The Oystercatcher #48

For a couple of years now I am pretty obsessed with the Martin OM guitar shape. Somehow thats surprising me because at first I really did not like that guitar shape at all. Until I wanted to build a Martin Style guitar with a shape that is not my own design but rather a standard OM shape. For that I purchased a print of a plan by StewMac which I ended up twisting and changing a little bit but I stayed rather close. It was guitar #38. I chose the OM because honestly I thought that this is the most popular model and if I am going to try and sell it then that would certainly help. 

The guitar is still with me. It sparked a kind of collection of templates and drawings that has not been there before. I have created numerous drawings, paper templates, cardboard templates, MDF templates and Plexi glass templates. So many I lost count.

So when I got the chance to build a guitar for the Guitar Basar in Osnabrück I chose of of the many templates for an OM guitar than I desperately wanted to build. It was inspired by the early iteration of the Martin OM, when it was still an OM and not a 000, build from 1929 until 1931/32. 

Many people say it was the first "modern" acoustic guitar. The neck joint the body at the 14th fret for the first time at Martin, Gibson was doing that with their archtops already. With a slim neck and a long scale this guitar was meant for a different type of player altogether. It even came with an optional pickguard like the mandolins of the time all had standard. 

As it turned out the shape I drew is still different from those Martins. Which is fine, I didn`t want to copy. It`s different by choice, I wanted to interpret that vibe and still let it be my own guitar. It`s voice will be uniquely mine anyway, how could it not be. And so I gave myself permission to play around a little bit. Try things out. Like the colour on the top. It is a subtle sunburst but done with the French polish method. I haven`t seen this anywhere else yet and have to say I am happy with the result. Colored shellac adds an optical glow to the instruments, it`s warm and beautiful to look at. And it only gets better with age.

Oh, and here are some more specs. Top is Sitka spruce, back and sides are American walnut. The neck is South American mahogany, ebony bridge and the fretboard and peghead overlay are Madagaskar rosewood with binding.