❌SOLD❌ Martin 00-18 Steel String Guitar Natural, 1950

Here is a lovely Martin 00-18 steel string guitar built during April of 1950, very glossy and having had a neck reset for great playability!

As an ’18’ style model, the Martin 00-18 construction features a Spruce top (Sitka since the early 1940’s) and Mahogany for the sides, back, body blocks and neck. The bridge, fingerboard and head plate are Rosewood – and as this guitar was built before 1967, that means Brazilian Rosewood.

The tuners installed now are original style Kluson open gear models, but not original to this guitar. At one point it had Waverly tuners installed. A neck reset was done in the relatively recent past, allowing a comfortable action height with a good amount of saddle above the bridge.

The 00 body style is one of Martin’s oldest, with the first recorded sale (an 00-33) in 1877. It’s been on offer consistently since that time, and is still in the catalog.  The compact body size and fairly short scale length make this a very comfortable guitar to play. There’s good representation throughout the harmonic range and the body produces a fair amount of volume.   This is a very nice guitar to play.

The finish on this Martin 00-18 immediately draws the eye, because it’s quite glossy, appearing to have been buffed up.  This was possibly done during the neck reset while the neck and body were separated.   There is some play wear to the top and to the finish on popular areas of the neck.   As well, there’s a small, cleated crack under the B string from the pickguard to the bridge.  This is a result of the common construction practice involving gluing the faux-tortoise pickguard directly to the top before finishing.   As the wood and plastic expand and contract at different rates, over time the top gives way.   Martin changed this practice around 1985 and those cracks are no longer common.   Gibson and Guild also followed this practice.

This Martin 00-18 is sold with its original hard shell case.