1973 Martin D-18 Dreadnought Guitar

I swear, it's been '70s Martin fever around the place this year. This is maybe the 5th or 6th '70s D-18 I've reset a neck on this year, maybe? It's clearly a well-loved, well-used guitar. There's discoloration around the soundhole that suggests a lot of finger-sweat puckering the finish and mixing with pickwear.

If you listen-in on the video clip, you can also clearly hear that the bad press for '70s Martins is often unfounded: this guitar sounds like a D-18 and is responsive and lively, too. It's not as full-throated as a '50s D-18, but it's also 20 years younger and with 20 years less play than a glory-days '53 model.

This was a customer repair that got done on the quick due to worry over heath concerns with its owner.

Repairs included: a neck reset, fret level/dress, new bone saddle, replacement bridge pins, cleats for the open center seam on the lower bout, and a setup.


Made by: Martin

Model: D-18

Made in: Nazareth, Pennsylvania, USA

Serial number: 328248


Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: x

Bridge: rosewood

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany


Tone: clean, bright, punchy, fundamental

Suitable for: bluegrass, country, old-time, popular, rock, etc.


Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights

Neck shape: medium C/soft V

Board radius: ~14"

Truss rod: non-adjustable steel square tube

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium


Scale length: 25 3/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 20"

Body width: 15 5/8"

Body depth: 4 7/8"

Weight: 4 lb 3 oz


Condition notes: repaired center seam on lower-bout top, minor pickwear at the soundhole, minor weather-check to the finish here and there, minor usewear throughout. Still, it's rather clean for an oldie. The saddle and pins are replacements and the pickguard might be, too -- or just reglued. It's starting to peel-away at the bottom edge but has probably been doing that for decades. The neckblock had suffered damage in the past (you can see the slight crunch-in at the rosette's edge as evidence) and I glued it all up back to stability during the reset job.












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SAC56 said…
Unfortunately for me, when I had my first job in the summer of '73 and could at last afford a Martin, I was unable to locate one in the San Francisco Bay Area that did not suffer from some of the problems of early '70's Martins. The best one I could find (at Lunberg's Fretted Instruments in Berkeley) still left something to be desired. It was there I discovered a Takamine F360S. My brother was with me - a much more experienced musician and guitar player (who annoyingly to me at the time had perfect pitch. The Martin was only $125 more than the Takamine, but when I played them, it didn't seem a better guitar. We then engaged in a blindfold test, trading the instruments randomly. I almost never identified them correctly. My brother did a bit better, but even he had a difficult time. In the end I opted for Takamine. I've not regretted it, as the only D-18's I have played that I would rather have had (ones from the same time period) have cost thousands of dollars.
January 3, 2025 at 12:50 PM
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