NICK KUKICH (Franklin Guitar Co.) The OMC (German Spruce / Cuban Mahogany)

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

Very exciting!

Best,
Jayne

Thanks Jayne...

Originally Posted by mhw48

I suppose you could post a picture of the shipping box...

Well the box arrived about 2 hours ago and I just took the case out of the box and placed it in my humidified guitar room. I will wait another 2 hours before I open it...

[jt1]

Absolutely stunning in every way. Congratulations.

Please let me play it some day.

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by jt1

Absolutely stunning in every way. Congratulations.

Please let me play it some day.

Thanks JT.... You can take it for a spin next month at the Artisan Guitar Show.

I have taken it out, but have only played for a few minutes (one of those days at work...). The guitar is every bit as beautiful in person as the photos portray it. I will provide some initial playing impressions this weekend I have a few hours on it.

[Jamiejoon]

Wow, this is a real beauty! Congratulations!

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by Jamiejoon

Wow, this is a real beauty! Congratulations!

Thanks...

[iim7V7IM7]

After the guitar arriving Thursday afternoon, I have finally been able to give the guitar enough of an audition to provide my initial impressions.

The Guitar:

As a reminder, Nick’s OMC is not just an OM with a cutaway; but is a ground up design by Nick. It has a larger body (15-5/8”, Martin Dreadnought width) and is slightly deeper than a traditional OM (4-1/4” vs. the traditional 4-1/8” for a Martin OM). The rationale was to create a slightly larger body to make up for the body volume loss from the cutaway. The guitar has a 25.4” scale length, 1-3/4”. Nut width and 2-5/16” string spacing. This was Nick’s 691st guitar.

The top was made using a 50 year old set of German Spruce that Nick purchased in the 1980s with his friend classical guitar luthier Jeffrey Elliott. Aesthetically, I would say it is AA top with some areas near the outer rims in the 8-12 GPI range and in the 15-18 GPI range thoughout the center. That said, it is beautifully quartered exhibiting consistent silking and shows little sign of twisting along its length with no visual runout. There is some minor remnants of oxidation showing along the lower bout near the top purflings due to its age and seasoning of the top. We selected this top based on its sonic potential and NOT on aesthetic perfection (after playing it, I am glad that we did...).

The body was made from a set of Cuban Mahogany that Nick picked up when he visited Hawaii from sawyer Bart Potter. Cuban Mahogany is not native to Hawaii but was introduced about 100 years ago. The quartersawn Cuban Mahogany presents a deep, honey/reddish brown hue with a plain stripe (ribbon figure is common) and fine fiddle-back (unusual in Cuban Mahogany) figure. This set was quite dense for a mahogany approaching the density of the lighter rosewoods and was nearly poreless. The one-piece Honduran Mahogany neck was made from a neck blank that also was 50 years old and was an excellent color match to the Cuban Mahogany without the need to use colored pore filler to darken it. Most newer mahogany is far lighter in color and is frequently darkened using pore fillers. No need with the old wood.

Aesthetically, the guitar is a mixture of Martin Style 28 (zipper back-strip, diamond & square position markers on an Ebony Fretboard), Martin Style 40 (Paua Abalone rosette, top purflings and bridge pins) and some touches by Nick with the use of European Maple for bindings & end graft instead of Ivoroid plastic, mitered purflings and maple fretboard purflings. We also chose Waverly Gold Tuners with Snakewood buttons which are a great match with the Cuban Mahogany and Brazilian Rosewood veneer. As fret wire, Nick used Jescar EVO .043” x .080” wire (I use this on all of my guitars). The guitar was finished by Nick using nitrocellulose lacquer. I chose a Visenut Active Series 000/OM Case.

One thing I want to clear up is I see many of Nick’s guitars listed at resellers as having Ebony bridges. Nick makes his bridges exclusively with Brazilian Rosewood. Sometimes he stains them to look darker, but they’re always Brazilian Rosewood. Keep that in mind when you see these ad listings. For my guitar he chose a beautiful, light weight (26 grams) rift sawn Brazilian Rosewood that matches the BRW peghead veneer.

The level of craftsmanship is top tier.



The Feel:

The guitar is not uber light, nor heavy but is moderate in weight at 4.12 lbs.. This is due to its size and density of the Cuban Mahogany. The guitar came set up with a standard 3/32” (low E) and 2/32” (high E) at the 12th fret with about 0.005” relief on the fretboard. The nut was cut at both the proper height and angled slots towards to tuner pegs. As a result, the guitar plays like BUTTER. Many guitars play more difficult, because their nuts are cut too high. The neck profile is a “C” profile, but with a shoulder which I like. The despite being dreadnought sized in its lower bout, because is 1) has a narrower waist and 2) is 3/8” less deep it is a remarkably comfortable shape to play. Nick’s Venetian cutaway allows you to move you left hand’s first finger easily to the 15th fret. One thing to note is Nick does not join his neck at the 14th fret but about a 1/4” fret past that so you have a bit of extra access of the upper registers of the fretboard.

The Sound:

It is always difficult to describe sound in words that are commonly understood. First off, this is a FANTASTIC sounding guitar in every respect. I will try to describe its timbre, time domain (e.g. attack & decay) and frequency domain (fundamentals & overtones). I will hopefully get a video together in a month or so (which unfortunately has its own limitations). I will have this guitar with me at the upcoming Artisan Guitar Show in Harrisburg, PA on April 12-14. You are all welcome to audition it. Just ask me....

Like most mahogany guitars it has a fast attack with notes developing their volume instantly upon asking the strings to do so. In terms of decay (or sustain) it differs from most mahogany guitars in it sustains longer, more like a rosewood instrument. Perhaps this is due to the heavy density of the Cuban Mahogany? It does not have the dry, mid focused timbre that many Honduran Mahogany guitars typically have. It definitely has the mid focus to its timbre, but there are more overtones around the fundamentals. Again, more towards what we associate with glassier, rosewood guitars. So imagine a mahogany guitar in timbre, but with more sustain and overtones.

The guitar is responsive to a light touch with your fingers, and also has tremendous headroom when you dig in with a heavy pick. Like many luthier built instruments, it posesses great balance across the strings. Where this guitar distinguishes itself sonically is in two areas:

• The round timbre of its trebles on the G, B and E strings and
  
• How it retains its power and timbral character throughout the fretboard even when you play in its upper frets (e.g. I was playing a Dm7 @ 10-x-10-10-13-x and a E7 @ 12-x-12-13-15-x and every note retains its timbral character and power). In my experience, not many guitars can do this. This is important to me as a player given the material that I like to play.

So that’s the initial “report”...back to playing...

[jaymarsch]

Thanks for the detailed report. Sounds like a winner for you.
Your description of being able to play those chords up the neck with each note retaining its character and power is something I can appreciate and am amazed when luthiers nail that. It is not something that is achieved without some effort and experience.

Best,
Jayne

[justonwo]

Glad you’re liking it! I’m also pleased that you’ve analyzed it in both the time and frequency domains. If a guitar review involves a Fourier transfer, I deem it complete!

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by jaymarsch

Thanks for the detailed report. Sounds like a winner for you.
Your description of being able to play those chords up the neck with each note retaining its character and power is something I can appreciate and am amazed when luthiers nail that. It is not something that is achieved without some effort and experience.

Best,
Jayne

For some first position/open string players, I suppose that it does not matter but when you play musical material that requires that you play up in the upper registers of the fretboard, it makes a huge difference. This attribute is something that I look for in guitars.

Originally Posted by justonwo

Glad you’re liking it! I’m also pleased that you’ve analyzed it in both the time and frequency domains. If a guitar review involves a Fourier transfer, I deem it complete!

You know that I always aim to please...

[gitarro]

That is just beautiful - most cuban mahogany guitars i see are without figure but yours has so much it looked like a set of koa!

I have only played one Franklin and that ine was a spruce honduran mahogany OM guitar and it was excellent and surprisingly sounded like a rosewood guitar. I have played rosewood guitar with less overtones!

I can only imagine that with cuban the effect would be even more so.

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by gitarro

That is just beautiful - most cuban mahogany guitars i see are without figure but yours has so much it looked like a set of koa!

I have only played one Franklin and that ine was a spruce honduran mahogany OM guitar and it was excellent and surprisingly sounded like a rosewood guitar. I have played rosewood guitar with less overtones!

I can only imagine that with cuban the effect would be even more so.

Barry, interesting that that was your impression. What was type of spruce was it topped with?

While I was speaking about the old Cuban Mahogany most of the overtones likely is due to the contributions of the old German Spruce top that Nick used. The timbre of this guitar is clearly “mahogany” with its direct attack and balanced, warm fundamental core but where it seems differ to my ears is in the length of its sustain and the fact that it leans towards rosewood in the amount of overtones. The fundamental EQ is different, and the degree of overtones are less, but it is different than what I hear in most mahogany guitars.

[Diamondave]

WORTH THE WAIT...!!!

[iim7V7IM7]

Originally Posted by Diamondave

WORTH THE WAIT...!!!

Yes...

[Guitars44me]

I love a build thread and this has been a spectacular one.

But now we all wish you TONS OF FUN playing music!!!

An absolutely Beautiful Instrument

Enjoy her in great health and spirits

Paul

[gitarro]

Originally Posted by iim7V7IM7

Barry, interesting that that was your impression. What was type of spruce was it topped with?

While I was speaking about the old Cuban Mahogany most of the overtones likely is due to the contributions of the old German Spruce top that Nick used. The timbre of this guitar is clearly “mahogany” with its direct attack and balanced, warm fundamental core but where it seems differ to my ears is in the length of its sustain and the fact that it leans towards rosewood in the amount of overtones. The fundamental EQ is different, and the degree of overtones are less, but it is different than what I hear in most mahogany guitars.

I think it was an adirondack spruce sunburst top, though I could be wrong. Whatever the case and with the possible exception of a Kim Walker maple that I once owned a few years ago, it may have been the best acoustic guitar made of non-rosewood that I have ever played, although to be fair this is also coloured by my great preference for rosewood-like tones