Description

This 1944 000-18 is one of the best sounding wartime vintage Martins I’ve ever had. It is an exceptional short-scale guitar. It has all the wartime features, ebony rod, a featherweight build, and this guitar has incredible expressiveness, warmth, balance, and versatility. It can be played soft or loud with the same rewarding nuances. It has a beautifully grained bear claw adirondack top and select mahogany back and sides. It’s different than a wide-neck 1930’s 000-18; it’s more intimate, subtle, and tone-noir based, but is on par with a great mid “30’s version in being the best in its class. Part of this guitar’s magic lies in its ebony neck reinforcement and light headstock, part is in its gorgeous red spruce top with bear claw, scalloped braces, and 78 years of play. This 000-18 weighs in at just over 3 lbs, which has a lot to do with its expressive and open tone as well. You immediately feel the vibration in your chest. The sustain on this guitar goes on forever. The headstock veneer, fingerboard, and bridge are nicely matched Brazilian rosewood.
This 000-18 is 98% original (i.e. bridge, bridge-plate, tuners are correct but it looks like other tuners were on it for awhile with the holes plugged- the current ones are correct for this guitar and do work very well !). There is one perfect bottom repair by esteemed luthier Dennis Berck including the setup and overall check out. The workmanship is excellent and mostly undetectable. It is a crack free instrument otherwise, with the normal finish aging marks, and some surface finish stress marks around the repair. The scalloped bracing and original bridge-plate are perfect and without any repairs, and the original bridge is unmodified. Overall, the guitar presents as an exceptionally clean playing and collectible instrument.
Typical C shaped 1940’s neck carve with 1-11/16” nut, 24.9” scale, 2-3/16” string spread at the saddle. Full height saddle with action set at 3/32” (6th) and 2/32” (1st) at the 12th fret. Please listen to the demos with headphones if you have them. bare recordings - no FX!. With the modern hard-shell Martin case pictured…

Allegheny Valley Guitars

Allegheny Valley Guitars

1944
Martin
Excellent
natural
Hard
Allegheny Valley Guitars
Allegheny Valley Guitars
412-721-5670
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