# Marina Mark 32... want one, but can't find one



## TedEH

So, I have this acoustic guitar that I inherited from my dad- technically it's "still his" but it's at my place, and he'll never ask for it back just on principal, so I'm trying to find another like it. It's got value as something belonging to the family, but also has a sound I haven't been able to find in any other acoustic guitars. It's supposed to be a "cheap" guitar that came from a little store in Ottawa with a horrible reputation for importing overpriced junk, but has a pretty great vine inlay (maybe a jem ripoff but whatever), and has a room filling quality that I don't know how to describe. Maybe I just got lucky and got the one gem out of a bajillion cheap knock off guitars, but still. I know there's more of these out there somewhere, but I can't find one used online and wouldn't know where to start trying to find one. I know the original store doesn't have them anymore, and the company that made them doesn't appear to exist anymore.

Anyway, the label on the inside says it's a TCM (the "store brand"), and this one's older than I am, so it's close to 30 years old. A bit of research shows that it's a re-branded Marina Mark 32b (sometimes called mk32b). There's also a Mark 32wr, which appears to be the same guitar but in a fancy red colour.

Any thoughts on whether it's possible to track one of these down for sale?


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## Solodini

No useful information to offer but I'd love to hear a recording of it, to hear this quality of sound you enjoy.


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## MaxOfMetal

Three decades ago there were much fewer overseas OEMs making this kind of stuff, try to find the original manufacturer.


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## TedEH

Solodini said:


> I'd love to hear a recording of it, to hear this quality of sound you enjoy.



I fully acknowledge that I might just like the sound of it because it's familiar.  Anything acoustic on my soundcloud is done with that same guitar:

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/somethingunnamed/openchappyacousticriff-1[/SC]

This one sort of captures it, try to excuse the bad singing:
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/somethingunnamed/melindamix2[/SC]

Unplugged version of one of my bands tunes:
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/somethingunnamed/break-you-unplugged[/SC]

[SC]https://soundcloud.com/somethingunnamed/revenge-of-the-random-music-i-wrote-in-high-school[/SC]

Part of a cheesy tune an old high school friend wrote:
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/somethingunnamed/alexsong2[/SC]

Super old strings on this one, not-super-accurate In Flames cover:
[SC]https://soundcloud.com/somethingunnamed/pallar-anders-visa[/SC]


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## TedEH

An update for anyone who cares: 

I found another one of these acoustics- someone happened to put up a local ad for one, so I jumped on it. There's some differences between the two, but the similarities are pretty eerie. Super similar sound and feel, they're both beat up to about the same extent, both have had some parts repaired or swapped at some point, both have indents worn into the fretboard where your standard chord shapes are, both are at least 25 years old.

Our original one had the tuners swapped out because one of them stopped working properly a while ago, and the frets on it are in pretty sad shape, a couple of them are lifted a bit leaving a dead spot where the note is always sharp because it frets out. I always just ignored the one dead spot cause I rarely play that high on an acoustic, and I don't really trust anyone to try to fix it.

This new one has the original tuners still, but someone added a strap button under the heel of the neck (I'm I using the right word? heel?) that doesn't match the original strap button on the body. The bridge has also been messed with at some point- the plastic bit of the bridge (not sure what the proper term for it is) looks like it was removed, the bridge was filled, and a new plastic bit was put in place. I'm guessing it was done to lower the action at some point. Still plays fine though- you can feel that the bridge is a bit different when palm muting (yeh, I do that on acoustic ) but it's not bad, it's just different. 

And a picture... original one is on the left, the "new" one is on the right.


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