1952 CF Martin 00-18 Natural
CF Martin 00-18 1952 | $3850 | (v2406) The 00-18s crafted in Nazareth, PA, were neither flashy nor terribly expensive, but were solidly build with quality materials to the exacting Martin factory standards of the day. Now into the twenty-first century guitar players still covet them for their quality build, playability and balanced tone.
The back and sides are mahogany. The top is sitka spruce, featuring scads of 'silking' and very tight grain*, X-braced and bound in tortoise celluloid binding and layers of b/w purfling, which is echoed at the sound hole. The bridge is Brazillian rosewood and the pickguard tortoise celluloid. The neck is mahogany, carved in the classic Martin 'C' shape of the era and features a Brazilian overlay on the head stock with the Martin & Co. decal in gold. The tuners are individual open back Waverlys with one replaced grommet.
The body measures 14 3/8". The scale length is 25". The neck measures 1 11/16" at the nut, with string spacing 2 3/16" across at the saddle.
The guitar appears to be totally original but for the new saddle. We recently: reset the neck; installed a new bone saddle; glued a pickguard crack; glued a few small side cracks; leveled and dressed the frets; cleaned and lubed the tuners. The guitar shows a history of both play wear and general use wear in the finish, showing several dings and scratches, with a bit of finish lifting on the Brazilian head plate, likely from storage in a humid environment. Overall, a very solid and enjoyable guitar. The action is set at a smooth 4 & 6/64".
The guitar is very well balanced in tone, with clear mids and highs, and lots of oomph in the bass.
*Silking is the term for medullary cross-grain rays, which are uncommonly prolific in this particular top. The top grain itself is very tight, too. The advantage to a guitar is that close grain and profuse medullary rays are often indicative of perfectly quarter-sawn spruce, which, when applied to a guitar top, can provide optimum stiffness.
Comes with its likely original hard case with yellow lining.
Check out the sound clip!
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We ship usually within a day of payment. International customers, we are not CITES certified. Any guitar with CITES-protected materials (Brazilian rosewood, ivory et al) shipped outside the US will be shipped at the risk of the buyer.
Forty-eight hour test drive on all instruments..if not to your liking, return for refund minus shipping costs.