1987 Martin Custom Shop M38 - Solid Quartered Brazilian Rosewood - One of a Kind!

In late 1986/early 1987, our customer contacted the Martin & Co. factory about having his favorite M36 serviced. The kind folks at Martin told him he could come north, have his guitar adjusted, get a tour of the factory and see the guitars. Our customer flew his own Cessna airplane from Maryland to the Martin factory in Pennsylvania, got his tour, saw the guitars, and was getting ready to leave when the gentleman who ran Martin's 1833 Shop came out and suggested he give our customer a lift back to the airport where he'd parked his Cessna.

At the airport, the shop manager asked our customer if he had some time to take him up in his plane so that the shop manager could see the scope of his farm from the air. Our customer took him up, showed the shop manager his acres, and was offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance to have his dream guitar built as an appreciatory gift.

Our customer knew the key design elements that made iconic Martin guitars iconic, and wanted to create something that simply didn't exist at that time in any sort of production capacity, and hasn't to this day.

This a very special, one-of-a-kind guitar. One owner, low miles, condition would be, conservatively, 8.5 or 9 out of 10. Made of absolutely stunning solid quartered Brazilian rosewood and Sitka spruce, the body is a non-traditional M38 (0000), and appointments include an ebony fingerboard, '45-Style snowflake abalone fingerboard inlays, abalone rosette, low profile neck, tortoise pickguard and brown herringbone top body binding.

Guitar plays and sounds like you'd imagine.

The only things non-original on this guitar are the tuning machine buttons, which have been replaced with ebony (original chrome included).

There are some very faint imperfections from standard use, which we've done our best to document here in above photos 40-44. #40 shows a small headstock nick, #41-#43 show a few very light impressions across the top (tough to photograph), and #44 shows a series of small impressions (pin size) on the bass side of the neck that do not affect playability and are imperceptible to the touch. 

Also included in the sale are several Polaroids of the guitar's construction, the original registration card for the guitar, the original C.F. Martin & Co. insurance appraisal dated 7/30/87, as well as an additional appraisal from 5th String Music in Sacramento, California, dated 10/1/97, appraising the guitar at $15000. Original Martin case included.

This guitar is on consignment and available for local pickup only. If you are interested in coming to our shop to play this guitar, please call us to make arrangements. Watermelon Music is an independently-owned brick and mortar store located in beautiful downtown Davis, California, and we'd be more than happy to cover your return airfare to anywhere in the continental US should you come to our shop and purchase this instrument.

We will not, under any circumstance, be shipping this guitar.

Please do not hesitate to inquire about this truly one of a kind instrument.