1930 Martin 000-45 Deluxe
By Eric Schoenberg

This beautiful, unique instrument is possibly the finest example of the early period of the American guitar. The 000-45 Deluxe and its sister guitar, the OM-45 Deluxe, symbolize a turning point from the early to the modern period. The early period was the age of the twelve-fret guitars, with wide necks, slotted pegheads, and long bodies with only twelve frets clear of the body. These guitars gave way to a new age with solid pegheads, narrower necks, belly bridges, and shoulders shortened to allow fourteen frets clear of the body.

The instrument shown here is a custom-ordered 000-45, made in 1930. It was called a 000-45 Special in Martin’s records, and is the first known use of what was later to be called the "Deluxe" trim: a fancy inlaid pickguard, abalone snowflakes on the bridge, and gold-plated, engraved tuning machines with mother-of-pearl buttons. The fanciest model to show up in the Martin catalogues (as opposed to being custom ordered) is the OM-45 Deluxe. Only fourteen were recorded to have been made, all in 1930. When this OOO-45 Special, a hitherto unknown guitar, showed up a year ago, It became clear from the serial number (which dated it as older than all of the other Deluxes) that it was the fifteenth Deluxe, the de facto proto-type for the OM model.

Note the trim look of the slotted peghead with the tuner buttons extending backwards. When Martin switched to the now standard solid peghead with the buttons sticking out to the sides, it looked odd to the public. To resolve this problem, Martin initially used banjo tuners, which proved to be impractical because of their low tuning ratio and their difficulty with the thicker (than banjo) bass strings, and were discontinued. The solid peghead with the side tuner buttons became, and continues to be, the standard.

There is something magical about the sound of this instrument: deep, warm, fat, clear, bright and full (words are hard to use for this task, unless you’re a poet). The twelve-fret Martins seem to be throatier, fuller than their fourteen-fret counterparts, while the OMs excel in a remarkably clear, musical treble and punchier, more focused bass.

... photo by Rory Earnshaw