The "Presidential" Guitar

1930 Regular model 14 fret neck (joins body at 14th fret)



"It is said that this beautiful guitar was purchased by the White House from a Washington DC music store so that at a White House ceremony in the early 1930's President Hoover could present it to a man prominent in the local broadcasting industry. While the story does add great interest to this instrument, the OM is anyway one of the finest flat-top guitars of all time, and this example is especially fine. Martin's "Orchestra Model" combines wonderfully the sheer volume of a dreadnought guitar with the tonal balance of a smaller-body instrument, and as a result produces what is a quite extraordinary fingerstyle guitar." (Tony Bacon, The History of the American Guitar from 1833 to the present day, p. 44).

(According to Mike Longworth Martin Guitars A History p. 177) the last serial number in 1930 was 45317 and the last in 1929 was 40843 - so it can be assumed that 4,474 guitars were produced in 1930 and that the factory 'averaged' around 373 per month during that year. If that is correct, this guitar would have been finished around late October 1930. The production figures for the OM-45 are as follows: 1930 - 19; 1931 - 10; 1932 - 5; 1933 - 6.