A bit of context: Nick was one of the first luthiers, in the early 70’s, to resurrect the OM. His Jumbo is a design he came up with based on Stefan Grossman’s Prairie State Guitar, a guitar that had originally been an arch-top, and had been retopped as a flattop by Jon Lundburg. Nick told me that when he saw the guitar he really liked the shape — he’d never seen another exactly like it — so he built one. Sometime in the early 80s Nick showed Stefan an OM and the Jumbo. Stefan liked both, and has been playing and performing with his Franklin Jumbo ever since. (Apparently John Renbourne ordered an OM at the same time)
The Jumbo is wide — a 16 3/4 lower bout — but it’s about the same depth as an OM: around 4” at the tail, tapering to about 3.25” at the heel.
Nick’s website describes the Jumbo:
“The Franklin Jumbo is another Nick Kukich specialty. Nick sympathizes with guitarists looking for the kind of “big” sound that only a Jumbo could give. But being the artist he is, he found it unacceptable to make a guitar that coupled projection with a mushy tone quality. He experimented with bracing modifications and body dimensions until he could offer a Jumbo that wouldn’t give you the problems typically associated with these guitars. The result is an instrument with the power to cut through and a deep resonant bass – but one that won’t “boom”, resulting in a loss of clarity, or create problems with a microphone.”
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