Martin Guitars

1942 Martin 0-15, Serial Number 81222

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Serial number 81222 was stamped on March 30, 1942 and cleared final inspection on June 17 that year. The Martin 0-15 was the least expensive guitar model offered by Martin at the time, although Martin never made any compromise inĀ  terms of quality. As a war-time guitar this guitar has the ebony neck reinforcement rather […]

Martin Guitars

1919 Ditson 1-30, Serial Number 483

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Between 1916 and 1921 Martin made a special line of guitars for Charles H. Ditson & Co. in New York. These guitars had a wide-waisted design since they were meant to played Hawaiian style and the normal narrow waist was no longer necessary. These guitars did not have a flat fingerboard or high saddle as […]

Martin Guitars

1905 Martin 000-21, Serial Number 10009

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Serial number 10009 is one of the earliest 000-sized Martin guitar. It was stamped around January 30, 1905 and was shipped to Henry Spahr in Jersey City, NJ on March 28, 1905. Henry Spahr was a music teacher and had an important infleunce on Martin in the early 20th century. It was Spahr who ordered […]

Martin Guitars

1938 Martin 00-44G, Serial Number 70469

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Serial number 70469 was stamped on June 3, 1938 and cleared final inspection on June 21 (18 days later!) Style 44 guitars were developed for Vahdah Olcott-Bickford, the well known classical guitar player and teacher. These guitar were made from the finest materials but were relatively plain in decoration, with no fingerboard inlays. A total […]

Martin Guitars

1938 Martin 000-45, Serial Number 69899

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Serial number 69899 was stamped on March 25, 1938 and cleared final inspection on October 27 that year. This guitar was once owned by Smiley Burnette who was Gene Austry’s sidekick in many western movies. Like all style 45 guitars it has thin abalone strips inlaid around the top, back and sides as well as […]

Martin Guitars

1945 Martin 000-28, Serial Number 90740

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Serial number 90740 was stamped on March 5, 1945 and cleared final inspection on June 6 that year. Martin appears to have received a supply of steel T-bar in early 1945 so unlike most wr-time Martin guitars this one has the steel T-bar neck reinforcement rather than the ebony bar. The T-bar didn’t last for […]

Martin Guitars

1929 Martin 00-45, Serial Number 38471

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Serial numbe 38471 was stamped on April 25, 1929 and cleared final inspection on August 27 that year. During March 1928 Martin slightly increased the thickness of guitars tops. Having been made after that date this guitar has the thicker top that makes it fully capable of accepting steel strings. Since it was made in […]

Martin Guitars

1930 Martin OM-28, Serial Number 45317

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Serial number 45317 was stamped on December 31, 1930 and cleared final inspection on February 21, 1931. Since it was made prior to March 1931 it retains the “small” pick guard and banjo tuners of the original OM guitars but has a belly bridge that became the norm in April 1930. Typical for style 28 […]