This guitar is from the Martin Custom Shop and is essentially a D-45 with the Martin “Tree of Life” inlay pattern inlaid by pearl artist David Nichols. It has a circle “E” stamped on the heel block. Additional custom features include Brazilian Rosewood, an inlaid pickguard and inlaid bridge. Martin confirmed a new guitar with similar features would be at over $40,000 and probably much more. This is a rare and collectible Brazilian Rosewood Martin with that strong, powerful voice.

The Martin D-50 Koa Deluxe is one of the most rare and most ornate Martin guitars ever made. The sides, back, headplate, end piece, and heel cap are crafted from Martin’s highest grade of curly Koa. The soundboard is bookmatched from premium grade Sitka spruce with heavy bearclaw figuring. Internal X-braces are crafted from Adirondack red spruce, forward shifted to a position one inch from the soundhole and carefully scalloped for optimum tone.

Building upon the original Martin Tree of Life inlay pattern, the D-50 Koa Deluxe Edition features a genuine African ebony fingerboard inlaid with a freshly redesigned Tree of Life pattern cut and inlaid by Pearl Works. Every leaf, flower and stem of the Tree of Life is cut from highly colorful dark heart abalone, then painstakingly bordered with a thin band of mother of pearl. The thin pearl bordering creates a shimmering effect that is almost jewel-like in appearance against the black ebony background.

The Tree of Life pattern continues under the nut and onto the headplate where it terminates with the Martin script logo, also inlaid in abalone with pearl bordering.

The D-50 was the first Martin guitar that featured inlay on the instrument’s sides and back. Two pairs of floral designs appear on both sides of the back inlay strip, and on either side of the neck heel and endpiece.

The African ebony bridge and the polished black pickguard are inlaid with matching Tree of Life patterns, also cut from abalone and bordered with pearl. A special endpiece is cut from Brazilian rosewood and inlaid with the leaves from the Tree of Life pattern, then precisely boxed with abalone pearl inlay bordering. The heelcap, also of Brazilian rosewood, is inlaid with a Tree of Life flower and leaf motif.

The D-50 is bound with grained ivoroid throughout and is inlaid with highly colorful dark heart abalone at virtually every possible seam including the rosette, the top and back edges of the side binding, the perimeter of the back, the back inlay strip, the end piece, the neck heel area on the body, the neck heel area of the neck, the side profile of the neck and headstock, and the front edging of the fingerboard and headplate. Specific areas have been further enhanced with special herringbone pearl including the perimeter of the top, the area around the extension of the fingerboard, the inner ring of the rosette, and the center stripe of the back inlay strip.

Vintage styled Waverly gold plated brass tuning machines with vintage style butterbean knobs are delicately and individually hand engraved. The nut, saddle. bridge pins and end pin are all crafted from genuine fossilized ivory. The bridge pins and end pin are further enhanced with star sapphire inlays and bordered in 14-karat gold settings.

In keeping with the premium elements of this special instrument, each D-50 Deluxe Edition comes with a very special genuine top-hide leather 5-ply hardshell case, padded and lined with crushed burgundy velvet and equipped with an onboard humidity/temperature gauge.

Each is numbered and signed by C.F. Martin IV on a special inside label. The new list price of this limited edition guitar was $50,000.00

Here’s a terriffic 20 year old HD-35 ready for the stage with it’s Baggs iMix dual source pickup system. This one plays great and has an upgraded well compensated wide side for excellent intonation. This is an HD-35 for the serious picker. It’s got great energy and a strong sound coupled with easy action.