Custom ordered by Folkway Music about a decade back, this one-off, vintage-inspired 12-fret 000-42 is nothing short of heavenly. The guitar started as a set of Madagascar rosewood that we hand-picked at the 2013 NAMM show – it was the most perfectly quartersawn set from the batch that Martin brought to display at the show that year, and some of the finest Madagascar rosewood we had ever seen. And it was perfect for a pre-war-styled pearly Martin.

We spec’d this 000-12 with an Adirondack red spruce top and matching scalloped braces, hide glue, and Style 42 ornamentation. The top and fingerboard are bordered with hand mitred abalone inlays and ivoroid bindings, the pearl trim extends to the abalone pearl rosette, and old style 42 fingerboard inlays. Ivoroid-bound headstock and fingerboard, ebony pyramid bridge with drop-in bone saddle, CF Martin headstock logo, bone nut and compensated saddle, abalone dot bridge pins, and Waverly tuners finish off the guitar tastefully.

The neck has an early 1930's carve with a nut width of 1-3/4, a perfectly round C profile, and a scale length of 25.4”. The neck depth at the 1st fret measures .827”, and string spread at the saddle is 2-1/4”. It's an exceptionally comfortable instrument to play and hold.

A very open and rich guitar with tremendous complexity, overtones, and a very strong fundamental. It's a guitar with excellent subtlety and great power, and one that would find appeal with both flatpickers and fingerstyle players. And after nearly 10 years it still looks great. We’ve just reglued the binding at the body waists - as has become the norm for Martin guitars built between 2012 and 2017 - and we’ve freshened up the set-up, too.

With deluxe Geib-style hard shell case