{"id":125671,"date":"2021-10-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=125671"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:08:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T03:08:40","slug":"1943-martin-000-18-acoustic-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/1943-martin-000-18-acoustic-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: A Pristine 1943 Martin 000-18 with a Fascinating History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aside from being a vintage Martin from a sought-after era, the 1943 000-18 that sold in Acoustic Guitar<\/em>\u2019s May 2021 auction<\/a> came with a story that was too good not to share. The instrument\u2019s first owner was Lorenzo Monzo, a Spanish immigrant to Monterey, California. Monzo was a regular performer along that city\u2019s famed Cannery Row, and in 1943 he received the 000-18 as a gift from his wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1943<\/a>
This 1943 Martin 000-18 acoustic guitar sold in <\/em>Acoustic Guitar‘s May 2021 auction<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Decades after Monzo\u2019s 1956 passing, his daughter showed the guitar to her physician, Alexander Holmes, an amateur musician in Monterey. When he opened the chipboard case, he was surprised to find not just the guitar in pristine condition but also artifacts like a blow-horn pitch pipe and an Anacin aspirin tin containing abalone guitar picks Monzo had apparently fashioned by hand. After an appraisal, Holmes purchased the guitar and kept it until the sale earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like other Martins built between 1942 and 1945, this example\u2019s neck has an ebony support block instead of a steel T-bar. Wartime steel shortages meant that the guitar maker had to drop the T-bar, which had been in use since 1934, for a rectangular ebony rod. As a result, the Martins from this era are known for being very lightweight and responsive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the digital gavel dropped, the auction\u2019s winner was Jay Shapiro, a longtime AG<\/em> reader who had been looking for an unaltered prewar or wartime Martin. As the third owner of serial number 84603, Shapiro acknowledges that one of the things that appealed to him most was the instrument\u2019s condition. \u201cIt\u2019s been refretted, but it\u2019s immaculate,\u201d he says, adding that he loves the mahogany guitar\u2019s direct and unintrusive sound. It\u2019s always great to hear about fine guitars still turning up, and when they\u2019re in excellent condition it makes one hopeful that a chance encounter might someday lead to a guitar as special as this 000-18. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n


<\/a>\n

This article originally appeared in the November\/December 2021<\/a> issue of Acoustic Guitar<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n<\/div>
\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This 1943 Martin 000-18 was originally a gift to a Spanish immigrant to Monterey, California, who was a regular performer along the famed Cannery Row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":125587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"This 1943 Martin 000-18 was originally a gift to a Spanish immigrant to Monterey, California, who was a regular performer along the famed Cannery Row.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1146],"tags":[524,110,1356],"ppma_author":[1556],"class_list":["post-125671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vintage-and-collectible-guitars","tag-great-acoustics","tag-martin","tag-november-december-2021","post_format-post-format-video"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/331_GREAT_ACOUSTICS_MARTIN_000-18.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","authors":[{"term_id":1556,"user_id":12,"is_guest":0,"slug":"greg-olwellstringletter-com","display_name":"Greg Olwell","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5e8dada80c5c5ebffe48b5a4cfd35f33?s=96&d=mm&r=g","user_url":"","last_name":"Olwell","first_name":"Greg","job_title":"","description":"Greg Olwell is Acoustic Guitar<\/i>'s editor-at-large. He plays upright bass in several bands in the San Francisco Bay Area and also enjoys playing ukulele and guitar."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125671"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139112,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125671\/revisions\/139112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125671"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=125671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}