[K Trespass]

Originally Posted by steveh

Two things:

1. You will not be dissapointed. Several of my pals have Sands' guitars and all are completely bowled over with them; at least half of those guys have a very extensive knowledge of "high-end" guitars, whatever that is, and Tom is playing in that game easily. I wouldn't have got on his list otherwise. You made a wise choice.

2. I've played Tom's 00, OM and MMD, and that's a real difficult choice. His 00 is a superb guitar. I'm not normally drawn to smaller guitars since to me they all sound like "small" guitars. The best I've liked has been a Kostal 00 in wenge, that was (relatively) small but didn't display that boxy character and a BRW Claxton Malabar that was probably the best single guitar I've ever played. IIRC, I think Tom's 00 is about the size of the Malabar? Tom's 00 is a very, very sweet guitar but not at all boxy and reminds me very much of both the Kostal and the Claxton, specifically the beautiful mids and exquisite trebles. The bass is clear and well-defined, not boxy.

The MMD will give you a lot more bottom end at the expense of some of that treble; that's how the physics works. For me, I think the MMD is what I want as I love that deep bass response the Somogyi design provides - it's thunderous but wonderfully well-defined. I know people on Tom's list who have gone for the OM in the hope of sitting somewhere in the middle of the OM and MMD. If it's any consolation, after playing Tom's 00, I spent a long, long time vacillating between it and the MMD.

Tom also builds a standard MD, as do most other Somogyi apprentices, but I've not played one of those - he has his first under his own name in the pipeline for a friend of mine but Tom's commissions seem to be for slightly smaller guitars than many of the other apprentices. It think that's because of the particularly sweet mids and trebles people are hearing on Tom's existing guitars and guys are afraid they might lose that if they go for the full-fat MD.

Cheers,
Steve

Many thanks Steve. A lot to think about and thanks for the advice. Tom is keen on the 00 and it might well balance out some of my other guitars which tend to be on the larger side.