With its abalone trim and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the D-45 is the flagship of the Martin line. They made very few D-45s in the early ‘40s, stopped completely with WWII, and reintroduced them in 1968.
Neil got his in 1969 around the same time as the other members of CSNY. This was a major guitar for him early on, recording many of his early hits with it, such as “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man.”
Unlike the pre-war D-45s, the post war models did not have “scalloped” braces (some of the braces carved to be thinner in the middle of the brace—which opens up the sound) Sometime around 1978 I did a mild scalloping to the braces and installed F.R.A.P. pickups. It has taken on a lot of character after many years touring.
