# Beatiful Martin CSN Gerry Tolman Tribute in TO



## Tycho (Jan 3, 2007)

I'm cross-posting this from the Martin forum (UMGF), so apologies to anyone who sees it twice.

I'm posting this as a a public service to anyone in Toronto, and also to myself because if someone else buys this guitar I can stop obsessing about it. There's a CSN Gerry Tolman Tribute model at St. Johns Music in Leaside, which is not the first place you would think of looking for a high-end Martin in Toronto. The store is in my neighbourhood so I go in there to get strings, etc. -- but lately I've been going in more often just to look at this guitar and play it sometimes. It's really as nice as everyone here says it is.

Now the store is having a storewide guitar sale, and the Tolman is marked down to what I think is probably a ridiculously low price for Canada. (It still ain't cheap of course, but it strikes me as a great deal, though I don't know the street prices for these in the US.) I won't post the price in case it's a rule violation, but if anyone wants to know, PM me.

I have no affiliation with the store (or any store) at all.

So why don't I buy it myself? Believe me, I'm asking the same question, but I have five acoustics already including my D-18V, and I just can't justify buying another unless I get rid of something from the current herd -- and I don't want to do that.


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## Tarbender (Apr 7, 2006)

PM sent...


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## Tarbender (Apr 7, 2006)

Well I went to St. Johns Music last week to check out the CSN Gerry Tolman Tribute. I never knew that this place carried Martins and was pleasantly surprised that they did. H'ever I really wasn't impressed with the way the store maintained the guitars. I tried out 3 different Martins, the CSN, a Clapton 000-28, and an M-36. All of these guitars looked as if they were left on the floor for some 6 year old kids to play with after eating ice cream. They were covered in grim and fingerprints and an unidentifiable residue that would stump Grissom and the rest of his CSI team. The strings were dead and lifeless and I doubt that the CSN (which was built in 2007) had ever had fresh strings or been setup since leaving the factory. Even the Clapton signature guitar which I have pined for was in horrendous shape, but better than the CSN. The only guitar that actually had some life was the M-36 and was a real treat, and might really look at this guitar down the road. One nice thing was that no one was in the store except some kids for lessons and some parent waiting for his kid. So when I asked if it was OK to play some of the guitars in "the room" the response was "yeah..sure...no problem". The problem that after spending 30 minutes no one said "need help - any questions...". After checking out these guitars I went to the counter to check out and ask questions that they should have been available to answer earlier, it seems I was interrupting a conversation they were having about HALO or some other vid game. I told them I didn't mean to criticize but the Martins were in pretty poor shape and were they new? I have a 1980 Martin that looks newer than these guitars. The response basically was “what I saw was what it was”. Just to put this it to perspective, just the sales tax on the CSN was almost $500.00. And it had dead strings, was covered in oily grime? These instruments should be cleaned and polished every day. I can’t believe that the sales staff have so much to do during the day they can’t maintain the showroom “premium” guitars. This is not a downtown store with a lot of daytime traffic. Anyway after reading so much about the CSN and hoping that it would be “the one”, I was a lot more than just disappointed.


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