Here we offer something a bit unusual for GSI - a 1951 Martin D-18 that we're selling for a good friend of ours. This is a classic dreadnought steel-string acoustic guitar known for its powerful and resonant tone, and this guitar certainly has it all. According to its current owner, his father purchased the guitar in 1956, when he was 39 years-old from the original owner who was experiencing financial hardship at the time. His father found it listed for sale in the newspaper. His father also did two repairs to the guitar (you can see them in the photos in the gallery), one small crack on the soundboard near the bridge (glued internally near the center of the x-brace). The other repair is on the back, down at the extremity of the lower bout, covered with an internal wooden patch. His father also re-polished the guitar at this time, as we as an avid wood-worker and varnisher. Here's what the current owner has to say about the background of the instrument:
"Although a Chemical Engineer by profession, my father was a skilled woodworker, and our home was filled with beds, dressers, tables, and bookshelves he built during the 1940's and early 1950's. He was well versed in the application of shellacs, lacquers, and varnishes, and he owned a Brinks siphon spray gun and air compressor if the finish work called for it. He had tremendous patience, and always strove for perfection in everything he did. My own recollections are that my father primarily used the guitar during the holidays season, and it spent the majority of its life safely tucked-away in its case. After my father passed-away in 1972, the guitar largely sat idle in my mother's bedroom closet for the next several decades. The guitar was subsequently bequeathed to me 2012. At this time in my life, I no longer feel the need to hold onto possessions seldom used. Since I and my remaining family members are all piano players, it's time transfer the guitar's ownership to someone who has an ongoing passion for it."
The D-18 has a Sitka spruce top and mahogany back and sides for a brighter, more midrange-focused tone and as a result has been a preferred instrument for lead playing and flatpicking. The guitar is in perfect playing condition and we just had a fresh set of Martin Marquis Silked 80/20 Bronze strings installed. Tension is "light" (12-54) so the guitar is ready to be played by its next owner!
