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I sold my OMs, kept the jumbos and slope-shouldered dreads
IMO, neck width and string spacing allowing, the potentially better complement to a dread is a 12-fret 000.
There are other reasons to have other ones though: a Tenor guitar, an open-tuning one, a nylon, a baritone
Do remember that the 000 was the largest model martin made until the Dread was designed for volume to compete with fiddle, banjo and vocals all around one microphone.
The OM was a 'modified' 000 to give access to higher frets - they squared off the shoulders and the bottom bout but left the bracing as was - because the 000 had 25.4 scale and that didn't change with the OM in other words it was tried and tested STRUCTURALLY robust and wasn't gonna trigger warranty repairs, AND it allowed the top to resonate.
The quality of raw materials (spruce) changed and the beefed up the tops and bracing which culminated in the overbuilt offerings of the 1970's and '80's
If you'r interested go through the links I put in above - should unravel all the (deliberate) Martin marketing guff on bracing.
Going back to the source of this model, the 000 12 fret heres a recent one, built properly in spruce and MAPLE - yes 'humble' maple ( I bought a similar b/s set for £50) - but just listen to it, it compares with some of the best I've herd on the web
A Circa Guitar by John Slobod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWpQwBxiAEI
nice article on him here Circa-
https://www.fretboardjournal.com/features/circa-guitars-shop-tour/
and the real thing a 1931 000 go to 2.25 mins in
and no, you wouldn’t want to strum these - way to much sonic information going on
hope this all makes sense
I gig with an Atkin OM28H Retrospective model and also own a sub-£1,000 OM and sub-£1,000 super jumbo. The latter gets very little use. As an OM user I would see no point in spending a lot of money on a dread unless I had a specific need for it, e.g. bluegrass flat picking. It works both ways. To my mind there is not sufficient reason to own a dread and an OM other than GAS.
If you had said you were considering a twelve-fret parlour guitar or something like an L1 I could see the sense in that as they are very diffent beasts that may well encourage exploration of other playing styles and provide a very different playing experience. But an OM? Save your money
that's the problem with cf martin - I know there's forward / backward / scalloped non- scalloped 5/16th / 1/4 inch and on and on - they just don't have any ideas other than regurgitating the past in as many permutations possible.
Also, the surest way to make your Dread feel too big, is to regularly play an OM alongside it. You then get caught in an annoying limbo of loving the comfort of the OM and the tone and power of the Dread.
If you have a great Dread that does it all, and it does not cause you any discomfort, I would stick with playing that.
Trading feedback here
It certainly sounds in that area - thing is OM's like to be played OVER the s/hole area - u get a rounder tone.
Just an observation.
omg - I haven't used the word 'vamping' for decades - is it still relevant / in use ?
If they are different woods then they can sound very different.
I have a spruce/rosewood dread and a spruce/mahogany OM. They have different sounds and complement each other well.
I'm not sure it would be worth owning a spruce/rosewood OM alongside the dread though.
I'm also certain now that I do not want a very small Parlour or 12 fret type instrument, but the appeal of a different sounding instrument is still there. Surely a spruce/rosewood OM will be a different animal than a cedar/hog dread.
I've put the dread in DADGAD and now I'm thinking of justifying it by having one guitar in each tuning sounds legit no?
One of playing style, shit recording and track, on the Boss RC loopstation with built in drummer in box.