The workhorse 18 line from Martin became an obvious go to for all sorts of players. With a warm spruce and mahogany tone, no frills look and introductory budget pricing - these instruments became an obvious choice for players of every genre for about a century. Couple that with some of the heyday era of wartime instruments construction, and finely aged tone, and it is clear why instruments like this 000-18 from 1946 are the commodity that they've become.

This example is constructed with a 2 piece Sitka Top, fully bound with multi ply and tortoise binding. Internally with non scalloped X bracing and thin maple bridge plate. Original teardrop tortoise pickguard in good condition (no crack). It has a warm, open, three dimensional sound with excellent string definition and clarity. The bass response is big but not overwhelming like a deadnaught making this an ideal fingerstyle instrument as one would expect. The top is nice and flat with no belly. Cosmetically, the top is in good shape with mostly light, expected pick wear - and no repairs to speak of. Checking is present in the finish, and a bit of reddish color in the rosette and the treble side upper bout - all cosmetic. The back and sides are made of a nice mahogany. The back has minimal buckle wear, and some old repairs present. There is a spiced in piece of mahogany at the bass side lower bout, well done, with some touched up finish along that edge. Light scratches and slight case burn is present, but all in all it is in very good shape.

A very nice neck with a playable setup, this example was designed with a 24.9" scale length and 1 21/32" nut width. The mahogany neck has a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard constructed with the ebony reinforcement rod in lieu of a truss rod. The neck is straight with about 1/64" in relief (measured while fretting down the first and 13th fret) - yielding a very playable action that measures about 6/64" in height at the twelfth fret, the saddle taken down a hair, but with about 4/64" visible above the slot (which is about what one would have untouched). Light finish wear around the heel. There is a hair of fall off at the fingerboard extension. The neck has a standard 40's era shallow V profile that measures a .88" in thickness at the first position, tapering up to 1.10" - which feels very "normal" by modern conventions. The original brass frets are present, with wear present in the cowboy chord zone. The fingerboard itself is clean overall with some divots at the third fret. The nut has been replaced at some point in its history, with a shim underneath currently. Original Grover tuners functioning well.

This is an exceptional example from a rare era. A nice collectors item, but a great playing example as well.

Includes later 70's era Martin 000 hardshell case.