SOLD!!!! Martin OM-28 VR SOLD!!!
I bought this guitar in Oct '98 and it quickly become my favorite acoustic. I use it anytime I play standing up, plugged in, amplified, or in an intimate acoustic setting. It's a surprisingly loud guitar with a deep rich tone. It reminds me a lot of a piano- just a great rich sound on every note.
I immediately replaced the saddle and nut with bone, installed fossil walrus ivory pins in a slotted bridge, and put one of Mike Nihen's awesome pickguards on. I'm using a McIntyre Feather pickup in it that sounds great. After a year of playing it, I scalloped the nut and saddle and WOW! the bass response just exploded!
But, of course, I sold this guitar. Reason being is that I've taken arrival of my new Proulx (rhymes with "new") OM/D which is a guitar that I helped design. I wanted the Proulx to be my #1 instrument and it looks like it's going to do that. The Proulx has a red spruce top, wider body, and other modifications that I wanted. I hated to see the Martin go, but it's a great guitar that needs to be played.
You can see the "bearclaw" figure on the bass upper bout in this shot. I've seen quite a few OM-28 VR's and have yet to see one with this much "silk" in the top.
Here's a closeup of the top showing the silking:
The back of the guitar shows nice pretty straight Indian rosewood:
The OM-28 currently has an elk antler saddle that I found gave the trebles a fatter, sassier sound than bone. It's really hard to find a piece of elk antler big enough to make a long saddle, and you can see some of the dark antler core showing on the treble side of the saddle. Since this area is porous, I run some very thin superglue in it before doing the final shaping. The pins are bone with black dots. The bridge has been slotted, as it should be.
A shot of the headstock front. Tuners are stock Martin. Waverlies will drop right in, should you wish to upgrade. The stock tuners work well enough for me, though.
Here are the modifications I've made to the guitar:
1) popsicle brace removed. The 1930's OM's didn't have this brace and removing it gives the guitar more "air" and a cleaner sound. This was the first brace that I removed and the interior work is not very clean, not up to my current standards. However, it's inside the guitar and not noticeable. While removing the brace, though, I bubbled the finish a little- this has been repaired (shot below).
2) elk antler saddle and bone nut. The current nut is scalloped (cut away between the strings). I used to have a scalloped saddle, but didn't scallop the elk antler. I am willing to make either a new non-scalloped bone nut, or better yet, a non-scalloped elk antler nut for no charge.
3) A McIntyre Feather pickup is installed. This is a brand-new, great sounding pickup. Along with this, the endpin is drilled to 1/2" to accept the pickup jack. The pickup doesn't affect the acoustic sound in any way.
4) the stock pickguard was removed and tossed far, far away and a great looking Tortis one installed.
5) a strap button has been installed in the treble side of the neck heel.
Along with these mods, there is some minor playing wear on the guitar. This is the finish repair mentioned above:
There's a nick on the back of the headstock:
and there's a C-shaped crease where my arm goes over the top:
and other than that, it's in great shape. Remember, I played this guitar!
The case is the stock Geib-style Martin case. I like this case- the guitar fits very well in it and it's a good case:
