Quote:
Originally Posted by stuartb
Congrats.
My franklin has incredible dynamics, and it's such a pleasure to play. I'm just getting the action adjusted modestly right now and miss it dearly.
I would be trusting to Nick on the impact of a short scale. I don't think I'd expect sweeter or warmer (how do you improve upon perfection) - but I'd want to know that the brilliance of his signature tonality can be achieved without any sacrifice if he did build a short scale guitar. Builders generally know where their sweet spots are, and what they can achieve, and I tend to trust them. He's been building for a long time.
I have a 14 fret - OM and would not change a thing. It's a delightful guitar. Light, with impressive and startling dynamics. I've had many people comment on the sweetness and engulfing tone they hear.
Look forward to seeing the end result.
Stuart
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Thanks Stuart. Your points are very succinct and I love hearing about how impressed you and others are with your Franklin. This is my lifetime guitar and even though there's always a bit of trepidation or second guessing with a custom build, It's reassuring to hear so much positive feedback from others.
I talked to Nick last night about scale and how it affects his tonality. He didn't try to dissuade me from it, but I gathered that he feels it's less than ideal for the OM. Generally, he says you lose some of the power or drive in the bass. And that, to my ears is one of the defining qualities of the OM. It tends to have a full but clean bass. So shortening the scale would affect the overall balance to some degree.
Kudos to Nick, he said he knew he put that shorter scale idea in my head when he saw me grimacing on a couple chords and suggested it. And I told him that the one of his I did play with 12's plays easier than my Collings with 11's. He said , "Well...I usually spend about 13 hours just on the action. Sold...standard 25.4 scale it is!