A beautiful sounding, nearly crack-free early 1934 Martin 00-17, with perfect action and excellent playability. They don't come much better than this one in just about every way.

Neck reset, new bar frets, new fossil ivory nut and saddle, and replacement Waverly tuners care of our shop in 2012. There’s some wear to the frets now, but the balance of the repairs are as perfect as they were when first completed. Original finish throughout, no other repairs or modifications other than a clean B string pickguard crack repair. Neck finish is playworn up to the 5th fret, body finish shows fairly modest wear.

This guitar was built with bar frets and is within 500 instruments of Martin's change to T frets in the fall of 1934. As such, the instrument's neck is reinforced with ebony (rather than with a steel T-bar), which helps keep the guitar light in weight and rich in overtones. It has a voice that's much more sophisticated than most 17 series instruments that we've played; with a rich darkness that's perfectly highlighted by that classic mahogany tinge in the upper mid-range. Very open and responsive.

Unbound mahogany body, scalloped bracing, tiny maple bridge plate. Brazilian rosewood rectangle bridge with glued-in through-cut saddle and original pins spaced at 2-3/8". Attractive tortoise-celluloid pickguard, simple rosette. Mahogany neck with an oval profile that tapers to a soft V by the 5th fret; rosewood fingerboard with ivoroid dot markers, 24.9" scale, 1-3/4" width at the nut and a first fret depth of .854”. Rosewood headstock overlay with C.F. Martin & Co decal; no stamp on the backside of the headstock.

A gem of a guitar, and among the nicest 00-sized 14 fret bar-fretted Martins we've seen in some time.

With original chipboard case.