C. F. Martin 0-18 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1937), made in Nazareth, PA, serial # 66414, natural lacquer finish, mahogany back, sides and neck, Adirondack spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, black tolex hard shell case.
This is lovely Martin 0-18 dates to early 1937, the year when the depression was finally beginning to ease up a bit. Despite difficult conditions over the previous years the Nazareth PA company had managed to keep up a steady output of the highest quality guitars in the world, of which this was one of the more affordable. This year 227 of these featherweight, scallop-braced 0-sized marvels shipped out of Nazareth at a list price of $40, plus case.
This 0-18 is an unpretentious but delightful small-body flat-top, in 1937 built superbly lightweight with typical features for the era. The mahogany body has a beautifully scalloped X-braced Adirondack spruce top with tortoise celluloid binding on the edges, tortoise celluloid pickguard, a long-saddle Brazilian rosewood bridge, and a nicely ambered nitrocellulose lacquer finish. The scalloped bracing makes an enormous sonic difference on these smaller-bodied guitars; unfortunately this was phased out on all models in 1944.
The mahogany neck has a slim round-backed profile with a hint of a "V' as it moves towards the body and dot-inlaid rosewood fingerboard. The headstock face is adorned with a "C.F. Martin" gold decal on the rosewood facing and fitted with individual Waverly openback tuners with metal buttons. This is a fine playing and fantastic-sounding little guitar, lightly worn in but friendly to play with a very big tone for its size.
Overall length is 38 3/4 in. (98.4 cm.), 13 9/16 in. (34.4 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 1/4 in. (10.8 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This lovely prewar Martin has been generally well preserved, showing fairly minor wear and a few typical maintenance repairs in its past. The original lacquer finish shows a number of scratches, dings and dents, the most noticeable on the top with strum wear most heavily along the forward edge of pickguard, which was lightly touched up along the way. The lower lip of the sound hole and the back edge of the pickguard also have has some pick marks into the wood. There are numerous dings and scratches over the back and sides but no large areas of finish loss. The back of the neck is comparatively clean with some robbed-through spots in the lower positions.
There are no visible crack repairs on this guitar , which unusual and delightful on a Martin from this era! The neck has been very neatly reset with a small shim added under the fingerboard extension. The fingerboard has been trued and refretted with fretwire correct for this period, the bone not appears replaced or at least reworked. The original bridge had been reglued but appears uncut and even the saddle appears original; there are new bridge pins. Internally all the original scalloped bracing and the small maple bridgeplate are intact and unaltered.
No strap button was ever installed on the heel; the original openback Waverly tuners are intact with plating loss mostly to several of the buttons. The guitar plays very nicely with a defined but extremely responsive sound, particularly a singing high-mid register. It resides in a modern HSC. Overall Excellent - Condition.
