Martin Custom Shop | North Street Edition D-18 Sinker Mahogany

This wonderful guitar belongs to a collection of awesome Custom Shop-built models inspired by the much revered pre-war 'Golden Era' classics that were made in the 1930s at the old C.F. Martin factory in North Street, Nazareth. The Martin Custom Shop builds incredibly fine guitars, amongst the best in the world. As well as pioneering new technology, they also use time-honoured techniques from the earliest days of their heritage onwards. For the North Street Edition guitars, they have combined the finest available tonewoods, used exclusively for Custom Shop models, with meticulous hand-craftsmanship to pay homage to the coveted tone, special features and beautiful looks of the 'Golden Era'.

A standard feature on certain Martins at the time was a Herringbone top inlay. This fine and delicate choice was put a stop to when war restrictions made the German-manufactured material unavailable. This had a long-lasting effect, as it was not used again by Martin in regular production until the mid-seventies. Once the American supply ran out, around 1947, Martin changed the design. Vintage Herringbone Martins go for a high price due to this fact.

As well as having gorgeous Herringbone inlay, this guitar also features a Black Ebony fingerboard, light ageing toner (with a tinted rosette) and an old-style gold headplate decals. Modern functionality has been added with an adjustable truss rod and a modern, modified low-oval neck profile.

To help capture not only the visual beauty but also the tonal heaven of the Golden Era, Martin have used Adirondack Spruce tops (as opposed to Sitka) and Golden Era X-bracing. Adirondack offers lots of volume and can be pushed hard whilst staying clear and crisp. The Golden Era X-bracing is also made of Adirondack - 1/4" thick but then carefully hand-shaped and scalloped for tonal bliss. This style of bracing was used until around 1945. It is lighter in mass and allows the top to vibrate freely, with extra bass produced. It was stopped as people were using high-gauge strings and Martin wanted to combat the extra-tension this gave to their lightly built guitars by giving extra stiffness to the top braces.

This classic Style-18 guitar has Sinker Mahogany back and sides - meaning the wood is literally centuries old! These Sinker Mahogany log slay on the riverbed of Belize for hundreds of years. This imparts minerals and attributes which create a tonewood like no other. Darker and denser, it can be likened to the old-growth mahogany that would have been used to create the Golden Era Style-18 models of the thirties.

This impressive range is exclusive to the UK and Ireland, so it really is something special. As such, it comes with lovely Custom Shop UK Case Candy. Adding to the value and experience, the ownership documents are contained in a high quality, tooled and embossed leather folder, handmade in Scotland. The serial is presented on luxurious, heavyweight letterpress card embossed with gold leaf, while the full Custom Shop spec is provided on branded craft paper. The guitar itself also features an internal Custom Shop label. What a treat.

To protect this inspiring acoustic, a 5-ply Geib hard case is provided, which gives heavy-duty protection and a great, timeless aesthetic. The case eliminates movement in transit, has a padded handle for comfort and a generous internal pocket for accessories such as a tuner, capo and picks.