Forty Four Years in The Closet…

This 15 3/4-inch-wide, 4 7/8 inch-deep Dreadnought guitar weighs just 4.50 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Brazilian rosewood back and sides with a light close-grain spruce top. Mahogany neck with a wonderful thick profile, Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 20 original medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Five-ply (black/white/black/white/wide black) top binding. Single wide black binding on the back. Sound hole rings in one-nine-one grouping. Checkered backstripe inlay. Headstock with gold "C F Martin & Co./Est. 1833" decal. Individual Grover Roto-Matic tuners with half-moon metal buttons. Black acetate pickguard. White bone bridge on a rosewood base with Martin black pins with white dots. This one owner guitar is in just about mint (9.50) condition. There are a couple of very feint (really almost invisible) surface marks on the top on the bass-side of the sound hole and the black acetate pickguard is lifting slightly at the edges. This is as near to a 'new' forty-four year old Martin as one could ever wish for. The frets and fretboard show no sign of wear whatsoever and the action is wonderfully low. All the other examples that we have seen either had repaired cracks on the top or else the action was high denoting the need for a neck reset. This is most definately the best example that we have ever seen. Housed in its original Martin black 'soft shell' case with 4 latches and red plush lining (9.50).

In 1931, Martin began making its big Dreadnought guitars under its own name, adding the letter D to its model code. Only the D-18 and D-28 were offered at first, with the D-45 added shortly after. Introduced in 1955, the D-21 combined the looks of a D-18 with the rosewood sound of the D-28. The D-21 was discontinued in 1969.

"Except for the ill-fated electric models of 1959, the D-21 was Martin's sole addition to its catalogs in the 1950s. As with other Style 21 models, it looked just like a D-18 except for the 28-style dot pattern on the fingerboard. Viewed from the back, however, it would be hard to miss the Brazilian rosewood and checkered-pattern backstrip that Style 21 shares with the more expensive Style 28" (Jim Washburn and Richard Johnston, Martin Guitars, p. 161).

The D-28, D-21, and D-18 Dreadnoughts are described in a late-1950s Martin catalog: "The extra wide and deep body produces a tone of great power and smoothness, especially fine for radio or television work." The D-28 ("Rosewood body, spruce top, ivoroid edges, mahogany neck with steel T-bar, ebony fingerboard and bridge, wide frets, ivory nut and saddle, highly polished") is listed at $250, the D-21 ("The same model with dark bindings, plainer inlays, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, black pins") is listed at $200, and the D-18 ("Same size, mahogany body, spruce top, mahogany neck with steel T-bar, rosewood fingerboard and bridge") is listed at $150. (Jim Washburn and Richard Johnston, Martin Guitars, p. 158).

"The D-21 was a late entry into the Dreadnought market. It was introduced in 1955 with #145604 and continued until 1969. It was an excellent guitar, having the same basic construction as the D-28, but with plainer trimmings. It was finally dropped from the line because a more affluent market preferred to pay a few dollars more for the white bindings and the ebony fingerboard and bridge of the D-28." (Mike Longworth, Martin Guitars, A History, p. 27)