1949 Martin 000-18 Steel String Acoustic Guitar- Used

Fresh from a neck reset and refret here in Gryphon’s Repair Dept, this ’49 000-18 is ready to go. The bridge was replaced ages ago with the one you see here, which is oversized for a reason: Martin set many of their bridges too far back during this era, and the only way to get those guitars, like this one, to play in tune is to move the saddle forward (closer to the soundhole). In this case, that would have meant somehow hanging the saddle off the front edge of the bridge so the wider bridge was a more logical solution, especially in the days when function outranked originality.

Original tuners and pickguard, original finish throughout. Original bracing and bridge plate. Hairline back crack has been glued, pickguard shrinkage crack is no longer an issue as the original ‘guard was removed and reglued. There’s lots of surface wear to the finish as these photos show, what we can’t show is that this is a great sounding, and playing, 000 from Martin’s old North Street Factory. The war was over, but Martin’s production was stable and they had made very few changes.