Designed to capture the legendary tone of a golden-era original, the Martin D-18 Authentic 1937 features forward-shifted, scalloped bracing, a VTS Adirondack spruce top, and full hide-glue construction. If you are looking for the explosive power, massive headroom, and focused midrange of a true pre-war mahogany dreadnought, nothing comes closer than this. It is an absolute powerhouse of a flat-picker that will leave most other modern guitars in its wake.

This particular instrument was built in 2023 and comes to us pre-owned in excellent condition. It remains structurally perfect and features a K&K Pure Mini pickup professionally installed here at Folkway. Cosmetically, the guitar is incredibly clean with the exception of some minor, hard-to-see finish damage from an aerosol spray, which left tiny, faint droplet marks on the lacquer on the top's lower treble bout. The original frets are near-perfect, showing only a touch of light, localized wear under the B and E strings within the first three frets.

True to its 1937 blueprint, this model is built with a vintage-accurate T-bar neck reinforcement, an Authentic-profile neck carve, and a thin, low-gloss lacquer finish. High-end appointments include Waverly tuning machines, a bone nut, a through-cut saddle, tortoise-celluloid bindings, and a period-correct under-the-finish pickguard.

The soft-V mahogany neck measures 1-3/4” at the nut, with a comfortable depth of .875” at the 1st fret. The traditional 25.4” scale length terminates at an ebony bridge with a generous 2-5/16” string spacing. It has been freshly set up in our shop with medium-gauge (13-56) strings and medium action, maximizing its perfect blend of low-end articulation, midrange throttle, and round, sweet trebles.

With original Authentic series hardshell case and hang tag.