Lester Flatts' Martin D-18 guitar up for auction

[Tanuki]

https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/10/11/opry-lester-flatt-guitar-auction/75599069007/

"A Martin D-18 guitar that bluegrass icon Lester Flatt played numerous times on the Grand Ole Opry and with the Foggy Mountain Boys is up for auction from Heritage Auctions.

The instrument was listed in a Wednesday lot at Heritage, the world's largest collectibles auctioneer, alongside a 1978 Gretsch prototype electric guitar made for Country Music Hall of Famer Roy Clark and a set from pioneering guitar designer and Oklahoma-based rock vocalist Steve Riple of the Tractors fame, including a sextet designed for Eddie Van Halen that include a signed and inscribed Kramer Ripley red, white and black-striped solid body electric guitar.
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Nashville guitar guru George Gruhn said in 2012, "Lester's use of this instrument would make this guitar one of the most important guitars in the entire history of bluegrass music."
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Dreadnought-style Martin guitars constructed during World War II were built and sold in such scarce quantities because America was at war. (The dreadnought name was earned because Martin made what they advertised as "extra wide and very deep body guitars that produce a tone of great power and smoothness, especially fine for broadcasting or recording." )
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"This D-18 might be one of the loudest and most resonant I have ever heard and remains in excellent playable condition," Piscopo says."....(more)