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The Style 45 was also built with a genuine elephant ivory bridge until 1919.
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This 1919 0-45 has a backstrip design which is not the typical for a Style 45, though 1919 saw many differences due to the huge growth in production and problems with meeting the demand.
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The following example is of the backstrip design simply known as the "Style 45 Backstrip".
The first of the "Style 45" headstock inlays to appear on a Martin was seen on #9372, the first 00-42S, to have pearl inlaid on the back and
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side borders in 1902. This version was known as the "fern". This was followed by #9488, which had another version of the fern:
The first version of the "torch" or "fern" seen in 1902 was used on subsequent early examples, and became the standard when the Style 45 became a regularly catalogued item in 1904. The design seen on #9488 was revived many years later for the 2004 "Bellezza Nerra" and other custom Martins, and became known as the "alternative torch."
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By 1905, the fern was replaced by the first version of the "torch", sometimes also known as the "flowerpot"
The torch was simplified and appeared in a more refined version from 1927 to 1933.
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In 1933, the torch was replaced on solid headstock Martins by the C.F. Martin logo that had been seen on archtops such as this C-2 12 string:
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The torch still appeared on slotted headstock Martins and a few special order 14 fret guitars. The torch was not produced by Martin, but was purchased from the Jeorge H. Jones Co. of New York.
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By 1910 the abalone inlays on the Style 45 included the third fret and extended to the nineteenth fret.
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The Style 45 sits at the top of the Martin line, and original pre-war Style 45's are the most desirable and collectable Martins. Longworth says of the 45: "This style had it's origin in some specially inlaid 42 models. The first was 00-42 #9372 which had special pearl trim on the sides and back as well as the top. The fingerboard had a vine on it, and there was a beutiful headstock inlay to match.... The year was 1902. Two more 00-42 guitars with sides and back inlay were made that same year. They were #9410 and #9488."
Three more prototypes were made in 1903. According to Gruhn Guitars, of the 6 prototypes, #9488 "ended up being the closest to what became know as the style 45". Longworth says of the headstock design: "The first headstock veneer for the style 45 guitars appears on the original prototype from 1902. It had a very intricate fern pattern. This inlay is quite rare and is shown only in the 1904 catalog." The 00-45 is first catalogued in 1904, but only one 00-45 was made that year. Three were made in 1905, and none in 1906, with only ten more being made in the entire decade. One 1-45 and two 0-45's were made in 1904, and only one 000, and a grand total of 26 Style 45's of any size were made in the entire decade. As Walter Carter says, "Available in Sizes 0, 00, and eventually 000, Style 45 was not a great success at first. Not until the opulent, carefree 1920's would sales of any Style 45 model top 10 a year."
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The pyramid style bridge is made of genuine ivory, as are the nut, saddle, bridge pins, and end pins, and the binding on the top, back and sides of the body, and also the fingerboard. The "German silver" tuning machines have buttons made of pearl. The border inlaid on the top, back, and sides of the guitar is in abalone "Japan pearl". An additonal connecting link of pearl is inlaid around the end of the fingerboard, and abalone is also inlaid into the soundhole ring, as well as the ivory bridge pins, and end pin. The German wood marquetry on the back of the guitar is of a design which has become known as the "45 Style" backstripe. The back and sides are French Polished Brazilian Rosewood, and the top is most likely of German spruce. The ebony fingerboard on this protype has the "snowflake" inlays which have become distinctive to pearl inlayed Martin guitars. These inlays on frets 5, 7, 9, 12 and 15 would be standard on style 45 for a decade. In 1914, they remained on the style 42, and were expanded to three more frets on the style 45. This guitar has a dove tail joined headstock and cedar neck with volute, and scalloped X style braces.
This is believed to be the only prototype to have all of the features and inlays that would become standard on the early Style 45, and with minor modification, would become the hallmark of all Style 45 guitars for many years to come.
The first of the "Style 45" headstock inlays to appear on a Martin was seen on #9372, the first 00-42S, to have pearl inlaid on the back and side borders in 1902. This version was known as the "fern". This was followed by #9488, which had another version of the fern:
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On Hank Risan's MOMI website, Mr. Risan mistakenly claims #9372 is the only Style 45 prototype with pearl inlay on the back and sides.
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As you can see, this is not true. In fact, #9488 is the closest of the early "Style 45 prototypes" to what would become a production Style 45.
Robert, Here are some more shots of the 00-45 known as 00-42 Special order. This was a 45 style pro-type. Martin messed around with 6 different prototypes and this ended up being the closest to what became know as the style 45. Let me know if you need more photos. Christie Christie Carter Gruhn Guitars
As you can see from photos of Mr Risan's guitar in the first edition of Longworth, it was found with a non original belly bridge. Apparently a new reproduction ivory bridge has been made for the guitar.
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The fingerboard and pickguard inlays on #9372 are actually similar to the inlays that were standard on the higher grade Martin mandolins of the time:
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00-45S 1902
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Limited Editions: 00-45S 1902 Home > Guitars > Choosing Your Martin > Inactive Model > 00-45S 1902
Model Specifications MODEL 00-45S 1902 CONSTRUCTION: Mahogany Blocks/Dovetail Neck Joint BODY SIZE: 00-12 Fret TOP: Solid Adirondack Spruce ROSETTE: Style 45- Maple/Black Fiber Inlays TOP BRACING PATTERN: Standard TOP BRACES: Solid Adirondack Spruce 1/4'' BACK MATERIAL: Solid Brazilian Rosewood BACK PURFLING: Style 45 Golden Era SIDE MATERIAL: Solid Brazilian Rosewood ENDPIECE: Grained Ivoroid
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ENDPIECE INLAY: Select Abalone with Black/Maple Fiber BINDING: Grained Ivoroid TOP INLAY STYLE: Style 42 with Black/Maple/Black Fiber SIDE INLAY: Abalone Pearl with Black/Maple/Black Fiber BACK INLAY: Abalone Pearl with Black/Maple Fiber NECK MATERIAL: Select Hardwood NECK SHAPE: Modified V NUT MATERIAL: Fossilized Ivory HEADSTOCK: Slotted/Square Slots/Long Diamond/Square Taper HEADPLATE: Solid Brazilian Rosewood /Flower Pot- Abalone Pearl Inlay HEELCAP: Grained Ivoroid FINGERBOARD MATERIAL: Solid Black Ebony SCALE LENGTH: 24.9'' # OF FRETS CLEAR: 12 # OF FRETS TOTAL: 19 FINGERBOARD WIDTH AT NUT: 1-7/8'' FINGERBOARD WIDTH AT 12TH FRET: 2-5/16'' FINGERBOARD POSITION INLAYS: Tree Of Life- Select Pearl FINGERBOARD BINDING: Grained Ivoroid FINISH BACK & SIDES: Polished Gloss FINISH TOP: Polished Gloss w/ Vintage Toner FINISH NECK: Polished Gloss BRIDGE MATERIAL: White Micarta BRIDGE STYLE: Pyramid w/ Drop-in Saddle BRIDGE STRING SPACING: 2-5/16'' SADDLE: 16'' Radius/Fossilized Ivory TUNING MACHINES: Waverly/Sloane w/ Small Ivoroid Knobs RECOMMENDED STRINGS: Martin MSP 4100 Light Phosphor Bronze BRIDGE & END PINS: Fossilized Ivory w/ Black Pearl Dots PICKGUARD: Tortoise Color inlaid into Top w/Abalone Pearl Inlay CASE: 900 Hard Shell Coffin Case INTERIOR LABEL: Signed by CFM IV, Numbered In Sequence with Total (60) ELECTRONICS: Optional OTHER OPTIONS: Available left-handed at no additional charge OTHER COMMENTS: All prices & specifications are subject to change without notice.
Article about #9488 from Vintage Guitar Magazine 1902 Martin 00-42 Special, preview of Style 45
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The step up from Style 42 to the abalone body borders and abalone peghead inlay of Style 45 cost the buyer $30. On a 1-45 that represented, coincidentally, a 42 percent increase from $70 to $100. The price went up $5 as the body sizes increased; the 0-42 was $75 and the 00-42 was $80, but the upcharge for a Style 45 was still $30, so the 0-45 was $105 and the 00-45 was $110. This 1902 guitar features the first version of the Style 45 peghead inlay, which is sometimes referred to as the fern pattern. Martin pictured a Style 45 guitar with this inlay in the 1904 catalog and the same photo appeared as late as the 1909 catalog, but Martin had actually begun using a simpler pattern, known today as the torch, by 1905, and that version lasted until about 1927. A slightly simplified torch took over but only until the early 1930s. By that time Martin was switching to a 14-fret neck with a solid peghead that allowed more room for a logo and/or ornamentation than the slotted pegheads, and on Style 45 guitars (even those that retained the slotted peghead) the delicate torch was replaced with the bold, all-caps, vertically oriented CF MARTIN inlay. Style 45 got off to a slow start. It was 1919 before production of any one model hit double digits, but Style 42 models werent selling much better until the 1920s. In fact, its difficult to assess whether guitarists preferred one style over the other because the preferences vary from one body size to the next. The small Size 1 was becoming pass by the time Style 45 appeared, and Martin made only six 1-45s from 1904 to 1919, when the company stopped offering all the pearly styles in Size 1. In the 0-size, Style 42 outsold Style 45 through the 1920s; then both the 0-42 and 0-45 virtually disappeared in the 1930s. In the 00-size, Style 42 was more popular than Style 45, and it remained strong in the 1930s while production of 00-45s dropped to a total of 3 for the decade. In the 000-size, however, Martin didnt put a 000-42 on the price list until 1918, so the fancier Style 45 dominated by default. The initial designation Style 42 special understated just how special Style 45 Martins would become. In the pre-World War II years, it was only surpassed briefly by the OM-45 Deluxe (produced only in 1930), which featured additional inlays in the pickguard and bridge. In todays vintage market, Style 45s follow the same pattern as they did in their original listings. The larger the body, the greater the value. The largest of the prewar models the D-45 is, of course, the Holy Grail of vintage Martins. Although Martin has offered models in recent years with higher model numbers than Style 45, along with many limited-edition, commemorative or artist models with fancier appointments, Style 45 remains today as it was when this pre-45 guitar helped to get the Style 45 ball rolling in 1904 simply Martins top style.
I believe there are two inaccuracies in this article. "Only 38 serial numbers later (which would be the same day today but probably two months later in 1902, a year in which Martin made only 218 guitars), Martin made another 00-42 Special (#9410), with the side and back trim but without the fancy fingerboard and pickguard inlay, and 78 guitars farther down the line, Martin made yet another this months feature (#9488)." #9410, now in California, has the same presentation features as #9372. #9488 is in fact the first 00-45 prototype with "standard" Style 45 features, and not designed as a presentation model.
"This 1902 guitar features the first version of the Style 45 peghead inlay, which is sometimes referred to as the fern pattern." #9488 has the first version inlay in the sense that it is a fern as opposed to the later torch. However, it is a second and quite different fern.
#9372
#9488
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However, the inlays on 9488 have been reproduce in recent years on numerous special edition guitars, and has become known as the Martin "Alternate Torch"
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Style 45 Prototype inlays You will also notice that the inlays on #9488 are slightly different than the inlays that would become standard on a style 45 when inlays were added to additional frets. Also, the originla inlays were produced from white pearl, while later fingerboard inlays were produced from Abalone.
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