Tried an OM-28

TheBigDipper

If you like the OM sized body, plenty of other companies make "OM"s as well as Martin themselves. I've played a few Martin OMs and always found them to be a bit 'flat' sounding. That set me off on a quest to find something I liked better. I've played an Atkins OM which sounded gorgeous in comparison, and a Huss & Dalton OM which was even better. I ended up buying a Brook Taw in the end, which is a shorter scale length, but a joy to listen to. 

AliGorie

Stuart Ryan playing his Circa 000 (John Slobod) and yes that sound is coming from that size of a MAPLE b/sided guitar - just shows how good the traditional acoustic model if executed well.

The 000 12 fret is the same lower bout width and depth as the 'OM', also a 25.4 s/ length  and braces placed as in the 1938 000-28 picture above allowing the bridge area to move more freely. this design is thought by some to have the desired for fingerpicking. The 'OM' was the 14 fret adoption of this design, squaring off the shoulders to give extra access and mirroring that aesthetic at the bottom end - thats how it all came about - on the request of a banjo player who was used t access to all the frets. 

artiebear

nice @aligorie a wee bit of Tony McManus in there

TimmyO

I know Stuart well!

crunchman

TheBigDipper said:

If you like the OM sized body, plenty of other companies make "OM"s as well as Martin themselves. I've played a few Martin OMs and always found them to be a bit 'flat' sounding. That set me off on a quest to find something I liked better. I've played an Atkins OM which sounded gorgeous in comparison, and a Huss & Dalton OM which was even better. I ended up buying a Brook Taw in the end, which is a shorter scale length, but a joy to listen to. 

Brook are great but I can't get on with the shallow neck and flat fingerboard radius.

I've actually got a Stonebridge (Furch) OM now that is great.  Don't miss my OOO29EC at all.  This one is mahogany back and sides rather than rosewood, but I like it, and there is a bigger contrast with my spruce/rosewood dreadnought.

TheBigDipper

crunchman said:

Brook are great but I can't get on with the shallow neck and flat fingerboard radius.

I've actually got a Stonebridge (Furch) OM now that is great.  Don't miss my OOO29EC at all.  This one is mahogany back and sides rather than rosewood, but I like it, and there is a bigger contrast with my spruce/rosewood dreadnought.

Guitars are so personal, aren't they?

I've got a Stonebridge S23SF12, maple with a spruce top. It really sings out. Furch really are well made and inexpensive for what they give you. 

TimmyO

Back on this subject : @Jalapeno was Chez Moi today while we fiddled with his pedalboard and he was kind enough to bring along his Martin OM-35 for me to have a dabble on.

Obviously it's not a direct comparison with my 000-28ec but it was interesting to be actually at home and comparing the Clappers model to something at leisure. 

Similarly to when I tried the OM-28 I found that the wound strings ring out more clearly and distinctly on the longer scale instrument, compared with the soft low strings on the 000. The 000 sounded smoother, a bit more mellow, a bit more intimate, and a little quieter (or probably just seems that way as a result of slightly less zing) Neither better, just different. 

Interestingly I found the neck on the OM-35 a bit skinny, not sure if they are a bit thinner than normal or if it's just me being used to the V on the Clapton (although the Yamaha LL neck doesn't feel so skinny thinking about it)

Anyway, just thought I'd share

AliGorie

some info on what really really want -
Schoenberg Guitars
As a professional fingerstyle guitarist Eric learned through experience that all guitars are not created equal. He discovered in the Sixties that the Martin Orchestra Model (OM), produced only from late 1929 through 1933, had qualities possessed by no other guitars. "The tonal wonder of the 1929-30 guitars to me is the explosive response, the full, complete tone from bare fingers. It's a magic thing, like the guitar is alive and kicking, giving back to the musician as much as he [or] she is putting in," he says. The balance, projection, and responsiveness of these guitars really stood out to him - and he heard something in these guitars that no one else did. Eric's strengths as a guitarist led him to these qualities in the first place - especially his superb touch and his near-obsession with creating great tone as he plays. The seeds were planted - Eric had found the archetype for the guitars that would follow - his guitars.
It was so difficult to find these original guitars in good condition - or any new guitars like them. He went to talk to Martin. "It took years of cajoling to get them to make OMs," Eric reports. In 1969 Eric was finally able to order a batch of six OM-28s through the Folklore Center and Matty Umanov in Manhattan. They were the first OMs Martin had made since 1933. Then, later, Eric ordered more OMs from Martin through his Massachusetts shop - six "Special" OM-45s from Martin's Custom Shop in 1977.
Eric was still playing the early guitars in performance when, in the early Eighties, after builder and repairman Dana Bourgeois had worked on "some two dozen" of the early pre-war Martin Orchestra Models for Eric, he had an impulse to build an OM for Eric with the one non-traditional design element Eric was hungry for - a cutaway.

Schoenberg Guitars, then, started with one guitar. Eric would work with Dana to develop the specs. They would base much of this new guitar on a specific Martin OM from 1931, attempting to replicate the same neck shape, and the lightness of the bridge plate and bracing (Martin stopped using scalloped braces from 1944 through the mid-Seventies). They would attempt to voice this new guitar in a way that would improve upon the original by applying hand-building techniques to the original factory specs. This involved hand-splitting the braces and ‘tap-tuning' the top, back and assembled box. Then they would add the cutaway.
This would become the prototype they took to Chris Martin, who approved the project - a partnership to create multiples of this design that improved upon something Martin had abandoned in 1934. Dana's "hand-voiced" tops would be integrated into Martin's production line: guitar parts would be fabricated by Dana in Maine, according to specifications developed by Eric and Dana, in order to meet Eric's notion of what a great guitar would feel like and sound like. These "kits" would then be assembled and finished with lacquer by Martin. This would be Martin's first experience in 65 years of building guitars for another company: from 1986 to 1994, Schoenberg guitars would emerge from Nazareth, PA, with Martin serial numbers and "Schoenberg" on the headstock.
But the nearly 500 Schoenberg guitars that exist today are not mere imitations of earlier designs. As Eric has said, "We're not doing vintage reproductions. We're taking what's special from the old ones. We're trying to take the next step." One subtle yet crucial distinction is that the Schoenbergs have the advantage of being designed in light of Eric's perception as guitarist, of the qualities of the great vintage guitars. If 1929 and 1930 were the years in which Martin Guitars, for one, created its enduring monuments, its peerless instruments, then Eric would draw on his knowledge of those designs and pull out only the elements that would lead to greater guitars.
The hand-built Schoenbergs could be individually voiced to generate beautiful tone and capture some essence of the patina of the earlier guitars. Plus the functionality of recent designs - the cutaway, the adjustable truss rod, plus the knowledge of how guitars can be set up to play at their absolute best - could be added to the mix. And with the more varied tonewoods available today, a wider palette of voices is available in the guitars that are made. In these ways, Eric is attempting to create the ultimate finger-style guitar.
The Schoenberg guitars from the Martin days are generally acknowledged to be superior guitars. Since the days of the partnership with Martin there have been many hand-builders who have worked with Eric to create guitars with exceptional tone and responsiveness. With each successive builder Eric has fine-tuned his perception of what construction elements result in a superb guitar. And like a great archer whose arrows seem naturally to find the bull's-eye Eric's innate ability to hear and feel the subtle attributes that create a guitar's aliveness has combined with his talented partners' gifts to yield guitars that hit the mark, time after time.
The consistent quality of these guitars over time is the best testament to Eric's success. Although he is the first to praise the wonderful partners he has worked with - all amazing luthiers in their own right -, it is the pleasure which each successive guitar is able to give its player that should make us notice the one variable that hasn't changed in twenty years. And Eric says he's still learning.
Eric has followed his own muse, guided by an implacable desire to play great instruments. His gift is his ability to imagine what kind of guitar would be a great one and to guide its creation. Yet he has also provided a service. As Eric has said, "I'm not just building a guitar that gets me excited." He may have begun looking for his own ideal guitar, one that would give him the means to achieve his own deepest musical satisfaction. But his search has created opportunities for every player who has hungered for the perfect guitar (nearly 500 opportunities, in fact). And if Eric's guitars are capable of producing great tone, exquisite tone, then they have the potential to bring those of us who play closer to a beauty that satisfies. Could it be . . .? With Eric's guitars we might just get to that music beyond longing.
Today, the Schoenberg Guitars are built one at a time by the capable hands of world-class luthiers Bruce Sexauer, Robert Anderson, James Russell, Sparky Kramer and John Slobod.

———————————————
from this site  in the ‘About’ section -
http://om28.com/custom/history.jsp

Strangefan

Bluesman1989 said:

I have Nick Benjamin #18 for sale that is kind of like an OM (slightly longer body) 14 fret and 25.5 scale length. Has a K&K Pure pickup in and amazing tone. Mahogany and Cedar. Only asking 1k. Check it out on here








Ssssssssssssshameless 

TimmyO

AliGorie said:

some info on what really really want -
Schoenberg Guitars
As a professional fingerstyle guitarist Eric learned through experience that all guitars are not created equal. He discovered in the Sixties that the Martin Orchestra Model (OM), produced only from late 1929 through 1933, had qualities possessed by no other guitars. "The tonal wonder of the 1929-30 guitars to me is the explosive response, the full, complete tone from bare fingers. It's a magic thing, like the guitar is alive and kicking, giving back to the musician as much as he [or] she is putting in," he says. The balance, projection, and responsiveness of these guitars really stood out to him - and he heard something in these guitars that no one else did. Eric's strengths as a guitarist led him to these qualities in the first place - especially his superb touch and his near-obsession with creating great tone as he plays. The seeds were planted - Eric had found the archetype for the guitars that would follow - his guitars.
It was so difficult to find these original guitars in good condition - or any new guitars like them. He went to talk to Martin. "It took years of cajoling to get them to make OMs," Eric reports. In 1969 Eric was finally able to order a batch of six OM-28s through the Folklore Center and Matty Umanov in Manhattan. They were the first OMs Martin had made since 1933. Then, later, Eric ordered more OMs from Martin through his Massachusetts shop - six "Special" OM-45s from Martin's Custom Shop in 1977.
Eric was still playing the early guitars in performance when, in the early Eighties, after builder and repairman Dana Bourgeois had worked on "some two dozen" of the early pre-war Martin Orchestra Models for Eric, he had an impulse to build an OM for Eric with the one non-traditional design element Eric was hungry for - a cutaway.

Schoenberg Guitars, then, started with one guitar. Eric would work with Dana to develop the specs. They would base much of this new guitar on a specific Martin OM from 1931, attempting to replicate the same neck shape, and the lightness of the bridge plate and bracing (Martin stopped using scalloped braces from 1944 through the mid-Seventies). They would attempt to voice this new guitar in a way that would improve upon the original by applying hand-building techniques to the original factory specs. This involved hand-splitting the braces and ‘tap-tuning' the top, back and assembled box. Then they would add the cutaway.
This would become the prototype they took to Chris Martin, who approved the project - a partnership to create multiples of this design that improved upon something Martin had abandoned in 1934. Dana's "hand-voiced" tops would be integrated into Martin's production line: guitar parts would be fabricated by Dana in Maine, according to specifications developed by Eric and Dana, in order to meet Eric's notion of what a great guitar would feel like and sound like. These "kits" would then be assembled and finished with lacquer by Martin. This would be Martin's first experience in 65 years of building guitars for another company: from 1986 to 1994, Schoenberg guitars would emerge from Nazareth, PA, with Martin serial numbers and "Schoenberg" on the headstock.
But the nearly 500 Schoenberg guitars that exist today are not mere imitations of earlier designs. As Eric has said, "We're not doing vintage reproductions. We're taking what's special from the old ones. We're trying to take the next step." One subtle yet crucial distinction is that the Schoenbergs have the advantage of being designed in light of Eric's perception as guitarist, of the qualities of the great vintage guitars. If 1929 and 1930 were the years in which Martin Guitars, for one, created its enduring monuments, its peerless instruments, then Eric would draw on his knowledge of those designs and pull out only the elements that would lead to greater guitars.
The hand-built Schoenbergs could be individually voiced to generate beautiful tone and capture some essence of the patina of the earlier guitars. Plus the functionality of recent designs - the cutaway, the adjustable truss rod, plus the knowledge of how guitars can be set up to play at their absolute best - could be added to the mix. And with the more varied tonewoods available today, a wider palette of voices is available in the guitars that are made. In these ways, Eric is attempting to create the ultimate finger-style guitar.
The Schoenberg guitars from the Martin days are generally acknowledged to be superior guitars. Since the days of the partnership with Martin there have been many hand-builders who have worked with Eric to create guitars with exceptional tone and responsiveness. With each successive builder Eric has fine-tuned his perception of what construction elements result in a superb guitar. And like a great archer whose arrows seem naturally to find the bull's-eye Eric's innate ability to hear and feel the subtle attributes that create a guitar's aliveness has combined with his talented partners' gifts to yield guitars that hit the mark, time after time.
The consistent quality of these guitars over time is the best testament to Eric's success. Although he is the first to praise the wonderful partners he has worked with - all amazing luthiers in their own right -, it is the pleasure which each successive guitar is able to give its player that should make us notice the one variable that hasn't changed in twenty years. And Eric says he's still learning.
Eric has followed his own muse, guided by an implacable desire to play great instruments. His gift is his ability to imagine what kind of guitar would be a great one and to guide its creation. Yet he has also provided a service. As Eric has said, "I'm not just building a guitar that gets me excited." He may have begun looking for his own ideal guitar, one that would give him the means to achieve his own deepest musical satisfaction. But his search has created opportunities for every player who has hungered for the perfect guitar (nearly 500 opportunities, in fact). And if Eric's guitars are capable of producing great tone, exquisite tone, then they have the potential to bring those of us who play closer to a beauty that satisfies. Could it be . . .? With Eric's guitars we might just get to that music beyond longing.
Today, the Schoenberg Guitars are built one at a time by the capable hands of world-class luthiers Bruce Sexauer, Robert Anderson, James Russell, Sparky Kramer and John Slobod.

———————————————
from this site  in the ‘About’ section -
http://om28.com/custom/history.jsp

KKJale

I've played a Bruce Sexauer-built Schoenberg, the first-ever 24.75" OM-28 they ever did, for a guy in Japan I believe, and it was bloody spectacular. This was at the Luthiers Consortium, which was a kind of private hotel-room acoustifest outside NAMM. I had to play it in front of both Bruce and Eric, mind, which was a bit alarming 

On the other hand it wasn't even the best guitar in the room - a John Slobod maple 00 was. Feck! It haunts me. Al Petteway bought it. 

AliGorie

I particularly liked Eric S's whole idea of 'The Soloist' an out ant out fingerpickin sonic wonder - all the right dimensions, brace placement etc,etc. The examples I've heard (over the net) have convinced me - it's all I'd want from one guitar.
I have a vague recollection - like designing the Blueridge range - he had a run of 'Soloists' built by - I cant quite remember - maybe Asturias ??, they still off a model called 'Solo' - so -??
Watch out for a relatively cheaper incarnation of this model.
Meanwhile - here's a spin off from ES's influence - the Bourgeois Soloist, this one is a beep body version - similar to the Bourgeois J-OM but with cutaway -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c7mSCRhy0w

ok - geek time -
If u'r interested in geetar loar - heres a read on who put the cutaway in the OM / 000, also read the second last chapter well !  I have a (J-OM ) that was developed for another BIG player in guitar manufacturing but didn't 'take off' - I wonder why ?. PM me if u wanna find out.
Soloist story -
https://bourgeoisguitars.net/about/the-story-of-the-soloist/