In every issue, we feature some of the most beautiful fretted instruments known to humanity. Sadly, most of the time they belong to famous musicians and they aren’t for sale. With our weekly Catch & Release column, we scour the web in search of world-class instruments that you can actually buy. This week, in honor of Tom Walsh and John King’s wonderful book, The Martin Ukulele:The Little Instrument That Helped Create a Guitar Giant, we decided to round up five Martin ukes that could be yours.

Circa 1963 Style 0

The mahogany Style 0 was Martin’s plainest ukulele and over the years they have made thousands of them. Consequently, they are reasonably priced and in many cases they sell for quite a bit less than a new, handmade uke. This example is from the early 1960s has some finish checking but it is a well made, great sounding uke that you can score for only $495 from Gryphon Stringed Instruments.

Circa 1922 Style 2 Taropatch

The Style 2 was the middle of Martin’s uke line. This mahogany example from around 1922 is a very rare Taropatch, an eight string uke variation that was designed to be louder than a four stringer in the days before amplification. This uke was built with wooden tuning pegs, which makes it a bit hard to keep in tune, but they do sound very cool so it’s worth the effort. This example is caged at Retrofret right now but you can set it free for $2200.

Circa 1930 3K

Most of Martin’s ukes were made out of mahogany, but they did some nice ones out of koa, as well. This 3K was made in the early 1930s and I’ve always loved the little details, like the diamond-shaped position markers and the little celluloid inlay in the top that mirrors the pointed end of the fretboard. These ukes sound as good as they look. This example is $2469 and it currently at Mandolin Brothers.

Circa 1934 5K

For reasons that are now lost to the mists of time, Martin opted to never make a Style 4 ukulele, choosing instead to jump straight from the Style 3 to the Style 5. Even though the 5K is very fancy with its snowflake fretboard inlays, torch headstock inlay and abalone purfling, the ukulele looks elegant rather than flashy. They play well and sound great, as you would expect from Martin’s top-of-the-line, and they come with a price to match. This example weighs in at $10,000. If you feel that five figures is too much to pay for a four-string instrument, I bet its current caretaker George Gruhn would drop the price to $9999 is you asked nicely.