A 1954 Martin 00-18

1954 Martin 00-18 (14th fret neck join)

This 14 5/16-inch-wide, 4 1/8 inch-deep guitar weighs just 3.60 lbs. Mahogany back and sides with an 'X' braced, close-grain spruce top with a 3 3/4 inch diameter sound hole surrounded by three rings in one-nine-one grouping. Five-ply binding on the top of black, white and tortoiseshell, single-ply tortoiseshell binding on the back. Mahogany neck with a nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a scale length of 24.90 inches and a very comfortable medium-to-thick, soft 'V' profile. Solid headstock with gold "C F Martin & Co./Est. 1833" decal in gold with black outline. Individual 'Waverly' tuners with oval metal buttons and hexagonal bushings. Rosewood fretboard with 20 original medium frets with pearl dot position markers and small white dot side-markers.  Single thin black line joint on back. Original 'tear-shaped' tortoiseshell pickguard. Slanted white bone saddle on rosewood 'belly-bridge' with Martin black pins. The model and serial numbers are stamped in blind on the end of the neck-block "00-18 / 140523". When we purchased this guitar there was small hole in the treble-side of the body. Our luthier has expertly and almost invisibly repaired this and apart from a few small surface wear marks, this guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. Housed in the original four-latch, shaped black softshell case with orange/yellow plush lining (9.00).

This is a surprisingly loud and unexpectedly responsive guitar.

"Martin was fortunate during the Depression to have the biggest recording star of the period playing a Martin. Jimmie Rodgers, known as the Singing Brakeman, America's Blue Yodeler and eventually the Father of Country Music, was a longtime Martin man. A picture from the early 1920s shows him with Martin's first steel-string, the 2-17; he played a 00-18 on his first recording session in 1927; as a recording star, his working guitar was a custom-made Martin with pearl trim and his name in block letters on the fingerboard."  (Walter Carter. The Martin Book, p. 31).