James Taylor’s Vintage Martin Recreated as the D-18 Authentic 1937
New for 2022, with a true 1937 body shape
D-18 Authentic 1937 specs include: All-solid tonewoods with hot hide glue construction; tropical American mahogany back and sides; Vintage Tone System torrefied Adirondack spruce top with scalloped, forward-shifted VTS Adirondack spruce bracing, pre-war style tucked tone bars and tucked maple bridge plate; one-piece mahogany neck with a hand-fitted dovetail neck joint and steel T-bar reinforcement, 1937 V shaping unique to this model, T-bar neck reinforcement; 1-3/4″ width at the bone nut and 2-1/4″ string spacing at the long, glued-in bone saddle; ebony fingerboard with vintage thickness; ebony 1930s-style belly bridge; ebony bridge pins; faux tortoise body binding and pickguard; Madagascar rosewood headstock face plate and back strip; open-back Waverly tuning machines; Martin’s Authentic Series thin finish in Vintage Gloss sheen on the body and the neck.
“This D-18 Authentic 1937 is a thoroughbred guitar with the kind of pop and agile responsiveness that Bluegrass flatpickers seek, and the streamlined clarity and dynamics that recording engineers love. It sings with classic Martin mahogany tone enhanced by genuine pre-war style bracing.”
Worth the Wait
The Martin D-18 Authentic 1937 is a Dreadnought size flat top acoustic guitar made in vintage Style 18 for Martin’s Authentic Series, based closely on a single 1937 D-18 previously owned by singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Acquired by the Martin Museum, the all-original condition mahogany dreadnought was examined in minute detail with the goal of recreating it as closely as possible. The resulting model has taken its place in the lofty Authentic Series. In one important respect this new guitar is even more authentic than any of its predecessors.
Historically Accurate Body Shape
This latest Authentic Series model features a new size D body shape that is copied directly from vintage 1937 instruments. From the moment the very first Martin was released with the word Authentic in its name, vintage Martin enthusiasts decried the use of the modern silhouette. After all, Martin went to great lengths to reintroduce 1930s building techniques, like hot hide glue joinery, labor-intensive tucked bracing, and vintage neck architecture and shaping. Why would they ignore the fact the body shape had evolved gradually over time rather than returning to the original shape? The answer remains a mystery.
At long last, Martin has indeed returned to an accurate 1937 shape for this new model and the newly revised D-28 Authentic 1937. This tracing provided by a friend at Martin shows just how subtle the differences are. But when looking at the actual instrument, the difference is immediately noticeable. These new dreadnoughts could easily be mistaken for 85-year-old instruments when seen from the front row of a concert stage.
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To my eye, it appears that the upper bout tapers faster where the sides narrow from the shoulders toward the waist of the body. It looks trimmer if not slimmer. Conversely, the sides widen sooner as the waist transitions into the lower bout. According to Tim Teel, Martin’s Head of Instrument Design, these two changes counter one another, so that the sound chamber should have the same cubic space or be very close to it.
That being said, the phenomenal physics involved with sound waves reflecting and amplifying within a wooden sound chamber of an acoustic guitar suggests that this change may have some influence on tone production. Martin will never make such claims and Teel is skeptical at best about such things. But the production prototype that I played certainly sounded impressive and ranks among the truly elite acoustic guitars available today.
Clean Clear Chimes
The voice is clean and clear, dry and woody, with wonderful articulation no matter how hard the guitar is played. It has a powerful bottom end that is muscular, but lean, like an athlete in peak condition. Punchy midrange fundamentals trigger effortless sustain. Pure treble notes meld into pure harmonics that rocket out of the sound hole. This D-18 Authentic 1937 is a thoroughbred guitar with the kind of pop and agile responsiveness that Bluegrass flatpickers seek, and the streamlined clarity and dynamics that recording engineers love. It sings with classic Martin mahogany tone enhanced by genuine pre-war style bracing.
Like other Authentic Series instruments, the soundboard is made from Adirondack spruce treated with Martin’s Vintage Tone System of proprietary torrefaction. The spruce of the top and braces are heat-treated until the cellular interiors crystalize to the point that the wood takes on the physical properties of spruce that dried out naturally for some 80 years. This increases the sonic chime in the tone and adds a three-dimensionality to the voice that makes it sound “broken in” on the day it is strung up for the first time.
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The bracing on this model is identical to the bracing on the actual 1937 D-18. It is referred to as tucked bracing because the ends of the main X brace are tucked into the cedar kerfing that provides a narrow shelf for the spruce top to rest upon. The maple bridge plate is longer than on modern Martins, so the lower struts of the X brace sit on top of it, with the plate fitting into notches carved into the underside of struts. The dual tone bars that stretch across the lower bout are likewise tucked into the treble side strut of the X brace.
This tucking technique is labor-intensive but provides superior transference of the physical energy passing from the strings to the bridge plate and throughout the top’s bracing. The braces and tone bars are meticulously shaped by hand and to a greater extent than all other modern-day Martins, again, mimicking the carving that appears on the specific vintage Martin that a particular Authentic model is based on. And everything is secured with traditional hot hide glue that improves the tone-creating energy transference more and more as the guitar ages.
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About Time Too
The announcement of the D-18 Authentic 1937 delighted a great many people. Its rosewood counterpart, the D-28 Authentic 1937 had been a smash hit since the Authentic Series debuted in 2013. But the D-18 Authentic that came out that year was based on a vintage 1939 guitar, with rear-shifted bracing and a neck that had a 1-11/16” width at nut, along with a rather pointy V neck profile, and 2-1/8” string spacing.
The D-18 Authentic 1939 remains available from the Custom Shop and sells well. But many people would have preferred the forward-shifted bracing and wider 1-3/4” neck and string spacing that came with the D-28. In fact, the first Martin dubbed “Authentic” was a D-18 with those desirable 1937 specs, made in small numbers between 2005 and 2012.
The Authentics in that early period were not replicas of specific vintage instruments, however, but rather approximated the building techniques of the pre-war period. Now we have a D-18 Authentic 1937 with the latest advances in vintage Martin precise replication with the forward-shifted bracing position. And there was much rejoicing – Yea!
I was allowed to play this new model side by side with JT’s old Martin. They did an excellent job in creating a new guitar that feels like the real McCoy. They do not sound exactly alike, but the Authentic Series version sounds fantastic in its own right, with plenty of old-timey Martin mojo.
The neck on the Authentic is also not exactly the same as the original, but both are fuller in the hand than any other Martin Authentic model I have played, except the D-45S Authentic 1936. There is a certain plumpness to the cheeks, where the thumb and fingers curve around to reach the fingerboard, which the neck on the D-28 Authentic 1937 does not have. But likeh all Authentic neck shapes, some people will love it and others will find it worth the effort to have such a close encounter with a time machine Martin from one the most desirable years in the company’s long history.
Another unique aspect is the string spacing of 2-1/4” from the center of the low E bridge pin to the center of the high E bridge pin. The D-28 version has 2-5/16” spacing. Just another reminder that these models are replicating as many details about one specific vintage Martin as possible.
This new D-18 Authentic 1937 is not yet available in the Aged edition, with cosmetic distressing to resemble decades of lovingly played-in wear and the occasional ding, scrape, and pick wear. But it will be eventually.
And that is one man’s word on…
The Martin D-18 Authentic 1937
$6,299.00
Official D-18 Authentic 1937 Spec Sheet Here