Well, I ended up buying it, and got a chance today to clean her up a little and put some fresh strings on her. Once my luthier gets back from Montreal, I'll have him look it over and give me an idea about whether the frets can be dressed, or if he'll have to replace the first 4 or 5. The rest of the guitar looks to be in good shape, although it's definitely been played alot - but no complaints from me.
Interestingly, I never even noticed the 1-11/16" nut, which I tend to stay away from - on this neck, it doesn't feel tight. The inlays are very tasteful, and the back has a fascinating multi-color centerstrip, while the front has standard herringbone binding around the outside, but the double pearl rosettes around the oversize soundhole. I hadn't looked inside, but it does have a couple dozen signatures in black ink on the soundboard, including large ones from C F Martin and Lester Wagner, as well as the signatures on the label - Tone seems to me to be classic Martin - no complaints there, for sure!
These pics aren't very good, but the best I could do today. Once I have had it gone over and played it a bunch more, I'll try to take some better ones-
Thanks to everyone for the info and encouragement. This is my first Martin, and the second dreadnaught I've ever owned (the first went away in days), but this may yet turn out to be a long term keeper! Tad
