1968 Martin D-45 | CME Vintage Demo | Nathaniel Murphy

When it’s rare to Daniel, you know it’s rare. Our Vintage Product Manager and Head Buyer details this D-45, an ornate 1968 Martin from the model’s first year of production following a 25-year hiatus, and the “holy grail” of dreadnoughts. Shop this and other historic Martin acoustics today.

The first D-45 was a dreadnought guitar based on the Martin D-28 with luxury ornamentation (the "45" designation), made especially for Gene Autry who, in 1933, ordered "the biggest, fanciest Martin he could." This guitar is now encased in glass in the Gene Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California. The next year, Martin made one for Jackie "Kid" Moore, a "12-year-old singing cowboy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin."These first two had a 12-fret neck; most others (except for the 6th, made in 1937) made afterward had a 14-fret neck. Two more were made in 1936 and two again in 1937;[6] the D-45 wasn't catalogued until 1938. Other versions included a D-45S (with a special neck, 1939) and a D-45L (left handed, 1940). The D-45 was the top model of the dreadnought line, which also included the D-28 and D-18 models, priced much lower.

In 1942, as a result of World War II, Martin officially ceased production of the D-45 (as well as other Martin models such as the archtops). This first series of D-45's consisted of only 91 instruments.

The luxurious D-45 resembled the less ornate D-28 model enough to entice entrepreneurial guitar builders and craftsmen to modify the latter to look like the former by adding a pearl border and changing the stamps on the neck block, so they could sell them as the more expensive model. One of those craftsmen was Mike Longworth, a banjo player from Tennessee, who Martin hired specifically to bring the D-45 back. The new D-45, released in 1968, cost $1,200 and was the most expensive flat-top steel-string guitar made in the United States at the time. By 1969, Martin sold twice as many D-45s as during the entire 1933–1942 run; customers included David Crosby and Jimi Hendrix. In 1971, a 12-string model was made,[1] and in 1973, another one.

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