Quote:
Originally Posted by usb_chord
Dying to know more about that OM, Thomas. I'll shoot you a pm or email
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Brian, Thanks so much for all the input you gave me a while back on the Circa's you have played. It was a great visit to John's shop - he is a super nice guy. Left me to sit upstairs above the workshop to play as long as I wanted. Then we talked wood and looked at some of his stash. Saw Justin's African Blackwood - awesome to say the least. Also saw Mau's woods - awesome to say the least again. John seemed pretty excited to be tackling a single 0 size guitar.
The OM I played was owned by a guy in NH who has more than one of John's guitars. He had asked to have the original ebony bridge replaced with an ivory bridge - and this is apparently his gigging guitar! It was very, very different from Al Petteway's Euro/Maple 00. Don't know how much of that was the ivory bridge but John felt that it was responsible for a lot about the OM's sound. It was significantly brighter sounding than the 00 but not at all in a bad way. Also much more prominent overtone content - less vintage in character but incredibly beautiful in a somewhat more modern vein. Both guitars played like butter - just beautifully set up - at least for my fingerstyle playing. The 00 was a more versatile instrument I believe although I don't tend to play in many different genres but that was the sense I got when playing it. The OM cutaway was a beautiful fingerstyle instrument but not really suited to blues type playing I wouldn't think personally. However, others might be able to pull it off on that guitar. The 00 also seemed louder in all registers and surprisingly even in the bass. Both guitars were visually beautiful in an understated way- all about the woods and classic design. As for the ivory bridge, I think they look kinda cool although I do know that some do not care for the visual.
Anyway, probably typed too much already. Sorry to go on so.