1941 Martin D-18

Today a few of us are headed out on the road east in the GuitaRV, but not without a demo for you all! A beautiful 1941 Martin D-18 that came from our go-to Martin luthier, Mark Tossman. Jay is here to give you all the details on this incredible old dreadnought, before handing things off to Aaron Hiebert for the demo!
For more information on the guitar, please check out:
www.emeraldcit...

[@robertbuckner9002]

Tons of love and respect for all you folks do! Amazing and awesome to be a little piece of your history.

[@HenryPipes]

This is cool! My Martin D-18 will not turn 81 until year 2100...that fact gave me a lot of respect for this instrument. Amazing review. Thank you guys for sharing these guitars with us. Always world class!

[@Funkybassuk]

What a beauty. It sounds glorious!

[@billdedrick1914]

Great tone, bass, balance.. Why did you decide to demo this tuned down 1/2 step? Tuning down 1/2 step greatly enhances the bottom end and bass presence. It would have been more representative if it were tuned to normal 440 pitch for this demo. What strings (brand/gauge/type) were used here and what flat pick and thickness?

[@trebleclef169]

Good point! Not all vintage guitars have a huge bottom end, but often they compensate by having a lot of "cut" and thus can make wonderful bluegrass lead guitars. I'd be interested to hear how this sounded at 440 too (I assume it's long gone by now!!).

[@greggfell3520]

Wow, nice balance on this one! Great presence on the high strings, solid but not boomy bass, well played demo too! Thanks for showing it off 😎

[@TheBigDean18]

I like it when the guitar player has similar touch to the way I play, this is guy is amazing, much better than me. He can make it sing

[@patriciosva]

I will apreciatte to know the string gauge on this martin pls....

[@mikkellm2599]

Does the term pre-war refer to before America entered the war, since this 1941 Martin is mentioned as pre-war? The war started sep. 1st 1939, but I suppose the US wasn't at war till the attack on Perl Harbor on dec 7th of 1941? Amazing sound, btw!

[@ericmojave6061]

Yeah, seeing as Martin and other manufscturing plants in the US were commissioned to make military equipment, the US involvement in ww2 marks the term “pre-war”

[@theAxehound]

Yep! I don't know what CF Martin did exactly, but Wurlitzer adapted their "piano lifts" into missile and bomb lifts! Most companies didn't return to manufacturing until after the war was over.

[@theAxehound]

Maybe they made rifle stocks. Would love to know now.

[@zachelmquist4932]

What strings do you put on a guitar that old?

[@andrewmazurkiewicz105]

Normal 12's light gauge should be fine. These guitars were made for heavier strings. If a guitars properly made and looked after you can string it up with whatever you like. Martins never used adjustable rods in those days so gauge the strings with how thick and or straight the neck is. Cheers Andrew

[@holyebangz2.018]

Norm Olsen.

[@mrpurple33]

Hey, is Marc Maron welcome these days, or nah? Treating customers the right way I heard...

[@steveblanchard2712]

It would have been a better demo if the guy used a thicker pick to bring out the tone better.

[@chuckyz2]

Better for you maybe. I thought it sounded great. And I use 1.5 on my acoustic with 12's. EJ D'Adarios. I like the 13's tone better, but I can't play them as well as 12's.

[@billdedrick1914]

@@chuckyz2 Keep in mind this was tuned down 1/2 step which enhances the bottom end presence..

[@chuckyz2]

@@billdedrick1914 It's been 6months. lol

[@dmcrisp]

You should get other people that know how to play more than praise and worship chords to really showcase what that guitar can really do