The long awaited Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe arrives in splendor
Regal and refined, extravagant and divine
Specs for D-45 Modern Deluxe include: All solid wood construction; Indian rosewood back and sides; Vintage Tone System torrefied Sitka spruce top with Golden Era scalloped, forward-shifted, VTS torrefied Adirondack spruce bracing attached with natural protein glue; composite bridge plate of carbon fiber/torrefied Adirondack spruce; Genuine mahogany neck with Vintage Deluxe profile, two-way adjustable titanium alloy support rod, hand-fitted dovetail neck joint and solid mahogany neck block; ebony fretboard with High Performance Taper, 1-3/4” width at nut, 2-1/8” at 12th fret, abalone fret position markers, EVO Gold frets, solid bone nut; ebony bridge with Liquidmetal bridge pins, compensated solid bone saddle and 2-5/32” string spacing; European flamed maple binding; high gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish on the body, satin neck finish; ebony headstock faceplate with polished gloss finish, 1920s-style torch inlay; golden Waverly open back tuners with butter bean knobs.
“The piano-like report of the fundamental notes is solid and immediate, igniting astonishing natural resonance. The voice is huge and rich but never muddy or harsh. Every inch of this guitar earns the right to be called the Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe.”
Gorgeous to the Eyes and Ears
The Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe is a premium level acoustic guitar made in the Dreadnought size, with a new and luxurious version of Martin’s top-of-the-line Style 45 that was designed exclusively for the Modern Deluxe Series, marrying revered Martin specifications from the 1930s with bold, tone-enhancing innovations of the twenty-first century.
The name Modern Deluxe was thought up to denote modern guitars engineered with cutting-edge technology and adorned with deluxe appointments. Such features are found on every Modern Deluxe model. But lovers of Martin guitars and especially lovers of the Modern Deluxe Series have all been waiting for the deluxest of them all, the D-45 Modern Deluxe, even if most of us will never be able to own one. For those who can, you will find the wait way more than worth it.
I say at times that a guitar sounds as good as it looks. Few guitars look as good as a D-45 Modern Deluxe when it comes to such a high level of Wow Factor, but the voice that leaps out of the prototype of this brand-new model exceeds all expectations by a long way.
The expansive resonance welling out the D-45 Modern Deluxe seems to defy physics. The sound chamber inside the dreadnought body appears far too small to contain such a three-dimensional tonal landscape of endless depths and wide open vistas. And yet, there is a precision to the clarity of each fundamental note from the strings. They remain distinct at all levels of attack, no matter how much warmth is conjured by the bass strings or how breathtaking are the harmonic overtones when they spread their wings and take flight, their plumage glinting like precious metals strewn with glittering gems. Impressive, to say the least.
Here is a surprisingly well-integrated voice for having such pronounced notes. The glistening overtones arise as a flawless extension of the fundamentals that trigger them, just as those clear fundamentals and radiant sympathetics remain unified with the echoing undertone that is as open and spacious as a cavern, yet aglow with ethereal, colorful tone. It all comes alive with effortless ease and remains harmonious from the gentlest picking pattern to the most ferocious chords.
Even the accidental thump of a hand on the soundboard is delightfully resonant and musical. Dare I say it, these are tonal attributes that I have rarely used for guitars that were not pre-war Martins. That being said, I would never mistake the sound of this guitar for a vintage Martin. The voice exhibits other intangible qualities unlike any other Martin, old or new. It is that amalgamation that makes the Modern Deluxe models so interesting and unusual, with a sound so unique yet so marvelously Martin at its heart.
The Deluxe Lover’s Deluxe
The Standard Series D-45 is the flagship of Martin’s fleet of legacy models that set the worldwide standard for professional-level acoustic guitars. The D-45 Modern Deluxe takes that level of luxury and craftsmanship to new heights.
Like the venerable D-45, this more modern and more deluxe younger sibling features solid tonewoods of the highest grade available. As with Style 41, the sound hole rosette and the edge of the soundboard is inlaid with high-color abalone pearl. Like Style 42, that dazzling abalone is inlaid out and around the top’s fingerboard extension that reaches almost to the sound hole. An area I like to call the fretinsula. But only Style 45 has the abalone shell with its kaleidoscope of glittering greens, and blues, and magentas, and ruby red, inlaid around every edge of the rosewood back and sides, including the decorative mitered box around the end pin. It is even inlaid where the heel of the solid mahogany neck attaches to the body.
The abalone and its wood fiber borders are expertly placed in a wide trench routed out where the top, back, and sides are joined together, making those thin solid wood plates even thinner right where they will transfer kinetic energy to each other. This makes the entire body vibrate with greater ease, increasing tonal complexity as the walls of the wooden sound chamber reverberate more than guitars that do not have similar routing along the edges of the back and sides.
As with the wood fiber purfling round the abalone inlay and the Style 45 back strip, the binding on the body and neck is made of European flamed maple, as is the heel cap and end pin box. Even the side dots on the neck binding are made of abalone. The overall affect of this guitar is stunning.
More abalone is inlaid on the fingerboard and headstock, with Modern Deluxe enhancements. The fingerboard has the classic snowflake pattern used for the D-45 from 1934 to 1938, and is seen on modern-day Style 42 instruments. But in this case each snowflake, diamond, and cat’s eye gracing the jet black ebony fingerboard is surrounded by a delicate border of argent white mother-of-pearl, making them extra-elegant.
The headstock has the shape of a 1930s D-45, but its face plate is polished ebony rather than rosewood. A gorgeous Style 45 torch inlay graces the headstock, with the same extra mother of pearl trim. Each torch is unique because it consists of a number of individual pieces of abalone shell, meticulously inlaid by hand, so the color variation and grain patterns in the torch are found only on that one guitar.
This torch design was used in the 1920s. The last model to receive it was the aptly named OM-45 Deluxe, of which just 11 were made, in 1930, including the one in the Martin Museum. That instrument has my all-time favorite vintage guitar neck shape. It is also the neck that inspired the Vintage Deluxe neck profile on all the Modern Deluxe models.
Vintage Deluxe Neck
Each vintage Martin neck shape is different from all others. But Martin OM necks from 1930 tend to have less mass than typical vintage Martins. The depth of the mahogany behind the fingerboard is shallower. They are also carved and sanded to be asymmetrical, so that the bass side where the thumb rests has more mass than the treble side where the fingers wrap around a faster slope to the reach frets. In addition, the apex does not run straight down the center of the neck, like modern necks. Rather, it drifts in a way that allows it to stay nestled in the nook of the palm where the “lifeline” is found. Like the old-timer, the Vintage Deluxe neck seems made for my hand at basically every position all the way up to where the neck meets the body.
While some vintage Martins are downright lopsided in how much more mass is on the bass side than the treble side, that OM-45 Deluxe neck is more subtle in its shaping. The asymmetrical nature of the Vintage Deluxe neck becomes noticeable only after it is pointed out to the guitarist.
Having recently played that 1930 OM-45 Deluxe and compared it directly to the D-45 Modern Deluxe, I was reminded of just how similar they are when it comes to the profile. There is only a hint of a V . It is basically non-existent in the first three frets, like many Martins from the late ‘20s and early ‘30s. It is nothing like the V necks on modern Martins from the now retired Vintage Series, Golden Era Series, or Marquis Series, in their girth or in having a V that stays prominent all the way to the headstock.
The major difference between the Vintage Deluxe neck and the neck that inspired it is how the Vintage Deluxe neck stays quite shallow all the way to the body. Partly this is to due the modern neck heel, which is smaller than a pre-war Martin heel. But the Vintage Deluxe neck remains shallow in the upper frets even by today’s standards, not unlike an electric guitar. I find it exceptionally comfortable.
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Ultra-Modern Extras
CEO C. F. Martin IV was adamant about continuing construction techniques that date back to the 1800s to protect and advance the family company’s legacy, thereby ensuring the exemplary qualities of traditional Martin tone. He also encouraged research and development that explores contemporary trends and new technologies that extend the possibilities of acoustic guitars.
Led by Tim Teel, Head of Instrument Design, Martin’s intrepid visionaries have spent years exploring advancements in design and engineering though various research and development projects. Some found their way onto special limited-edition Martin models from time to time, and some of those were incorporated into the Modern Deluxe Series.
Innovations that are visually noticeable include the bridge pins and the frets. EVO golden frets are made with a copper alloy enhanced with tin, iron, and titanium, rather than the nickel used for most musical instrument frets. Not only do they look lovely, they will also resist fret wear for years to come.
The Liquidmetal bridge pins have large abalone dots that match the abalone rosette. The pins themselves are rather other-worldly in appearance, like they came from a UFO or something. The are in fact made of an exotic if not alien type of glass.
Liquidmetal is the brand name of an amorphous metal alloy that hardens like glass, without losing its liquid molecular structure. Metal usually has a crystalline structure with weak points throughout its makeup. Liquidmetal’s molecular bonds have no weak points, making it much stronger than normal metals even when rendered very thin. This allows it to be used for all kinds of shapes and products. But it also has an unusual advantage when it comes to bridge pins, as Liquidmetal’s molecular structure has no effect on kinetic energy passing through it.
This means that the energy from guitar strings that ultimately gets converted into sound waves passes through the Liquidmetal bridge pins without any loss of energy or being altered in any discernible way. Having no damping effect from the pins results in increased volume and sustain for any guitar fitted with such pins.
When I say there is an increase in sustain, I am referring to the immediate fundamental note coming from any given string. It may only be for a fraction of a second, but once a note attains its peak volume it remains there longer than it would with other bridge pins. It is obvious how notes extend beyond the normal time when the resonating undertone and overtones well up and overtake the decaying fundamental notes. I have only encountered this phenomenon when Liquidmetal pins are in use.
Vintage Tone System
Another innovation that can be seen on the outside the D-45 Modern Deluxe is evident from the look of the spruce top. Martin’s proprietary torrefaction process is called the Vintage Tone System. Torrefied wood has been exposed to extremely high heat and pressure in an oxygen-free kiln, which prevents it from igniting and burning to charcoal. This changes the appearance of the wood, as certain substances in grain will darken so that random patterns appear that would not otherwise be noticeable. Martin is picking the most aesthetically pleasing VTS tops for the D-45 Modern Deluxe.
Torrefaction has been around since the Vikings used it to protect wood from severe weather and it was used to improve the tone of violins in the 1700s. Modern science has perfected the technique considerably where musical instruments are concerned.
The VTS process crystalizes the cellular interiors of a spruce soundboard until they appear under a microscope to be very similarly to spruce that has aged naturally over many years, even centuries. It also behaves like seasoned wood in how it effects kinetic energy. It makes a brand new guitar sound “opened up” or “broken in” the day it ships to the shop. Martin’s experiments in torrefaction have led them to pinpointing this accelerated aging to produce spruce soundboards that are similar to those on guitars from the 1930s, during what Martin calls their Golden Era.
This pro
cess was perfected for the Authentic Series of meticulous vintage Martin recreations. It has since been used for other species of spruce, including the Sitka spruce now used for the Modern Deluxe Series instruments. When it comes to Sitka, the VTS treatment also increases the chiming quality of the voice, which my ears hear as sounding more like Adirondack spruce, at least in that respect.
NOTE: Lutz spruce was introduced on Martin guitars midway into 2022 and is a natural hybrid of Sitka spruce and White spruce, found in the Pacific Northwest in the areas where both species intermingle. By all accounts it is virtually identical to Sitka in any important way. The two will be used interchangeably from now on.
I cannot claim that torrefaction will make a guitar sound exactly like a vintage guitar. But it does change the voice so that the three-dimensional quality to a brand-new guitar is extended and expanded until words like “openness” and “deep” are used in the same way as when describing the voice of a pre-war Martin.
What I can say is this: The piano-like report of the fundamental notes is solid and immediate, igniting astonishing natural resonance. The voice is huge and rich but never muddy or harsh. Every inch of this guitar earns the right to be called the Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe.
Modern Deluxe Series soundboards are braced with VTS Adirondack spruce that has Golden Era scalloping. This combination of a non-Adi VTS top with VTS Adi bracing has never before been used at Martin, let alone adding in the Golden Era carving that removes more wood from the braces than one finds on the Standard Series or most other Martins. It was developed for the old Golden Era Series of vintage-Martin-inspired models that existed before the Authentic Series. The purpose of GE bracing was achieving greater flexibility under nuanced playing while retaining strength under a heavier attack.
The top braces are attached with natural protein glue derived primarily from fish. Like old fashion hide glue, it provides superior joinery due to the glue seeping into the wood fibers and fusing the connections in ways that further facilitate energy transference that ends up as audible, beautiful tone.
There is no way to say exactly what impact any individual enhancement has on tone. But this kind of top with this kind of bracing will create a specific flexibility and responsiveness to kinetic energy unlike anything else in the Martin line. It plays its significant part in the marvelously alive, defined, and multicolored aural celebration that comes out of a D-45 Modern Deluxe.
Technological Upgrades
The Modern Deluxe models all come with a composite bridge plate made from a thin piece of VTS Adirondack spruce secured between two very thin plates of carbon fiber. The carbon fiber protects the wood from the ravages of the ball ends of the strings, which try to rip it to shreds with some 160 pounds of string tension brought to bear throughout the life of the guitar. Sound lab tests show this innovative bridge plate increases volume. The spruce shares the same sort of accelerated aging as the top and braces, likewise insuring tone found nowhere but the Modern Deluxe Series.
For all its futuristic upgrades, the D-45 Modern Deluxe still maintains direct connections to vintage Martins while tweaking the vintage specs with an intelligent use of modernity. The EVO golden frets are set off by golden Waverly brand tuning machines that have open gears that look like vintage tuners. At one end of the neck, the classic C. F. Martin & Co. stamp is pressed into the back of the headstock, like a Martin made before they started using headstock logos in 1931. At the other end is the modern neck heel that helps keep the Vintage Deluxe profile so low and comfortable. Inside the neck is the two-way adjustable titanium alloy rod for advanced stability. Those glorious abalone inlays are even more breathtaking thanks to the intricate bordering that sets pearly Modern Deluxe models apart from other elite Martins. Then there is the playability that is unique the Modern Deluxe Series, and the excellent tone that is only heard from the D-45 Modern Deluxe, which for all its visual splendor is the strongest selling point of all.
And that is one man’s word on…
The Martin D-45 Modern Deluxe
$10,499.00
More Photos HERE
Additional Reading
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Official D-45 Modern Deluxe Spec Sheet Here