1969 Martin D12-20 Excellent, Original Hard, $2,995.00

Finally. A 1960s Martin D12-20 in prime, unhurried condition, fresh from its original owner to you, via us. No silly neck reset; no repairs necessitated by neglect, or repairs of any sort for that matter, benign or otherwise; no “turning” of the top in the bridge area, as seems to be the case in the vast majority of these that we see. And no poor, misguided pickguard replacement; all original and all still there, beautifully. Just a totally original, gorgeously straightforward Martin 12 from the best best time period of these, the late-1960s. The D12-20 was Martin’s original entry to the twelve-string guitar world, during the height of the Great Folk Boom, and they hit it perfectly with this design. Based on their original Model 222 12-fret Dreadnaught of 1916, with mahogany back and sides and spruce top for a huge, clear sound, these were most fabulous in their day. But many of them somehow either ended up years later suffering seriously from little, unforseen production anomalies, or over-zealously heavy strings applied by equally over-zealous owners, or worse. I am always on the lookout for prime examples of this model (which was discontinued sometime in the 1970s), but I have to reject 95% of the ones I see for reasons of irreversible structural sadness. Not this one. It’s not only the best one I’ve seen in over twenty years, it’s perfect. Want a best-ever, secretly heartthrob 1960s Martin 12? Here it is, with original hard shell case of course. $2995 w/ohsc