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 Stefan 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 bar-frets. Hence the arched top was visibly bruised and scratched, it was not so much of a big loss to cut it off carefully and replace it with a flat-top. The wood for the flattop came from a 100 year old soundboard of an old piano. Dry and aged spruce of remarkable tone-quality. It was thinned out, expertly equipped with the Martin-typical 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 13 and a half fret neck. A dark sunburst seemed to be the right choice for the new top.

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