C.F. Martin 1902 00-42 Special / 00-45 Prototype

 
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."

This guitar is #9488.

Three more prototypes were made in 1903.  According to Gruhn Guitars, of the 6 prototypes, this particular 00-42 Special "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."

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.