1966 Martin 000-18 Flattop Guitar

In walks one of my consignors with a nice old black hard case -- and this is what popped out of it! While this guitar has been played, it's also been taken-care-of extremely well. There's pickwear all around the soundhole and average usewear throughout, but the only cracks are a tight hairline on the lower bout in the center, a tiny puncture crack near the endblock, and a tiny hairline on the back (all repaired). It came in with the action too low and a nice tall saddle on it and I don't believe it's ever had a neck reset. Sometimes you just get lucky, right?

Martin 000s are guitars with their own cult following. They have a certain balanced, clean, sweet sound that pulls-out a lot of tone for fingerpickers and more articulate flatpickers. My hands aren't suited to these guitars, but every time I hear someone with "those hands" play a good one of these, I get why 000s are so popular. This one has that balanced sound but it also has a nice, lower-mids grumble and a velvety upper-mids sound to it that suits folksy flatpicking a little better than usual, too.

My only work was to cleat and seal the hairline crack below the bridge on the top, give it a fret level/dress, cut a new (taller) compensated bone saddle for it, and set it up. It's playing perfectly with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret, strung with 54w-12 gauges.

The guitar is mostly-original, though the Grover Sta-Tite tuners are later (but decades-old?) additions and of course my saddle is new (though the original is stowed in the case and may be used as a lower, "summer" saddle). I think the bridge pins are replacements, too, but I can't be sure. There's usewear (minor scratches and scuffs) throughout the instrument but the overall effect is that it's in good health and pretty clean for an older fella. The bridge was reglued in the past but the job was well-done.

The top has buttered-up to a beautiful color. The finish looks all-original to me and I'm not seeing any touch-ups.

Normal 000 specs apply -- x-braced solid spruce over solid mahogany, 15" lower bout width, 4 1/8" depth at the endblock, and 24 7/8" (24.9") scale length. The fretboard, bridge, and headstock veneer are rosewood.

The nut is 1 11/16" and the board has a light radius to it. The neck has a mild-to-medium C-shaped profile.

The frets only needed a light level/dress and so they have many more level/dress jobs to go before they're used-up.

In this pic you can see the cleated-and-sealed dryness hairline crack in the center of the lower bout. It was tight to begin with, but now it definitely is not going to go anywhere.

There's a filled strap-button hole on the back of the heel-cap.

The sides show most of the usewear on the guitar.

To the "right" of the endpin in this pic you can see a small, 1 1/2" crack repair that was done a while back. It's the usual "press-in" bump sort of damage and it's good to go.

The original hard case, with its faux-alligator covering, comes with it. How about that?