April 28, 2024

Tag: D-18

Acoustic Guitars / NAMM

More New 2018 Martins Announced!

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Martin D-45 models and a new Authentic make the cut among the 2018 Martins

Doesn’t look like anything from the lists I saw were put off til Summer. So there’s LOTS of new Martin videos soon!

Check back to see and hear these and all the new Martins starting next week!

In the meantime, there is a sneak preview of this soon to be released …

Martin 000C-21 TSP T Spoon Phillips Custom Artist-Dealer collaboration, which will be officially announced on January 25.

D SS-2018 NAMM Show Special

A 12-fret dreadnought with the High Performance neck! Ultralight build with Adirondack spruce over Big Leaf mahogany with hide glue construction, light-weight carbon fiber used for the pickguard, and in composite with torrefied Adirondack spruce for the bridge plate! As well as lightweight tuners and fabulous Liquidmetal® bridge pins that for the first time have lost their chrome appearance and look like bone. 

martin-d-42-purple-martin_f_new
click to enlarge

D-42 Purple Martin third edition:

OK the previous two were done in similar Style 41. This one has the Style 42 pearl around the fretboard extension. Gorgeous inlays grace this stunning guitar made from highly figured katalox from the American tropics, which is harder than ebony, and heavily-bear clawed Engelmann spruce for the top!

D-45 Fire and Ice:

Figured Engelmann spruce over Madagascar rosewood, with outrageous inlays by the one and only Harvey Leach that have an ice dragon on the headstock and a phoenix rising up the fretboard

D-45S Authentic 1936 Aged:

Martin’s new cosmetic aging process is applied to the second edition of a D-45 Authentic that appeared the first year of the Authentic Series, which has an wider-than normal body and a honking huge neck, now with aged Adirondack spruce thanks to Martin’s Vintage Tone System, which wasn’t yet developed the first time around.

D-18 Authentic 1939 Aged:

Like the 45 above, this D-18 Authentic with its classic mahogany and Adirondack build has the new cosmetic aging and will be “aged” one guitar at a time.

00-17 Authentic 1931:

My mouth has watered for this model since I saw it on a list at Martin some time ago. And now I understand the wait, as it introduces torrefied Vintage Tone System mahogany to the Authentic Series!

OME Cherry FSC Certified Woods

Made entirely from woods certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council promoting responsible management of our precious natural resources, this Orchestra Model with on-board Electronics combines American cherry back and sides with a Sitka spruce top and European spruce bracing.

These are in addition to the D-45 John Mayer model and the forest of newly revised Standard Series Martins, see the links below!

 

Acoustic Guitars / Review

Martin D-18 Jason Isbell Review

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With aged Adirondack Over Mighty Mahogany, the D-18 Jason Isbell is more stallion than workhorse

As unpretentious and as powerful as the songs of its namesake.

Specs Include: Solid tonewoods with extra-thin high gloss nitrocellulose finish, including mahogany back and sides, torrefied Adirondack spruce top; 5/16” rear-shifted Adirondack spruce braces with Golden Era style scalloping; satin finished one-piece mahogany neck with 1939 profile, two-way adjustable truss rod, and ebony fingerboard with 1-11/16” width at the bone nut, 2-1/8” at the 12th fret; ebony pyramid bridge with 2-1/8” string spacing at the drop-in compensated bone saddle; custom tattoo fretboard inlay; Ditson style rosette; black binding; Schaller open-back tuners with “clover” buttons; Fishman Infinity Matrix electronics; signed interior label

“Simply put, this guitar sounds huge. Explosive chords burst into the room with near-concussive waves of power and punch, and relaxed, expressive picking lights up an expansive tonal chamber, as if by ballroom chandeliers.”

D-18 Jason Isbel Ditson tatoo inlay
Full Review with Video Here

Acoustic Guitars

Chris Eldridge and Julian Lage – Cool Video

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The Bone Collector by Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge

Mahogany Martins with Adirondack red spruce tops, a 1937  D-18 and a 1939 000-18

While the music speaks for itself, you may want to read more about these two excellent artists, who traveled very different routes to reach the pinnacle of critical acclaim, and are now weaving their different styles into the same music, by checking out this article that was published at the New Yorker, on my birthday, which is probably why I didn’t see it until now.

Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge and Their New Record, “Mount Royal”

Acoustic Guitars / Personalities

The Lost D-18 of Janis Ian

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Love, loss, and faith renewed, as only Janis Ian can render

A touching tale from a brilliant storyteller

Over drinks this weekend, a friend showed surprise when he found out that I had not heard the story of Janis Ian’s lost Martin D-18.

So, he sent a link to the story as published in Songwriter Magazine, now available on her own website.

I happened to visiting my mom when I received the link. For the benefit of my mother’s aged eyesight, I read this story aloud. When I looked up at the end, tears were streaming down my her cheeks and she was sniffling and laughing at her own outpouring of emotion.

But then, emotional impact is something Janis Ian has been providing the general public since she was a teenager, through such songs as “Society’s Child” and “At 17.”

So, do yourself a favor and check this out!

On Guitars & Righteous Men by Janis Ian

Acoustic Guitars / Review

Our Martin D-18 Authentic 1939 Review

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The Classic Mahogany Dreadnought Explored:
Our D-18 Authentic 1939 Review

The time machine Martin closest of all to the priceless pre-war instrument sought after by so many.

The light build on this mahogany/Adirondack is reinforced by rear-shifted braces, with the main X brace placed a bit farther back than on modern Martins. This helps add to the openness of the voice, and reduces the rumble in the bass, so the bottom notes retain great definition while the highs have all the cutting power a Bluegrass flatpicker could hope for.

Whether you are listening to Brownie McGhee singing the Blues, or Kris Kristofferson singing about Bobby McGee singing the Blues, you are hearing a D-18 laying down the rhythm. The folk music of Simon and Garfunkel, Donovan, and Gordon Lightfoot featured the D-18, as did the Rock n Roll of Elvis Presley, Jerry Garcia, and Kurt Cobain. And when it came to Mountain Music, Old Time, and Bluegrass, the D-18 has reigned supreme, especially among the hot-handed pickers.

And no D-18 yet is as like to taking a time machine to the 1930s and buying one, days after the glue has dried.

Read the full D-18 Authentic 1939

Martin D-18 Authentic 1939 review
photo: R. Dennie