The Martin OMC Red Birch Acoustic-Electric For Fingerstyle Guitarists
The Martin OMC Red Birch Acoustic-Electric is a limited production guitar made with three sustainable woods key in the structure of the instrument. Sustainability as defined by the World Commission (Bruntland 1987) has defined sustainability as “development that meets needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. We interpret this to not use up all the tonewoods so that future generations have to make their guitars out of plastic.
The first of our three sustainable woods, Red Birch is not often seen in the guitar store gallery yet luthiers have been using the tonewood for quite some time.Maple and Red Birch have similar properties when used by luthiers. Do to the availability of this hardwood it is not expensive and makes an excellent tonewood. The back and sides are solid Red Birch by the way. The other sustainable woods used in the OMC Red Birch are Cherry and Katalox, an Ebony substitute. The center wedge on the back and the rosette on the front contain Cherry while the fingerboard is Katalox.
The Martin OMC Red Birch is an Orchestra Model (hence the OM) with a cut away (omC). The balanced tone from low to high because of the orchestra model’s smaller body is what is so attractive to the fingerstyle guitarist. Instrumental and solo guitarists will enjoy less boom and punchier mid to high ranges. Vocals sound great backed by this style of guitar. Fingerstyle guitar players are attracted to the 1 ¾ inch nut width. The wide nut sits at the top end of the 25 4/10 inch Katalox (did I mention sustainable) fingerboard with 14 frets clear of the body. The body is topped with solid rescued (in keeping with the tone of this model) Sitka Spruce. The solid woods used in the sound board and body of the Martin OMC Red Birch contribute to the overall awe inspiring Martin sound that will be an asset to any musicians performance.
The Martin OMC Red Birch can still be found in some guitar stores even though it is no longer being made in the Martin factory. The collector and or performer would certainly be doing themselves a favor by adding this finely crafted Martin instrument to their line up.
Tags: fingerstyle guitar, Martin OMC, Martin OMC Red Birch, Martin OMC Red Birch Acoustic-Electric
