This 2005 Martin D-18GE is a consummate bluegrass guitar that is being offered at a lower price compared to most other Golden Eras (due to a side repair)! Check out the included demo video.

These D-18GEs are a pretty incredible value – they are loud, powerful, sweet, and deep-sounding, thanks in part to their Adirondack spruce tops and prewar specs (scalloped braces, 1 ¾” nut width, 2 5/16” string spacing at the saddle), and yet their market value isn’t too different from a standard-line D-18. This particular guitar also plays perfectly thanks to a recent PLEK scan and setup (including fret dress) by Glaser Instruments here in Nashville. Aside from the repair (described below), it looks to have been very lightly used over the last 20 years; from most angles, you might think it was a new guitar! Upon closer examination, it does have light surface crazing here and there as well as a few very minor dings, but overall most of the surface is in excellent shape.

In addition to the PLEK, Glaser also reglued the bridge and tidied up a “side crunch” repair (near the endpin) that the guitar suffered at some point in its life. It’s not an endpin crack, but it did take a hit of some sort (see photos) that required some glue work and an internal cleat. Given the nature of the thwack it took, the repair actually looks pretty good and is structurally stable.

Asking $2,900 here on Reverb (slightly lower on other forums) plus shipping for this great D-18GE! Comes in its original hardshell case.