Back to the main page Back to category Electric Guitars
musical instrument details
MARTIN EM-18 rare electric guitar (early 1980) - Ex condition - Lower Price OBO
Estimated price for orientation: 1 100 $
Category: Electric Guitars
Class:
Description String Configuration: 6 String Model Year: 1980 Brand: Martin Body Material: Solid Wood Body Color: Natural Size: Full Size Body Type: Solid Dexterity: Right-Handed Model: EM-18 Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
RARE Martin EM-18 Electric Guitar, Early 1980 - Made in USAMinor playwear on the body, but in excellent shape, just set up. Comes with Guild (non-original) factory brown hardshell case (nice shape tolex covered wood case not molded)This is a Excellent condition Vintage Martin EM-18 finished in clear nitrocellulose, maple body with walnut accents. See aricle below for more information about the EM series Martins which were made from 1978-1980 here in the USA as Martin added an electric line to their classic American acoustic guitar. Serial number verified with Martin dates this to the early part of 1980 in the final year of profuction. The features and options on the EM-18 guitars include coil taps, two humbuckers, 3 way toggle, two volume and two tone controls. This guitar was cosmetically almost perfect when it entered my shop. Someone had at one time moved the toggle to the control location and enlarged a control hole - a previous luthier to me had patched in a walnut diamond to fill and drill back to correct, nicely done. However someone had replaced the original humbuckers with some Asian gold covered dirty fingers pickups (no alteration of the body) and butchered the electronics. It was missing the original knobs and had Gibson bell knobs, was missing a tuner button, and the original Leo Quan bridge was badly corroded. Repairs at my shop include, replacing the pickups with current PAF series Dimarzio Pickups rather than the lesser Mighty Mites it would have come with. I replaced the Leo Quan with the upgraded much better Schaller bridge that Martin used on the later EM-28 series. Original Sperzel knobs are in the case, but I replaced them with hand turned grained ivoroid Sperzel buttons, and added a matching set of hand-turned volume and tone knobs. I also replaced all the pots with USA made 500K CTS pots and added 2 vintage PIO Capacitors for good measure. Frets were nicely dressed already, and had plenty of life as shown in the pic. I set it up, intonated it and it plays perfectly (imho better than when it came from Martin.) While I had it out, I replaced the jack and toggle with the correct new old stock Switchcraft jack and toggle and rewired it all for sake of reliability.CONSTRUCTION: Set Neck, Right HandSCALE: 25 1/2"PICKUPS: Neck Pickup: DiMarzio Regular Spaced PAF Master Neck Humbucker Creme DP 260 Bridge Pickup: DiMarzio Regular Spaced PAF Master Bridge Humbucker Creme DP 261NECK WOOD: Mahogany with Rosewood fingerboardNECK PROFILE: Chunky round profile: 1 5/8” nut width NUT: Micarta, hand cutFRETS: 22 medium jumboTUNING KEYS: Sperzel 14:1 ratio, sealed-back, tulip ivoroid grained knobs BRIDGE: Schaller 455 High Quality, German made Wrap Around Guitar Bridge Tailpiece CONTROLS: 3-position pickup Switchcraft, 2 Volume, 2 Tone, individual coil taps for each PUCASE: Vintage Guild Deluxe Tolex hardshellI fixed this one to keep but have too many in my small collection while I am trying to downsize my shop. Get it for an insane low low price.---------------------------------------HISTORY AND INFORMATION ON THE MARTIN E-SERIES (from www.amarshall.com): Link here: Martin’s E series electrics were produced in two broad series, the 18 series (E-18, EM-18 and EB-18 bass) and the 28 series (E-28 and EB-28 bass). All the Martin labeled instruments were made in the USA. The E series guitars have interesting stories, made more vivid by the fact that the key people involved in their design and production helped me immensely when I was researching the history. The various books and articles previously available vary in their accuracy, and it has taken quite a lot of detective work to build what I believe to be a complete and accurate picture. My thanks to Dick Boak, John Marshall, Pete Entstasser and of course CF Martin and Co, my history would be a lot less interesting without their enormous contribution, not least of course that they made all these instruments in the first place. Starting with the 18 series, we’ll look at the instruments and the production facts. The 18 series was Martin’s first solid electric guitar, and was designed by Dick Boak. Unusually, a new 4-digit serial number was used for the 18 and 28 series instruments, starting at 1000. The first production instrument shipped was an EM-18, serial number 1004, in December of 1978. The last was 3645, an EB-18 at some point during 1980. A total of 341 E-18’s, 1,375 EM-18’s and 874 EB-18’s were manufactured, a total of 2,590 instruments. Of course if the first were 1004 and the last 3645, that should be 2,642, so we should probably assume a numbering skip or some instruments rejected in QA, or a combination thereof. Many people believe (because many books are unclear about this) that the 18 and 28 series were manufactured concurrently, this is not the case. The last 18 series was made before the first 28 series went to production – however because there was some inventory 18 series instruments were sold into the 1980’s by distributors.The 18 series comprised three models: two six strings (E-18 and EM-18) and the EB-18 bass. The E-18 and EM-18 were virtually identical, with some minor electronics changes. The EB-18 was Martin’s first production electric bass as well as it’s first solid electric bass. Despite appearances, these instruments are not neck-through but set neck.The 18 series was produced Dec 78 to Late 1980.
Description
| String Configuration: | 6 String | Model Year: | 1980 |
| Brand: | Martin | Body Material: | Solid Wood |
| Body Color: | Natural | Size: | Full Size |
| Body Type: | Solid | Dexterity: | Right-Handed |
| Model: | EM-18 | Country/Region of Manufacture: | United States |
RARE Martin EM-18 Electric Guitar, Early 1980 - Made in USAMinor playwear on the body, but in excellent shape, just set up. Comes with Guild (non-original) factory brown hardshell case (nice shape tolex covered wood case not molded)This is a Excellent condition Vintage Martin EM-18 finished in clear nitrocellulose, maple body with walnut accents. See aricle below for more information about the EM series Martins which were made from 1978-1980 here in the USA as Martin added an electric line to their classic American acoustic guitar. Serial number verified with Martin dates this to the early part of 1980 in the final year of profuction. The features and options on the EM-18 guitars include coil taps, two humbuckers, 3 way toggle, two volume and two tone controls. This guitar was cosmetically almost perfect when it entered my shop. Someone had at one time moved the toggle to the control location and enlarged a control hole - a previous luthier to me had patched in a walnut diamond to fill and drill back to correct, nicely done. However someone had replaced the original humbuckers with some Asian gold covered dirty fingers pickups (no alteration of the body) and butchered the electronics. It was missing the original knobs and had Gibson bell knobs, was missing a tuner button, and the original Leo Quan bridge was badly corroded. Repairs at my shop include, replacing the pickups with current PAF series Dimarzio Pickups rather than the lesser Mighty Mites it would have come with. I replaced the Leo Quan with the upgraded much better Schaller bridge that Martin used on the later EM-28 series. Original Sperzel knobs are in the case, but I replaced them with hand turned grained ivoroid Sperzel buttons, and added a matching set of hand-turned volume and tone knobs. I also replaced all the pots with USA made 500K CTS pots and added 2 vintage PIO Capacitors for good measure. Frets were nicely dressed already, and had plenty of life as shown in the pic. I set it up, intonated it and it plays perfectly (imho better than when it came from Martin.) While I had it out, I replaced the jack and toggle with the correct new old stock Switchcraft jack and toggle and rewired it all for sake of reliability.CONSTRUCTION: Set Neck, Right HandSCALE: 25 1/2"PICKUPS: Neck Pickup: DiMarzio Regular Spaced PAF Master Neck Humbucker Creme DP 260 Bridge Pickup: DiMarzio Regular Spaced PAF Master Bridge Humbucker Creme DP 261NECK WOOD: Mahogany with Rosewood fingerboardNECK PROFILE: Chunky round profile: 1 5/8” nut width NUT: Micarta, hand cutFRETS: 22 medium jumboTUNING KEYS: Sperzel 14:1 ratio, sealed-back, tulip ivoroid grained knobs BRIDGE: Schaller 455 High Quality, German made Wrap Around Guitar Bridge Tailpiece CONTROLS: 3-position pickup Switchcraft, 2 Volume, 2 Tone, individual coil taps for each PUCASE: Vintage Guild Deluxe Tolex hardshellI fixed this one to keep but have too many in my small collection while I am trying to downsize my shop. Get it for an insane low low price.---------------------------------------HISTORY AND INFORMATION ON THE MARTIN E-SERIES (from www.amarshall.com): Link here: Martin’s E series electrics were produced in two broad series, the 18 series (E-18, EM-18 and EB-18 bass) and the 28 series (E-28 and EB-28 bass). All the Martin labeled instruments were made in the USA. The E series guitars have interesting stories, made more vivid by the fact that the key people involved in their design and production helped me immensely when I was researching the history. The various books and articles previously available vary in their accuracy, and it has taken quite a lot of detective work to build what I believe to be a complete and accurate picture. My thanks to Dick Boak, John Marshall, Pete Entstasser and of course CF Martin and Co, my history would be a lot less interesting without their enormous contribution, not least of course that they made all these instruments in the first place. Starting with the 18 series, we’ll look at the instruments and the production facts. The 18 series was Martin’s first solid electric guitar, and was designed by Dick Boak. Unusually, a new 4-digit serial number was used for the 18 and 28 series instruments, starting at 1000. The first production instrument shipped was an EM-18, serial number 1004, in December of 1978. The last was 3645, an EB-18 at some point during 1980. A total of 341 E-18’s, 1,375 EM-18’s and 874 EB-18’s were manufactured, a total of 2,590 instruments. Of course if the first were 1004 and the last 3645, that should be 2,642, so we should probably assume a numbering skip or some instruments rejected in QA, or a combination thereof. Many people believe (because many books are unclear about this) that the 18 and 28 series were manufactured concurrently, this is not the case. The last 18 series was made before the first 28 series went to production – however because there was some inventory 18 series instruments were sold into the 1980’s by distributors.
The 18 series comprised three models: two six strings (E-18 and EM-18) and the EB-18 bass. The E-18 and EM-18 were virtually identical, with some minor electronics changes. The EB-18 was Martin’s first production electric bass as well as it’s first solid electric bass. Despite appearances, these instruments are not neck-through but set neck.The 18 series was produced Dec 78 to Late 1980.