Martin D-18 1966 - Natural

Classic 1966 Martin D-18

Serial number 209441 was stamped on March 31, 1966 and cleared final inspection on July 19 that year. Earlier tortoise shell pickguard and binding, which was changed to black sometime later in the year.

This understated beauty has a lovely patina, with the wear of decades in all the right places, and tone to die for. Fingerpicked or strummed hard, this guitar takes it and gives back in spades. A nice midrange sweetness and sparkly top-end, and doesn't suffer from "compression" when played hard, as many lesser instruments do.

It plays like a dream and has a compensated saddle - the intonation is spot-on all up and down the neck. Fresh setup and cleaning by Straight Frets Guitar Repair of Austin, new medium-light 12-54 Curt Mangan strings. Original Grover tuners with typical wear but still holding tune.

(visit youtube link for a quick & dirty iPhone recording)

Typical for this era, an old "pickguard/B-string crack" and upper side bout crack have been repaired, likely long before I bought it 15 years ago from Dusty Strings in Seattle. Expert luthiers have told me these repairs do not affect the tone to any great degree - and I would tend to concur. There is also a small (7/16") hole patch where somebody "back in the day when they did silly things" apparently drilled it for a side jack, and whoever performed the repair did a very clean job of it.

The hardshell case is included as it came to me, not original to the guitar.

I've taken very good care of it and any wear or dings are pretty much the ones it had when I purchased it - mainly limited to the bottom corner/treble side bout, as you might expect for a guitar going on six decades of playing.

Shipping is just an estimate for CONUS - contact me with your location for an accurate quote.