After the Ditson Co. folded in 1931, C. F. Martin & Co. had to figure out what to do with the last of the special line of guitars they had been building for their once largest customer. Very few Dreadnoughts were built for Ditson, but the company still thought these large guitars should have a place in their line. After initially building the D-1 and D-2 exclusively for the Chicago Musical Instrument Co., Martin decided to give all their dealers a shot at selling Dreadnought models, so the D-18