Martin Guitars

1947 Martin 5-18, Serial Number 99590

Serial number 99590 was stamped on April 2, 1947 and cleared final inspection on August 1 that year.

The tuners are probably three-on-a-side D & J (Dinsmore & Jager) #31 machines.

Style 18 features:

Back and sides: Mahogany

Top: Red spruce (Adirondack) - Although Sitka spruce was the norm for Martin guitars at the time, Martin obviously still had some small pieces of Adirondack spruce that could only be used for small body guitars

Binding: Tortoiseshell celluloid

Purfling: Lines

Dot inlays

Brazilian rosewood fingerboard

Brazilian rosewood straight bridge

Other period features:

Ebony neck reinforcement

Nickel silver T-frets

Non-scalloped X-bracing

Style stamp

"C. F. Martin & Co." decal on headstock

No "Made in USA" stamp on back of headstock

Dimensions:

Lower bout: 11-1/4"                                   Upper bout: 8-5/16"

Body length: 15-7/8"                                 Scale length: 21-5/16"

Body depth at neck block: 3-3/16"        Body depth at end block:  3-15/16"

Neck width at nut: 1.64"                          String spacing at bridge: 2.14"

Bridge 5.50" x .096" x 0.34"

Photos and dimensions courtesy Ted Hutson

4 thoughts on “1947 Martin 5-18, Serial Number 99590

    1. Sorry, this is not a selling site and the guitar is not available. Occasionally I make an entry for guitars that are for sale. In those cases I make a note at the bottom of the description with a link to the dealer’s site.

      I have no affiliation with any of the dealers. This site is only meant to document Martin guitars as a reference to collectors and dealers.

      Greig Hutton

      1. im so sorry sn is 621117 and the quality appears better than cf martin the 3in1 tuner has phillips screws like this martin

        1. Bruce

          I don’t have a lot of info on Levin guitars produced under Martin ownership. However, I did find a few warranty records from 1970 to 1977 but the serial numbers only range from around 525400 to about 538000.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *