1940 C. F. Martin 00-18 Natural, Excellent, Hard, $6,995.00

SN 74787. I’ve been very fortunately to find some great guitars this year in both the player and collector category. Here is an excellent players guitar purchased from the same family as the 1946 000-21 and clearly this one got the majority of the playing time. It has the open, woody, and sparkly sound I love from the Martin mahogany small bodies. It appears to have had a lifetime of strumming and singing. The guitar is quite clean with only playwear, no smoky smell, wax, impact marks, or cracks. The red spruce top is still bright with a nice vintage patina and the highly figured pickguard Martin used in 1940 and early ‘41. There is some buckle rash on the back. The neck is straight with 1 11/16” nut, nice modified V profile, and T-bar support. Full thickness fingerboard with no pitting. The tuners are replacement Waverly’s (remember this is a players guitar) that work great. I do have a set of the correct fleur de lis tuners around the shop somewhere if that’s important. I’ve performed the necessary maintenance for another 75 years of play – neck reset, refret, correct repro bridge. The work was done by a noted NW luthier. Inexplicably, there appears to be a replacement bridge plate although it is very old and of the correct size, material and placement. Comes in a newer Martin hardshell case with green plush interior. Nice, nice guitar.