OM Short Scale Rant

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

I have a Martin with an OM/000 body, a 25.4" scale length, 1/4" scalloped braces, and a 1 11/16" nut width. What do I call this guitar?!?!?

Not as dumb as Martin calling the 0000/M with 4 7/8" body depth a 'jumbo'!
It's really not that big! (guitar in the middle)

[TKT]

Originally Posted by HHP

You're going to give the poor OP a case of the vapors.

"The vapors" actually means flatulence or GAS, so, possibly.

[M Hayden]

Early OMs were characterized by Martin long scale, 14-fret (squared shoulder) 000-size body, 14-fret neck to body join, 1-3/4” nut, and wide spacing at the bridge. That’s what Collings, SCGC, and Martin reissues seem to use as a baseline for their definition of “OM,” though the nomenclature has gotten muddied by people wanting to apply the “OM” moniker for instruments falling outside the original spec. Why is beyond me, but there it is.

The whole purpose of an OM was a long scale length for power and a 14-fret neck for greater upper-fret access, designed to appeal to crossover banjo players. But at this point it’s lost that meaning and it’s become a marketing term used for whatever a builder wants to label as such.

14-fret Martin 000s used Martin short scale with 1-11/16” nut and slightly narrower string spacing.

There are builders - Jim Patterson was an early one - who put 12-fret necks on the 14-fret 000 body shape. They sound ok but imho a 12-fret neck on a 12-fret 000 body sounds better. The 12-fret neck on a 14-fret body feels and looks a bit odd and somewhat contra the design purpose of the square shoulder 000 body, as it reduces both body volume and upper fret access...but as noted, that’s an opinion.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by M Hayden

14-fret Martin 000s used Martin short scale with 1-11/16” nut and slightly narrower string spacing.
.

Actually 14-fret 000s had 1 3/4th" nuts until 1939, when they went to the narrower spacing.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

I have a Martin with an OM/000 body, a 25.4" scale length, 1/4" scalloped braces, and a 1 11/16" nut width. What do I call this guitar?!?!?

Fred......

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by Mr. Jelly

I don't know where or how this started but to me there is no such thing as a OM short scale. It's a 000. A 000 long scale would be an OM. What am I missing?

Should I mention that, for a time in the early 1930s, after Martin discontinued the OM for a lack of sales, they did make a "long-scale 14-fret 000"... With the 1 3/4" nut, I might add...

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by TKT

"The vapors" actually means flatulence or GAS, so, possibly.

That isn't what I remembered so I looked it up:

In time, the phrase "I've got the vapors" became a catch-all phrase to refer to a host of "female" ailments like swooning, depression, bloating, etc. for which a quick home remedy was sniffing smelling salts.

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Mycroft

Should I mention that, for a time in the early 1930s, after Martin discontinued the OM for a lack of sales, they did make a "long-scale 14-fret 000"... With the 1 3/4" nut, I might add...

In 1934 there were 2 big changes that affected Martin’s lineup, T-frets and the T-bar, but those changes took a while to work their way into their lineup across all models. They only made the long scale 000 in 1934 during the transition from the long scale OM to the short scale 000 which took about 8 months. Before 1934, all OM’s had bar frets, and I believe most (if not all) of these transitional long scale 000’s did as well, essentially making them OM’s that were merely labeled incorrectly as 000’s. To me, the 14 fret 000 started when they made them with the 24.9 scale length and t-frets/t-bar. Martin did not change the nut width and saddle string spacing on guitars until 1939, so all non-slotted headstock guitars had the 1 3/4” nut in the 1930’s (with very few exceptions except for certain 12 fret models specially ordered or made with solid headstocks).