The "Holy Grail"
C.F. Martin D-45 Guitars
1941 Martin D-45
In the pre-war years, Martin produced only 91 Dreadnaught guitars in the 45 Style. The first of these were 12 fret guitars with snowflake inlays, the first of which was built for the Singing Cowboy movie star Gene Autry. After 1938, the D-45 adapted the hex inlays of the archtop F-7 and F-9.
While Vintage expert and dealer George Gruhn labels calls these the "Holy Grail" of Martin Guitars, it is interesting that he labels only the pre-war Martins with forward shifted X bracing an 1 3/4" wide necks as being "Golden Era", while all but 9 of the "Holy Grail" D-45 are wartime guitars with rear shifted bracing and 1 11/16" necks!
The D-45 was discontinued after 1942 when WWII due to wartime shortages of materials and skilled craftsmen.
After Mike Longworth of Chattanooga, Tennessee had been customizing later D-28 with pearl inlays, he was hired by Martin in July, 1968 to reintroduce the Martin D-45.
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