2007 Martin D-18 Authentic 1937 Dreadnought Guitar

There's vintage-style new guitars and traditional new guitars and then point-for-point historic new guitars. This '07 D-18 Authentic aims to reproduce a '37 D-18 as closely as possible and, for better or worse, it nails it. The owner of this guitar was using it for bluegrass attacks and it certainly kicks it out for that with a punchy, dry, aggressive tone with just the right amount of velvet and nuance on the aft end of the notes.

A '30s D-18 is lightly-built and so is this. It has a non-adjustable neck reinforcement -- so does this. Over time the light bracing yields a "domed" belly around the bridge -- this has it, too. The first position section of the neck on the old guys gets a hair of relief when tuned to pitch -- that happens here, too. The glued-in saddle is obnoxious to adjust on the fly in the originals and it's the same here, too. Are these bad things? Well -- if you like to have full control over your setup at all times -- for sure. If you don't mind a little fuss to keep things real, nope!

I'd argue that you could achieve more or less the same tonal ends with a modern-construction instrument, too, but it's true that the changes will color the sound a little bit. Whether it colors the sound more than individual instrument wood choices color the sound is up for debate, however. Still, it's undeniable that this guitar is a looker, a player, and a screamer all in one.

Anyhow, this was just in for a setup by way of saddle and nut adjustments and I couldn't help but take it for a test-drive and snag some shots.