Hold CTRL and press "+" or "-" to increase or decrease page size

1904 Martin 0-21 Rehabilitation -SOLD

New hard shell Case included.

Action is 3/16 inch at 12th fret. This little gem is a joy to play.

Neck was reset.

For a small body guitar this sounds very nice. It’s not a dreadnought, but then we don’t expect it to be. Harmonic overtones are excellent.

This was originally constructed as a low tension gut string guitar, even though it had x-bracing and a pin bridge. For that reason it was built like a humming bird. No way was this intended for steel strings as originally built. The original braces were less than 1/4 inch thick. The bridge plate (AKA reinforcing plate) was paper thin. We received it with very old light gauge (12s) steel strings. Sadly it was badly damaged. The original X-bracing was cracked on all four sides of the X. It is a miracle that the top was not ripped right out of the guitar. All is stable now. We fixed all problems comprehensively. So now you can string it with extra light gauge steel strings, or gut strings if you can find a set. Modern nylon strings probably won’t fit the pin holes.

New Parts

Braces - Only the X-braces were replaced. We installed full 1/4 wide inch X-bracing and 1/32 inch higher. All other braces are original.
Reinforcing plate (AKA bridge plate) - 3/32 inch thick rock maple 1/4 inch wider than the original.
Bridge - premium solid ebony exactly matching the 1904 original.
Saddle - vintage bone
Nut - vintage bone
Pin set - Ebony with MOP dot. (The original hand made ebony pins were glued in place so we could not save them.)

Original Parts

Top - Solid spruce with touched up original shellac finish.
Back and sides - Rosewood refinished with lacquer.
Frets - bar frets in very good condition and plenty high. We only had to dress one fret to eliminate all fret buzzing with very low action. I don’t think this guitar was played very much. My guess is it was a pain to string a pin bridge with gut strings.
Tuners - These work OK. They appear to be original judging from many other 0-21 images I have seen. No way to establish proof positive. I should stress these work OK, but are not as good as a new set. There is some play in the action. I was able to tune perfectly, however.
Neck - good condition straight solid cedar with ornate scarf joint between gear head and neck. I have built a thousand complex furniture joints by hand and by machine. I cannot image how they built that joint and made any money selling the guitar. Now that is craftsmanship.
Neck has original finish.
Fret board - Solid premium ebony
End pin - 1904 original hand made.

Problems

The top finish is slightly blotchy. Other repair people may have messed with it, but we did not.

Except for several cracks at the edges of the top there are -- miraculously -- no cracks.

There are at least 4 cracks in the sides. These are comprehensively aligned and stabilized.

There are at least 3 long cracks in the back. These are comprehensively aligned and stabilized.

Neck has some wood replaced at the heel and a new ebony heel cap.

Warranty Statement Shipping Details

MOONLIGHTLUTHIERS - Have Pick Will Travel