MARTIN made the D-18E between 1959 and 1965.The D-18E was a dreadnaught sized acoustic with dark mahogany body and light spruce top. It had a steel T-bar reinforced mahogany neck with rosewood fingerboard and bridge, the body was both bound and inlaid. The fingerboard had pearl position markers with an ivory nut and saddle. The tuning machines were covered single units. What makes the D-18E (and the 00-18E and D-28E) stand out from the other Martin acoustics of this period are the pair of DeArmond chrome-plated single coil pick-ups (like those seen on Gretsch guitars of the same era). They had exposed pole-pieces with with fully adjustable magnets and a three way selector switch with one volume and two tone controls.

They were not a great commercial success for various reasons: they were considerably more expensive than the basic D-18, the soundboard bracing had to be altered to accomodate the pickups and this did not help the acoustic sound, they also looked strange. Only around 238 D-18Es were made in total.

There is a D-18E Retro model currently available, but with a FIshman Aura plus instead of the top mounted DeArmond pickups which is an aesthetic improvement at least.