1934 Martin R-18T Archtop Tenor Guitar

Martin archtop guitars consistently get bad press... from people who don't know much and are in turn regurgitating opinions of people who never knew what they were talking about. Every time I mention that there's an archtop Martin hanging around the workshop, someone raises the, "but they don't sound that great, right?" comment-question. I'm going to hang that little offense on the business-minded retopping folks of yesteryear who gutted many a gorgeous Martin archie and installed flattops on them instead. Bah humbug!

Seriously, though -- the last three I've played have all been great guitars. This pressed-top R-18T sounds just as good as plenty of fancy carved-top Gibsons and Epiphones and has the edge on them in craftsmanship, too. If you get past the obvious "savage love" someone had for this in its zillions of pick-scratches, you can see that just as much care was put into clean, sexy trim on this as was taken on any period Martin flattop. It's classy.

It came in recently via a long-time customer of mine (for repair), but the day was ending over here and in the limited time I had left I decided to treat myself to seeing what this fella could do, so...

Work included: a fret level/dress, minor cleaning, and gentle setup. The owner plays it in DGBE tuning and so that's what it's strung for -- with 32w, 24w, 16, 12 gauges. The neck is straight and the original bar frets are in good order. It plays with 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret and has room to spare for adjusting up/down at the bridge.

Scale length: 23"
Nut width: 1 1/4"
String spacing at nut: 1"
String spacing at saddle: 1 3/8"

Body length: 18 3/4"
Lower bout width: 14 1/4"
Upper bout width: 10 3/4"

Side depth at endpin: 4 1/4" (top swells it to ~4 3/4")

Top wood: solid spruce
Back/sides wood: solid mahogany
Neck wood: mahogany
Fretboard: rosewood w/bar frets

Neck shape: flat board, medium C/V hybrid rear

Bridge: original ebony with ebony adjuster wheels

Nut: replacement bone

Condition notes: it's 100% original save for a replacement bone nut. At some point this was setup for 3 courses and 1-1-2 stringing bass to treble, with the top course doubled. I'm assuming this was for use in either a tamburitza-style orchestra or for simulating some other folk or ethnic instrument (3-course Greek bouzouki? to give the vague idea of Puerto Rican or Cuban instruments?), which was sort-of a popular thing to do with old tenor guitars in the '50s and '60s via immigrant recyling of available instruments.

I loved the history of the slots in the nut, so after the level/dress job on the frets I filled all of the slots in the nut and then reslotted for normal tenor stringing.

I love those Martin-engraved tailpieces.

Here you can see Martin's proprietary archtop bridge design. It's entirely made from ebony! The top has two thick shafts which locate the top/saddle portion and travel with it up/down into holes in the base/foot. I'd imagine this is both to increase vibration transfer and to keep the top from tilting as it's tuned back and forth. The adjuster wheels are easily accessible at the ends of the bridge. It's a beautiful design and extremely well-executed, though the complexity of it means it was probably a real chore to make in significant numbers.

The back is flat.

The Grover 2-tab tuners are nice to see.