Martin 00-17 1945

Description

This is an excellent example of a vintage Martin 00-17 from 1945. These '45's are unique in that they have a tapered bracing pattern that isn't seen in any other year from Martin, and gives them a different sound than the scallop braced guitars that preceded them, and the straight braced guitars that followed. It gives this 00-17 an even punchier tone than most vintage all mahogany guitars already have, along with great trebles and a surprising amount of bass. Other than the sound, the best thing about this guitar is the neck - nice and chunky with a slight V that becomes more pronounced as you move up the neck. With a 1 11/16" nut width, it's extremely comfortable to play.
The guitar is in excellent shape and needs absolutely no work, though it has had a bit of work done and is far from completely original. The top was refinished at some point prior to my owning it, it appears it's some sort of oil finish as it gives the top a very satin look - similar to what you'd see on the current 15 series guitars. The back and sides retain the original finish. The tuners are period correct, though I'm not sure if they are original to the guitar. The A string tuner specifically looks much cleaner than the others, so I'm guessing it was a replacement at some point.
When I received the guitar, it had the original bridge but it had been shaved down to a point where it was unstable. I sent it to master luthier Dennis Berck, who fabricated a replica bridge (at full height) with Brazilian Rosewood that is indistinguishable from the original, other than the wood of this BR being slightly darker. He also reset the neck to match the new bridge height, and installed a K&K Pure Mini pickup. There is a repaired crack on the top of the guitar below the bridge that runs to the edge of the soundboard, it has been extremely well repaired and blends in well. There also have been a couple repairs near the endpin jack that were well done and are solid. It was refretted in the last couple years with vintage correct wire so the frets have tons of life left.
Being from 1945, it has some wartime features such as an ebony truss rod instead of a steel t-bar, and doesn't have any bushings around the tuners at the headstock. Other than that (and the aforementioned unique bracing), this guitar conforms to the specs of a typical 00-17. Action is 3/32" at the 12th fret and due to the recent neck reset, the saddle has plenty of room to come down in the future. Comes with a non-original hard case.