1927 Martin 00-18 Vintage Acoustic Guitar Pre-War w/ Adirondack Spruce Top, Case

Up for sale, a 1927 Martin 00-18, fully serviced and complete with a hardshell case. This exquisite 12 fret Pre-War Martin has received all the maintenance due a guitar pushing a century old, recently given a thorough once-over by Portland Fretworks to ensure optimal playability and structural integrity.Tonewoods include an Adirondack spruce top with scalloped X bracing, Honduran mahogany back and sides, and a Honduran mahogany neck with a slender profile carve, capped with an ebony fingerboard. Sound simply leaps from this guitar, with a broad, relaxed tone that has incredible depth and nuance. The bass register has a round, bouncy quality and a rich, muscly growl when digging in with a flatpick, and there’s a certain dryness and woody, percussive sparkle to the treble register on the initial note attack, with a bloom and warmth as single notes and chords sustain. Extremely sympathetic to fingerpicking, the tone is balanced, sweet-sounding and clear as you travel up the fingerboard, benefitting from the glassiness and treble clarity afforded the ebony fingerboard. The instrument is an absolute featherweight at 2lbs 14oz, dialed in to play its best with fresh 10-46 bronze strings and easy-playing action.The mahogany neck has a slender C-shaped profile carve, with modest shoulder at the nut and a gentle increase in the overall roundness of the carve further up the fretboard, measuring .805" deep at the 1st fret and .950" at the 9th. The ebony fingerboard has been professionally refretted with vintage-spec bar frets currently exhibiting no wear and playing cleanly in every register up the 24.9" scale. The original ebony nut is intact, measuring 1 13/16" in width, and the headstock features its original Brazilian rosewood veneer, with the Martin logo stamped on the reverse side. The original open-gear strip tuners are intact on the slotted headstock, retaining their original buttons and functioning smoothly.On the body, the original ebony bridge sits flush with the top, and the carved bone saddle has modest height, with action measuring 8/64" on the bass side at the 12th fret and 6/64" on the treble side. The guitar features a properly sized modern small maple bridge plate, and the top sits very flat with limited natural deflection on the lower bout. The top and back are framed by rosewood binding, and the serial is cleanly stamped on the heel block. The guitar has also been fitted with a K&K Pure Mini pickup system and 1/4" endpin jack.The top exhibits just one very slight and professionally addressed crack to the treble side of the center seam, extending from the lower bout edge, and there is a small amount of localized touchup around the bridge base and singular top crack repair. There is also some requisite pick wear across the strum path, mostly relegated to the treble side of the soundhole. The back has been refinished in satin lacquer, while the top and sides retain much of their original finish with varying degrees of overspray. On the sides, there are significant repairs on the lower bout, with some smaller pieces of well-matched mahogany feathered in as needed and some isolated cloudiness in the lacquer on the treble-side. These repairs were of varying degrees of quality, yet all structurally stable and improved as was feasible by Portland Fretwork and reinforced as needed. The neck profile and headstock retain the original finish, also oversprayed, with some palm wear through the gloss on the bass side shoulder of the neck profile behind frets 2-3.A modern black molded hardshell case is included.