Borges OM-18 Golden Grain

[stamper]

Well, about 20 months or so after getting the specs of the guitar together, my Borges OM-18GG arrived last week. For those who have not been privy to the details from earlier posts, the guitar is Golden Grain mahogany / European spruce and it is graced with (I believe) the only 14-fret, 1 13/16" neck that Jules has ever carved. With a comparatively flat profile, it's the easiest-playing steel string guitar I've ever touched.

As I've indicated previously, Jules has continued to tweak his OM design over the past few years. One area that he has been particularly interested in is producing beefier tone from the unwound strings (which is very near and dear to my heart). My guitar is the second one he has built that incorporates some different top / back / board radius changes to push things even closer to 1930s specs. I have no clue exactly what he is doing there, but the results are terrific. As he told me, "nobody wants to know how the sausage is made, they just want it to taste good ... "



I'm not going to talk about tone because everybody's ears are different and I've posted a video link below. But I can say that if you're in the market for an OM, Jules should be at or near the top of your list. For details regarding custom orders, you can contact Kim Sherman at Cotten Music in Nashville.

Video link here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9idQFsInRMA

Strings are D'Addario EJ11s (80/20s) with the unwounds bumped up to mediums, and the mic is a Peluso 2247 tube mic.

[JohnM]

Wonderful playing Mike. I really enjoyed it!

[Cornerstone Guitars]

Very nice indeed! Looks like a hard piece to play....

[Scholar]

That was great, Mike -- beautiful guitar, and a very pleasing rendition. Good on ya!

[Markart]

Amazing tone on that guitar, wow! Beautiful playing. Is there anywhere online to buy sheet music/tabs for that song?

[stamper]

Thanks guys.

Mark, the tab for that version is in Al Petteway's "Caledon Wood: Acoustic Guitar" book.

[Michael Watts]

what a beautiful guitar! Big fan of Julius' work.

[dberkowitz]

Lovely guitar. Julius ROCKS!!!

[stuartb]

Mike, lovely playing, and wonderful sound.

I thought you were getting into classical guitars?

Stuart

[stamper]

Originally Posted by stuartb

Mike, lovely playing, and wonderful sound.

I thought you were getting into classical guitars?

Stuart

Correct, Stuart. I ordered this guitar a couple of years ago right before I started switching to nylon. In the interim, I sold virtually all of my steel string guitars (just had one dread left). So yes, this is my only steel string fingerstyle guitar.

If I'm gonna have one, I think this would be the one to have.

[Ruble]

That is my favorite tuning... Great looking and sounding guitar.

Chris

[stuartb]

Originally Posted by stamper

Correct, Stuart. I ordered this guitar a couple of years ago right before I started switching to nylon. In the interim, I sold virtually all of my steel string guitars (just had one dread left). So yes, this is my only steel string fingerstyle guitar.

If I'm gonna have one, I think this would be the one to have.

No arguments with a Borges. He makes a fine guitar.

The tone is much more focused than a rosewood Borges, eh.

Stuart

[mmasters]

Great voice there, I like what Borges is doing. Btw, I need to get a setup like yours to demo stuff, the fidelity in your clips on youtube is the best I've heard.

[stamper]

Originally Posted by stuartb

No arguments with a Borges. He makes a fine guitar.

The tone is much more focused than a rosewood Borges, eh.

Stuart

I've owned two rosewood Borges fingerstyle guitars (a 000 and an OM). Probably shouldn't have sold them, but I did ... purely because I was shifting to nylon. It's sorta hard to put my finger on the differences between them, but if pressed I guess I would say that there seems to be a bit more air in the tone of the mahogany guitar.

To me, it sounds more yellow while the rosewood guitars sound more blue. But that probably makes absolutely no sense to anyone else ...

[Alan Porton]

Beautiful guitar, beautiful playing....