A pair of Indian Rosewood OM's - Cedar/Spruce soundboards - AUDIO DEMO ADDED

[Oska Burman]

Hello everybody - hope all of you are well.

These are the latest two guitars that I've been working on & are almost finished in the wood. They are a pair of OM's, both with Indian Rosewood back & sides, but one has a Red Cedar top & the other, Alpine Spruce. The Rosewood is fairly special - again, coming from the wood stash of master luthier Stefan Sobell's collection. They're both beautiful specimens, with a diverse palette of striations, very well aged & quite incredibly, have quite visible medullary rays - something I've not seen before in Rosewood.

With a scale length of 25.4" and slightly deeper bodied (at the tail block) than my standard OM, measuring 91mm - 108mm (3.6" - 4.25"). Both bound in figured Tasmanian Blackwood with Hawaiian Koa tiled mosaic rosettes. All internal bracing is European Spruce.

They'll both be heading across the Atlantic to the USA when they're finished.

Anyway, enough waffle! Here's a selection of photos from the build process.

Cheers,

Oska.








Quite visible medullary rays here

[Treenewt]

Beautiful work Oska! And you’re right, that rosewood is top shelf! Can’t wait to see these once you’re done!

[Carpinteria]

Your design-eye and woodworking skills are inspiring! And that rosewood is, indeed, very special. Thanks for sharing these builds. Dave

[jrodriguezcros]

I love the rosette and the end graft, very beautiful.

[Colin_Mac]

Hope there's enough of that rosewood for you to use some of it in my build...

[Jwills57]

Hey, those are my guitars! I think Oska really has his guitar-making chops down cold. His level of craftsmanship, of detail, of care is first class. I'm absolutely confident these guitars will be amazing. Check out his website (oskaburmanguitars.com) for more pics and videos. His guitars right now are an amazing value, too, so if you're looking for an instrument handmade to your specs by a great up-and-coming young luthier, you might contact Oska. He's a great guy. I should have the guitars round about September time, I imagine.

[Colin_Mac]

Originally Posted by Jwills57

Hey, those are my guitars! I think Oska really has his guitar-making chops down cold. His level of craftsmanship, of detail, of care is first class. I'm absolutely confident these guitars will be amazing. Check out his website (oskaburmanguitars.com) for more pics and videos. His guitars right now are an amazing value, too, so if you're looking for an instrument handmade to your specs by a great up-and-coming young luthier, you might contact Oska. He's a great guy. I should have the guitars round about September time, I imagine.

Did you come all the way over here to look at Oska's work, or did you order based on photos and conversation?

[Jwills57]

Photos, conversations, sound clips. Best, Jack

[Colin_Mac]

Originally Posted by Jwills57

Photos, conversations, sound clips. Best, Jack

I live about an hour from Oska's workshop and I tried the demo OM that he built. I don't think you will be disappointed when you get yours.

[Jwills57]

Yea, I can't imagine these guitars won't be anything but stellar. And I'm looking forward to having a bit of a UK style and flair. I have the traditional Martin-inspired OM covered, a sound which I love, but I'm hoping these guitars will cover a base or two that the Martin style doesn't.

[Oska Burman]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

Beautiful work Oska! And you’re right, that rosewood is top shelf! Can’t wait to see these once you’re done!

Cheers Treenewt! Yes indeed, it's some very good, old Rosewood.

Originally Posted by Carpinteria

Your design-eye and woodworking skills are inspiring! And that rosewood is, indeed, very special. Thanks for sharing these builds. Dave

Ahh thanks buddy & glad you found inspiration from my work. Happy to share my builds with everyone here!

Originally Posted by jrodriguezcros

I love the rosette and the end graft, very beautiful.

Cheers. Yes, I've been making many incarnations of this rosette on a number of guitars now & I think it works really well with my designs overall. The floating wedge end graft too.

[Oska Burman]

Originally Posted by Colin_Mac

Hope there's enough of that rosewood for you to use some of it in my build...

There definitely is Colin

[Oska Burman]

Originally Posted by Jwills57

Hey, those are my guitars! I think Oska really has his guitar-making chops down cold. His level of craftsmanship, of detail, of care is first class. I'm absolutely confident these guitars will be amazing. Check out his website (oskaburmanguitars.com) for more pics and videos. His guitars right now are an amazing value, too, so if you're looking for an instrument handmade to your specs by a great up-and-coming young luthier, you might contact Oska. He's a great guy. I should have the guitars round about September time, I imagine.

I thought you'd chime in Jack & I don't blame you!

I've thoroughly enjoyed meeting you (if only via email & phone conversatios) & dealing with you as a client of mine. I'm really looking forward to having these two guitars complete & shipped over to you, for you to enjoy and to get the best out of them.

[Oska Burman]

Hello everyone.

It's been a fairly busy time for me, so I'm just now catching up with the "non-building" side of guitar making - namely photo editing atm.

These two guitars were a tremendous milestone for myself. They are my first commissioned guitars to go overseas to a client - the USA in this case. (I do have a guitar in Australia, but it was bought here in the UK & then taken to Melbourne - not commissioned from there). I had never shipped a guitar internationally before, let alone all the way across the Atlantic. I did a tremendous amount of research into the best way to do this & had a great deal of help from a couple of other luthier's. Dermott McIlroy was incredibly generous with his time & information, as was Drew Lowry in France. With all my combined knowledge, I packed up the guitars last week & bade them farewell. They survived the trip unscathed and I have now commenced breathing again!

Just to re-cap - the guitars are identical in all respects, except for their soundboards - one being European Spruce (Picea abies), the other being Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata).

The other specs are as follows:

- Model: OM
- Indian Rosewood back & sides
- Ebony fingerboard, bridge, front headplate & truss rod cover
- Mahogany neck w/ carbon fibre inserts & 2-way adjustable truss rod
- Hawaiian Koa tiled mosaic rosette
- Tasmanian blackwood bindings, endgraft & heelcap
- Flamed maple purflings
- English Walnut back headplate
- White MOP headstock inlay & side fret position markers
- Vintage style White MOP diamond inlays - front
- European Spruce internal bracing
- Bone bridge pins
- Unbleached bone nut & saddle
- Gold Gotoh 510 machine heads with Tagayasan (Ironwood) buttons
- Finish: Gloss lacquer
- EVO gold fretwire
- 25.4" (645mm) scale length
- 1.78" (45.2mm) nut width
- 2 1/4" (57.2mm) string spacing @ bridge

Without further ado, here is a selection of photos from from my recent photoshoot, before they left the country.

Cheers,

Oska.

[mikealpine]

Those are beautiful! The cedar is a gorgeous hue.