I wish there was a D50 to compare to around here, as I picked up a Hoshino made Matao branded Martin D35 copy that has very unusually great tone.
It has bigger lusher tone than any other guitar in the house, and I took it to a jam where these travelers visited, who go from festival to festival, they were quite good, and my neighbor was there with his 1957 D18, and the Matao sounded so much bigger and louder with incredible bass and sustain that he - no lie - asked me if "I wanted to trade" and I instantly said "no", I thought he meant forever but he clarified just while we were playing but the Matao was making me the star of the jam.
I'd seen it at a pawn shop with asking price of $119, and it was incredibly dirty, gross, and as was using my phone flashlight to see if the grain inside matched the grain outside, I noticed it was incredibly gross inside too and I just left it there.
But the next day, after reading up on Matao's and realizing that it was made by Hoshino - Ibanez- and was all solid Rosewood, not lam, that looked to be Brazilian as well, I drove an 80 mile round trip to get it, hoping that it would clean up.
It had exceedingly light strings on it, and they were damn near laying on the frets but it played fine, and vintage USA "Milk bottle" Grovers to boot.
Had never had a strap button in the heel, no case. Not a lot of evidence of playing, not beat up.
I called ahead and made sure it was behind the counter waiting for me, we'd settled on $110 out the door.
It cleaned up. Meguiar's Cleaner Wax is your friend. Lots of it, lots of elbow grease and it really cleaned up good.
Outstanding Spruce top. Back and sides are very "chocolatey" with black streaks, looks like braz to me.
Tapping the back sounds like a drum, lots of musical resonance in this wood.
I didn't get around to stringing it up for a couple days, having completely dismantled it, all tuners off in an egg carton, USA logos cast into the backside of the Grovers, easily worth twice what I paid for the guitar.
I strung it up with EJ16's, and the A string resonates for a whopping 20 seconds and sounds like a piano.
Bone nut, bone saddle.
Matao was a line of Northwest music stores in the 70's. The electrics were Fender copies, and not especially high grade at that time, mid 70's but someone there - Hoshino - really knew how to build outstanding acoustic guitars.
Before
More or less a biohazard.
Pronounced top grain.
Both bass strings wound backwards
Cleaning off the old milk bottle USA Grovers, gold finish preserved by grime
Gluing loose neck binding
Gluing a crack in the back, most def not laminated
After
Outstanding top grain
Gorgeous headstock, bound, bone nut
Vintage Grovers feel great, work like new. Ironic US guitars like Guild used cheaper Japan tuners, while Japan guitars used USA tuners.
Unusual 3 piece back, looks a lot like Brazilian Rosewood
reverb.com
