from 1979-1982. The E-Series is probably their most common electric guitar.
- I have the new blue book, and the EM-18 that was mentioned earlier is worth $750 in 98% near mint (but you'll almost never see a guitar in near mint condition, I mean we're talking kept in a closet and not played for 25-years), $575 in Excellent Condition, $400 in Very Good Condition, and $300 in Good Condition (Good Condition is the most common condition found - normal wear, ect). The other two kinds (F-Series & GT-Series) are worth more.

2) F-Series (F-50, F-55, F-56) 3-per side traditional squared headstock, plywood body - these look like single cut Hollowbodies (some with a bigsby tailpiece), made from 1961-1965. F-50 aprox 519 made, F-55 aprox 665 made, F-65 aprox 566 made.

3) GT-Series (GT-70, GT-75, GT-75-12) non traditional large headstock with 2 sharp upper corners scooping down to the center, and a lower bout width of 16, made from 1965-1968. GT-70 aprox 453 made, GT-75 & GT-75-12 aprox 751 made total.

That's it - Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

who's_pearljam?

I had a GT 75 a long time ago and regret selling that. They are Martin quality built. I put a bigsby on it and it wailed. I'm looking around for another one, they come up on Ebay occasionally, but none have struck me yet.


The EM-18 is a GREAT guitar. Quality built. I have two of them, one has tiny little frets so I'll out some bigger ones some afternoon.
The other is perfect. I took it up to the Martin factory and some of the newer people looked at it and never heard of it. It got passed around for a while,,, " Hey Merle,,,, get a load of this thing!! "
Then an old timer said,,, "Haa,, I was on that team" They made them with maple and walnut and rosewood strips and whatever was leftover, then used all kinds of different pickups in them. One of mine has dimarzios in it and the other has Mighty Mites and they are great.

It's very 80's Alembic looking. Not a look for everyone. When I pull it out, people look at it like, "Whaaaaat the,,,,, did you make that out of a coffee table?"