By 1975, Martin had strayed somewhat from their extremely well guarded path, thanks to overzealous new CEOS and some misspending along the way, and took a bit of a “let’s make as many guitars as possible and never have them come in for repair” path to building that lead to many guitars in the 1970’s being extremely overbuilt, with a huge rosewood bridge plate and misaligned, oversized bridges.

This 1975 D-18 suffers, thankfully, from none of the issues 70’s guitars normally have, and, as you can see, is maybe the cleanest vintage Martin we’ve ever had, and one of the better sounding 70’s Martins as well. This guitar is a case queen only visually though, as it’s been loved and played since it was bought originally, with the owner having gone as far as shaving the bridge for better playability (a job done fantastically, there’s barely a mark around the bridge to show for it) and keeping it without tension in the case, leading to a much better neck angle than these normally have.

The Sitka top is immaculate, with only one tiny pickguard crack starting to form, and the African mahogany back and sides are equally as clean, though there is a slight streaked discoloration on the back commonly found from being kept in the case for a long time.

This guitar plays great thanks to the 1 11/16 nut and small-ish C profile, and has a great, open sound associated with the D-18.

Comes with the original 70’s blue hard shell case.