1926 Martin T-18 Tiple

Hot on the heels of working on a '27 T-18 is this '26. It's a lot cleaner than the last one, though light pickwear all along the treble side of the top suggests someone played it a lot and enjoyed it thoroughly. Martins are kings of the vintage tiple market in the same way their guitars are highly-prized, too. As you might expect, tone is velvety and smooth with a lot of sustain and a nice chirp to its higher register that lets it project nicely.

This one is entirely original save its new, bone, compensated saddle and features a solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, an ebony fretboard and bridge, and rosewood binding. It's classy.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, recut of the bridge to include a new saddle slot and compensated bone saddle, restring, and setup.

Setup notes: the neck is straight and action is bang-on at 1/16" at the 12th fret. String gauges are 11/22w, 16/36w/16, 13/28w/13, 10/10 low to high for GCEA tuning.

Scale length: 17"

Nut width: 1 3/8"

String spacing at nut: 1 5/16"

String spacing at bridge: 1 7/8"

Body length: 12"

Lower bout width: 8 7/8"

Waist width: 5 5/8"

Upper bout width: 6 5/8"
Side depth at endpin: 3 1/2"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back wood: solid mahogany
Sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: x-braced

Fretboard: ebony board, ebony nut

Bridge: ebony, bone saddle

Neck feel: medium C/soft V shape, flat board

Condition notes: all-original save new saddle and minor bridge modification to suit it. It's clean throughout save light pickwear on the top-treble-side and it has no cracks except for a tiny hairline in the bridge itself beginning behind the "tieblock" on the bridge.