I had the idea to convert a vintage Martin archtop to a flattop guitar, looking for a skilled luthier to do that. Stefan Zirnbauer turned out to be the right person for this project. It was a first try which was very successfull and led to two other conversion-projects he would do for me in the following years. This guitar was a Martin R-18, basically a 00-size archtop with mahagony back and sides, ebony fretboard and barfrets. Hence the arched top was visibly bruised and scratched, it was not so much of a big loss to cut it off and replace it with a flat-top. The wood for the flattop came from a soundboard of an old piano. Very dry and old wood of remarkable quality , it was thinned out, equipped with the Martin-typicall prewar forward shifted bracing and fitted on the guitar. An new ebony bridge had to be made and the neckheel had to be altered for a 14fret of the body neck.

A dark sunburst seemed to be the right choice for the new top.

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Braced for gut-strings it will also take “Silk and Steel. And what a sound..! Aged and dry Brazilian rosewood for back and sides and adirondack-spruce on the top give it a full and warm bass, strong mids and crisp highs , all together balanced quite right with an angelic sustain.

100 years left some traces, honest playwear in fact. A few cracks in the sides, cleated and stable ,none on the top! Some playing-wear around the sound-hole, a few dings here and there. A tiny piece of one snowflake-inlay is missing. Fret-board, frets ,bridge and bridge-pins are original.

Replaced bone-saddle and I am not quite sure about the tunersto be original ..anyway, they are working perfect. 12fret from the body-neck is dead-straight ,neck-set was done recently  and back of neck has seen some french polish. This is the one for the