Martin 0000

General Information about Building Kit Guitars
RnB
Posts: 210
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 1:44 pm
Location: Bay Area

Re: Martin 0000

Post by RnB »

I have both Martins you're talking about. A J-65M & a 0000-28H (wide neck). As much as I like the Jumbo, I prefer the shallower depth of the 4-ought. Very comfortable for me, since I have some shoulder issues. You can pull a pretty good bass sound out of it, but it's not going to give you the same amount of bass that a Jumbo has, or a dread for that matter. It's more characteristic of an OM, but w/ a little more to offer.
J-65M: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/ ... nJ-65M.jpg
0000-28H: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/ ... 8HW000.jpg

I think Runningdog said it good, that given the right top & bracing, in combination w/ the back/side thickness, you can build an OM that can deliver close to what you are looking & w/ a fair amt of bass. With John's (Tippie) guidance & the forum here, I recently put together a Mahogany OMC that has an incredible amt of bass for it's size & it's an 1/8" shy of an OM's depth. Maybe I just got lucky, as it was my 1st build & certainly has it's fair share of flaws...But that aside, I am very content w/ the outcome...

Eric Schoenberg was just saying the other day on another forum, that a shallower guitar is capable of producing more of a bass response that an OM w/ deeper body...
My experience has been that making the body shallower may possibly improve the tone. I've seen several instances in which OMs have been made with deeper bodies, and instead of the intended consequence, the OMness was diminished - the tone got pudgier. One of the superlative characteristics of an OM is the quickness and cleanliness of response, like a sports car, where the deeper bodies became more truck-like: slower response and wolfier bass. Larson Bros. have showed us that some very shallow bodies can be quite full sounding. If you want to fill in the tone of an OM, the direction would be either to go to 12-frets or to a 0000. This is the thinking about my newest model, the Quartet, which is the first 12-fret 0000. The results have been most satisfying. Here's the only demonstration so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VokgFw0k5ZM
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