Marvelous Midrange: The Martin OM-28V

The Martin OM-28V is a smallish guitar in the body style I usually associate with the "000" designation. It has a small body, but with wide shoulders (unlike my Larrivee LS-05, which has sloped shoulders). Scanning Martin's website, I see they call the OM-28V an "orchestra" style guitar, while the "000" is usually called an "auditorium" style guitar. It appears I still have some learning to do about the "0", "00" and "000" designations.

In any case, the OM-28V has a rosewood body, spruce top, and a dark ebony fingerboard. The V suffix means "vintage"; the OM-28V represents an attempt to duplicate Martin's older guitars in a contemporary instrument with an adjustable truss rod.

Martin's modern "vintage" instruments, this one included, have the smaller "butterbean" tuners (silver, in this case) of their older instruments, as well as the small old-style inlays in the fingerboards. The OM-28V is finished in a high gloss "aging" toner. As with Martin's older instruments (and like my Larrivee LS-05), this one has a slightly wider fingerboard than you may be accustomed to: 1 3/4 inches at the nut, or 1/16 inch wider than the 1 11/16 which I believe is standard on most contemporary Martins. This wider neck may make playing fast runs a bit harder at first, if you're not used to it, but you will quickly adjust.

The Sound

What a wonderful midrange this guitar has! Individual notes were loud and clear, and there was a richness and fullness to the notes that reminded me I was playing a guitar that retails for $3350 (good quality case included). Internal bracing of this guitar is scalloped (shaven), probably partially accounting for the lively tone.

Treble overtones were present in just the right amount, but not as much so as with the Taylor 810 rosewood dreadnought, which was on hand for direct comparison.

The bass of this guitar was well-balanced with the midrange and trebles, but it was NOT dreadnought bass. If you want that big, bassy, bluegrass sound, you'll have to check out a Martin dreadnought (my favorite, dollar for dollar, is still the HD-28).

Can this guitar do bluegrass? I was recently at a bluegrass "pickin' potluck" here in the Bay Area, and one of the guys in our circle was playing a small Santa Cruz guitar (it looked almost identical to my Larrivee, with sloped shoulders and no apparent pick guard). His solos cut through nicely, better than those of the 1995 Martin D-16 I was playing. So my answer would be "yes." His Santa Cruz sounded a lot like the Martin OM-28V, with a nice punchy midrange, and nice clear overtones. Small guitars CAN do bluegrass if their midrange is loud enough.

The OM-28V also sounded nice with finger-picking tunes. It was different from my small Larrivee, in that it was more direct, for lack of a better term, but it was equally satisfying. Let me try to clarify (for those of you who are serious about subtle differences between guitars). If you've ever played a real pipe organ, you know that there's a slight latency between the time you press a key and the time the note arrives at your ear. My Larrivee has this feeling about it, as if the notes take time to develop. They swell and decay slowly. The Martin on the other hand (and most Martins I've played) builds a note quickly, and assertively, and also decays a bit more quickly. It's as if the Martin is saying "Here it is! Take it or leave it!" The sound of this guitar is also a tad less "wet" than that of my Larrivee.

Playability

Of course, the action of this guitar was set just right, neither too high or too low, and there were no extraneous buzzes that I could discern. Intonation was right, even up the neck, and I had no problem tuning the instrument.

The wider neck did not present much of a problem (even though I've been playing mostly my skinnier-necked Martin lately) and it may have made finger-picking a bit easier. Overall, I did not find this guitar any easier or more difficult to play than the Taylors and Larrivees that were on hand for comparison.

A Final Comparison

Another guitar that was present in the store was a Martin 000-16RGT, which looks superficially like the OM-28V (though the 16RGT is said to be an auditorium model, not an orchestra model). The 000-16RGT is a rosewood guitar with a striped ebony fingerboard, and I thought it might be a nice alternative, at a savings of more than $1000. It also has the more familiar 1 11/16 inch neck width at the nut.

NO COMPARISON! The sound of the 000-16RGT was not nearly as refined as that of the OM-28V. It was a bit bassier, but the midrange lacked both the clarity and the volume of the OM-28V. If you have been playing a 000-16RGT and thinking about buying, save up some extra cash and move up to the OM-28V.

Conclusions

This guitar has one of the highest "smile factors" among guitars I've played lately. It is not as wet as my Larrivee, and it does not have the bass of a Martin HD-28, but Oh, That Midrange!

It is expensive (you can get it at Guitar Center for about $2300), but it is an extremely high quality guitar.

If you are a picker who liked both bluegrass and finger-picking, and who does not need that Big Dreadnought Bass, take a look at the Martin OM-28V.