Martin Special 18 Style VTS Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar

The Martin Special 18 Style Adirondack VTS top dreadnought acoustic guitar was designed to target the highly collectible vintage sound of Martin’s 1930s Golden Era. This period in Martin’s history is considered to have given birth to the finest acoustic guitars in the world. These world-renowned instruments are cherished for their unparalleled tone and considered by many collectors and professional musicians to be the "Stradivarius" of the acoustic guitar.

Thanks to Martin's revolutionary Vintage Tone System (VTS), they've created a process to capture the look and sound of one of their older instruments and replicate in a new instrument, like this Martin Special 18 Style VTS dreadnought acoustic.

Martin VTS
What is Martin’s Vintage Tone System? It’s a proprietary temperature aging process that allows Martin to target the sound of their vintage acoustic guitars within a decade. It’s like a time machine taking your new guitar and aging it to sound vintage. Martin has honed this process by benchmarking some of the finest examples of their 185-year history, found in their Nazareth, PA museum. Once they reference a vintage top, the new top is aged to the correct moisture content and look of that period. This proprietary VTS process is unique to Martin and can only be found on custom, special and Authentic Martin models.

In the spirit of combining a modern feel with a vintage tone, the Special 18 Series VTS dreadnought incorporates a premium grade of Adirondack spruce for the top that is temperature aged to sound like a guitar from the 1930s. The guitar is then braced with the standard 5/16" X-bracing pattern to add just the right of color to the tone. Martin then combined this Adirondack VTS top with mahogany back and sides, and a low profile, standard taper neck to create a dreadnought guitar that has an extraordinary sound and feel. To recreate a vintage look, the vintage black, binding and black pickguard. The Special 18 Style VTS dreadnought has a clear, defined treble and midrange tone, with a very balanced and controlled bottom end.