Stringed instrument history6/11/2023 ![]() The OM has become a favorite of fingerstyle players who appear to prefer the comfort of a smaller body that still delivers power. The balance of the OM favors the bass to midrange, inviting comparison to a dreadnought. It was designed for more volume and resonance. In its day, it was a relatively large body size (increased from the OO size) and preceded the Dreadnaught size that appeared in the 1930’s. The Orchestra Model (OM) derives from a Martin Guitar Company body size and shape with a particular scale length. ![]() Martin only made the original OM from 1929 to 1934, but by the late Sixties, fingerstyle guitarists were digging around pawnshops and tag sales hoping to find one. It wasn’t until a trip to Greenwich Village and a meeting with a Martin collector that it was brought it to my attention the guitar was an OM-18 and not a 000-18 because the scale length was 25.4”. Growing up in the late Sixties I played a number of Martin 000-18 guitars and I found that the best sounding one I had was from the Thirties. Most acoustic guitars draw their inspiration in some form from this tradition. The four main styles and shapes of acoustic guitars are Dreadnought, Slope Shoulder Dreadnought, Jumbo and OM (Orchestra Model). Many of the small-shop produced guitars built today in shops like Dana Bourgeois’ Pantheon Guitars, Bill Collings’ Collings Guitars, Richard Hoover’s Santa Cruz Guitar Company, the Merrill brothers’ Merrill Guitars, Huss and Dalton Guitars, Jean Goodall’s Goodall Guitars, Morris Guitars and many others draw their inspiration from the instruments built by Martin and Gibson from the early 1930s to the beginning of World War II. The quality and availability of fine hand-made guitars and mandolins has reached an all-time high: a renaissance in Lutherie.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |