1944 Martin D-18 - Good Condition - SOLD

This 1944 Martin D-18 serial number 89498 is a well played and loved guitar. 

Wartime D-18s are among the most celebrated acoustic guitars ever made in America, and this 1944 example is the genuine article. The so-called wartime period for golden-era Martins, generally 1942 through 1944, produced some of the most sensational instruments in the company's long history. With steel in short supply, many of these guitars were built with ebony support rods in the neck. They tend to be noticeably lightweight, with an airy, especially woody, and sweet sound, accompanied by a responsiveness under a flatpick that is immediately striking.

1944 sits right on Martin's dividing line. That's the year they retired scalloped bracing — the hand-carved, thinned braces that let a top move more freely — after steel-string tension started cracking too many of them under warranty. Depending on exactly when in the year this one left the factory, it's either one of the last scalloped D-18s built or one of the first without. Worth pinning down from the serial number, because scalloped examples carry a real premium with collectors.

Either way, it's wartime Martin: Adirondack spruce standing in for Sitka, materials substituted wherever the war effort required it, built during the stretch collectors now call the golden era. Elvis's own D-18 from this same window — the guitar behind his Sun Sessions recordings — sold at auction for $1.32 million in 2020. Doc Watson, Paul Simon, and Jerry Garcia all built careers on D-18s built to the same basic specs as this one.

This is a real piece of that era, not a recreation of it — the guitar that helped make Martin's reputation before the reputation existed.

This beauty has a sound that is warm, present, and focused in the midrange, with a low end that is powerful but not muddy and a treble response that rings with clarity. An 80-plus-year-old top like this one has had time to arrive fully. 

Condition: Good. It is not a closet queen. There is a large patch Bottom treble side 1.5x4", four cracks repaired top of the back, there are no cleats but the repair is solid. There is a repaired crack on lower back bass side. The binding is good overall. There are two small holes on treble and bass side of the soundhole. This could be from soundhole pickup. It looks like the guitar has a new bridge and needs a neck reset.