1962 Martin 0-16NY Flattop Guitar
The owner of this guitar dropped it off for consignment in the fall, but some interest in it bumped it up my list and I finished it a few days ago. I'm a fan of these 0-size, 12-fret Martins as they're a lot like the 0-18s from the late '20s and early '30s in tone and vibe, but have a slightly larger-feeling neck with steel reinforcement that helps keep the warp-bugs away. The tops are ever-so-slightly more heavily-braced/thicknessed and so they hold up just a bit better, too.
Work on this one included a neck reset, fret level/dress, bridge pin fill/redrill, and a setup. It's wearing 46w-10 strings and plays on-the-dot with a straight neck. Luckily, this guitar also wasn't abused with too-heavy gauges (these are rated by Martin for silk & steel at the heaviest) and so the top doesn't have a lot of belly or distortion. It's also entirely crack-free.
Materials are normal for something of style 18 specs from the time: solid spruce, x-braced top over solid mahogany back and sides, a solid mahogany (one piece) neck, and rosewood fretboard and bridge. The binding is the cool tortoise type but the departure from style 18 is that there's no back binding and no dot inlay in the fretboard. It's all-original except for the bridge pins and endpin -- all are later bit a little older.
Specs are: 24 7/8" scale length, 1 7/8" nut width, 1 19/32" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/4" spacing at the bridge, 13 5/8" lower bout, 9 3/4" upper bout, and 4 3/16" side depth at the endblock. The neck is a medium-depth C-shape and the board has something like a 12" radius to it. Action is 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret. I reset the neck to cater to the height of the original saddle (which is on it, though I added better compensation on its top edge) and adjusted the worn areas at the top of the pinholes into proper "string ramps."
Work on this one included a neck reset, fret level/dress, bridge pin fill/redrill, and a setup. It's wearing 46w-10 strings and plays on-the-dot with a straight neck. Luckily, this guitar also wasn't abused with too-heavy gauges (these are rated by Martin for silk & steel at the heaviest) and so the top doesn't have a lot of belly or distortion. It's also entirely crack-free.
Materials are normal for something of style 18 specs from the time: solid spruce, x-braced top over solid mahogany back and sides, a solid mahogany (one piece) neck, and rosewood fretboard and bridge. The binding is the cool tortoise type but the departure from style 18 is that there's no back binding and no dot inlay in the fretboard. It's all-original except for the bridge pins and endpin -- all are later bit a little older.
Specs are: 24 7/8" scale length, 1 7/8" nut width, 1 19/32" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/4" spacing at the bridge, 13 5/8" lower bout, 9 3/4" upper bout, and 4 3/16" side depth at the endblock. The neck is a medium-depth C-shape and the board has something like a 12" radius to it. Action is 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret. I reset the neck to cater to the height of the original saddle (which is on it, though I added better compensation on its top edge) and adjusted the worn areas at the top of the pinholes into proper "string ramps."
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