I was contacted by the owner of this guitar who didn't happen to mention it had a dark top. It is an early dark top 00-18 and only three were made in 1935.

Serial number 59059 appears in the production records as a 1935 "00-18 "0" Model". An "0 Model" in Martin parlance would normally mean the guitar has a scale length of 24.9" but there was the intriguing possibility it might have a 25.4" scale. The owner has since checked and it does have a 24.9" scale.

Serial number 59059 was stamped on February 5, 1935 and cleared final inspection on October 18 that year. It was shipped to D. Z. Phillips Music Co. in Pueblo CO on September 19, 1935. Here, again, is another example of a guitar shipped before the whole batch of 25 cleared final inspection. Martin received an order for a dark top 00-18 from Phillips Music on September 16, 1935. The batch in question was in the finish shop when the order was received so one guitar was randomly selected to receive a dark top and was rushed through the remainder of production. It was the Depression after all, an order was an order! The rest of the batch weren't shipped until November 1935 or later.

The tuners are Grover G-98 clipped plate machines with un-seamed butterbean buttons.

The guitar was originally shipped in a B case so the case illustrated below is not the original case.

The owner found the following information on D. Z. Phillips through a real estate search of his original residence at 1825 Court Street in Pueblo CO:

"The original owner and resident of this house, constructed in 1926, was Daniel Zane Phillips, a music teacher and owner of the D.Z. Phillips Music Company. He was born on August 10, 1882, in West Virginia. His first wife, Marge P. Zane, was born in Kansas around 1894. They were married prior to 1917. They rented the house immediately north, at 1825 Court Street, before moving here. Daniel Phillips remarried around 1929. His second wife, Helen S. Philips, was born in Colorado around 1897.

Daniel Phillips was beloved for his boys band concerts, often performed at the band shell in adjacent Mineral Palace Park. The Phillipses remained here through 1942."

Style 18 features:

Back and sides: Mahogany

Top: Red spruce (Adirondack)

Purfling: Lines

Binding: Tortoiseshell celluloid

Back Stripe: None

Other period features:

Forward scalloped X-bracing

Ebony fingerboard

Ebony belly bridge

Steel T-bar neck reinforcement

1-3/4" neck width at nut

24.9" scale length

Tortoiseshell celluloid pick guard

Dot fingerboard inlays

Decal on front of headstock

C. F. Martin stamp on back of headstock

Style stamp