1927 Martin 0-18 Flattop Guitar

This is a local customer's nice old Martin 0-18. It's from '27 and so, at the time, it was really more spec'd for gut strings or a mix of gut and steel trebles, but its owner and previous owners have been stringing it with 54w-12 gauges for decades and decades and it's held-up (luckily) just-fine. I have seen plenty of other examples of these completely destroying themselves from such stuff, though, so the slightly-stiffer braces on this particular guitar seem to have come in handy!

These old 0-18s make ideal fingerpickers that also happen to turn into good, all-around, old-time backup-style guitars as well. The 12-fret joint, scalloped bracing, and short scale give them a woody, round sound with a surprising amount of bass for their size.

Anyhow, it was in for work because a previous replacement bridge had snapped in half along the through-cut saddle slot. This was due to two things -- an old neck reset where the angle was set to steep (and thus requiring a tall saddle) and the fact that through-slot Martin bridges almost always die in painful ways because the design is flawed.

Suffice to say, I cut and installed a new ebony bridge similar in design to the old one but gave it a drop-in saddle slot instead. I then set to work with the brutal task of leveling/dressing the original bar frets (they're tedious), recutting the old saddle to fit its new role, and setting it all up. I'm not happy with the extra-tall saddle but needs must as regards the neck angle. It's holding-pat, anyhow, and seems determined to outlive itself and soar into the future...