1956 Martin 00-18 Flattop Guitar

Yikes, more nice Martins, eh? A consignor sent this one in just the other day. He has a huge backlog of guitars over here, so I just slotted it first in line for his queue as it needed so little to be playing perfectly. This guitar is dang clean for its age. The finish practically glows and the pickguard has that great red color to it.

Post-setup it's playing beautifully and its sound is punchy, direct, emphasizes some lush mids, and has good bark and clarity. The "Martin velvet" is heard around the edges -- on the highs and lows -- but I'm happy to say it doesn't have a scooped middle, which I can find frustrating on older Martins when I want to dig-in on the D/G strings.

It'd received a lot of attention before it came to me -- someone did pro work on it. This included a neck reset, new repro bridge (either Brazilian or Madagascar rosewood, can't tell) with faux-through-saddle (it's a drop-in), replacement bridge pins and endpin (ebony), and setup work. It played almost perfectly when it arrived, so my work was very minimal. My...

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, restring, and setup.

Setup notes: the neck is straight, action is spot-on and fast at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret. The saddle is drop-in so it's easy to adjust string height going into different seasons. Strings are 54w-12 gauges.

Scale length: 24 7/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 18 3/4"

Lower bout width: 14 3/8"

Side depth at endpin: 4 1/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: x

Fretboard: rosewood
Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: medium C/soft-V shape, ~14-16" board radius
Neck wood: mahogany

Condition notes: everything appears to be original save bridge, saddle, and pins. There's a tiny (repaired) pickguard hairline crack under the pickguard edge itself, but I don't see any other cracks anywhere. The finish shows minor uswear/pickwear around the soundhole and a few light scratches and dings here and there throughout but is otherwise unmolested save for really minor handling-wear.

It comes with: an older hard case in good order.

The bridge has a flattened top profile which I think makes far more sense than the "trad" Martin wedged shape. That's the only difference aside from the drop-in faux-through-slot setup compared to a traditional Martin bridge shape.