Sigma for Martin & Co. SM3s

This was a nice auction win from GH and came with a nice fitted hard case that still has the key! I put the exclamation mark in because it looks like it was the original case that the Mandolin has been in all its life, and with it being a Korean made Sigma this means it was made between 1984 and 1993, so keeping the key for 30 odd years is a bit of a feat.

Enough about the case though, lets talk about the Mandolin. It is part of the Sigma range when C.F.Martin owned Sigma and used it to brand their far eastern made instruments. So this is a good quality Mandolin that was also checked and finished by Martin in the U.S.A. It is the symmetrical 2 point model so the SM3, (the A style was the SM1 and the ƒ style was the SM6). The S on the end, I guess indicates Sunburst but I have never seen one with another finish? It is also nothing like a copy of the actual Martin made 2 pointers so is a very nice model in its own right.

When mine arrived it was missing two of its tuner buttons, which made it very hard to tune and didn't look so good, but the buttons were easily removable so I hunted around and got a full replacement set, though the originals were white pearlesque, and more oval than the replacements. To my mind these black ones look fine though.