I am a great lover of the vintage Martin OM. I've played a few primo examples at Schoenberg, so I THINK I understand that sound pretty well. I've also played countless reproductions of "the real thing" and I think that allows me to triangulate pretty well.
Since receiving my rosewood Circa OM in 2016, I've been pining after a mahogany twin. I've had a couple of Slobod builds slots waiting in the wings for a while now and things all seem to be coming together at once. Matthew Partrick and I have been nerding out over specs for an OM-18 and he convinced me to add some 21 stylings. So while it's an 18 in the sense that it's mahogany and spruce, it'll have some 21 stylings like rosewood binding, a herringbone rosette, and some low key diamond inlays on the fretboard. I'm sure it'll veer slightly at some point off the style 21 map, but the basic concept is to take it up a notch.
Body - OM, non cutaway
Back and Sides - Curly mahogany
Appointments - Style 21 mostly
Pyramid Bridge
Graphite truss rod and Plek
1 3/4" nut
2 5/16" saddle spacing
EVO 55090 wire
Shade top
I've not had any problems with my two non-adjustable graphite rodded guitars, and we're shooting for light as possible on this guitar.
The top will be shaded to something approximating this.
John has picked out some gorgeous curly mahogany that apparently has gorgeous tap tone and weight. So we're off to a good start. Building should start right after the holidays.
Photos of the final guitar.
