by Roger Sadowsky
Roger Sadowsky of New York's Sadowsky Guitars, Ltd., is a guitar builder and repairman who has customized instruments for Marcus Miller, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Prince, and others. He regularly writes Product Profiles for Guitar Player. In this article, he compares a faithful reproduction, the Schoenberg OM-45 Deluxe, with its extremely rare predecessor, the Martin OM-45 Deluxe.
originally printed in Guitar Player, September 1990
The year is 1930 and the place is Nazareth, Pennsylvania, home of the C.F.Martin company. According to Martin historian Mike Longworth, the OM series of instruments was produced at the suggestion of banjoist Perry Bechtel of Atlanta, Georgia. At that time, all Martin models had 12 frets clear of the body and Mr. Bechtel, a plectrum banjoist making the transition to guitar, requested an instrument with 14 frets clear (today's standard). OM's were made from 1929 through 1933, and the OM-45 Deluxe was the fanciest guitar ever to appear in the Martin catalog. Only 14 were made, and they originally sold for $225.00. Today, no one knows for sure how many still exist. Eric Schoenberg, of Schoenberg Guitars, has personally documented the existence of five, including his own. Stan Jay and Larry Wexer of Mandolin Brothers in New York speculate there may be 10 or more still intact, and place the value of these instruments in good condition at $35,000 to $40,000. This makes the OM-45 Deluxe the most desirable collectable Martin, along with the original 91 D-45s produced between 1933 and 1942. [Note: This article was published in 1990. In 1995, a dealer bought an OM-45 Deluxe for $125,000!]
To commemorate the Martin OM-45 Deluxe, Schoenberg Guitars has released a limited edition of 14 reproductions to match the original 14 Martins. The guitar used as the model for the Schoenberg edition is the original Martin OM-45 Deluxe, #44068, owned by Eric Schoenberg. As of this writing, only one Schoenberg Deluxe has been produced. "We've put a great deal of effort and detail into the guitar, and are very proud of it," says Schoenberg. "I've loved and played the old OM's almost exclusively for years. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity to increase their numbers."
The Schoenberg Deluxe features an OM-size body with a German spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides. The top is braced to original scalloped specifications from "split billets" of spruce (splitting spruce tops and bracing stock along the grain of the wood provides stiffer, stronger, more stable, and better-sounding wood than conventional resawing techniques). The AAA-select European spruce top has excellent grain uniformity and color. The sides and back are an exquisite set of very scarce Brazilian rosewood. All the purflings and trim on the Schoenberg are exact reproductions of the original Martin. The edges of the body are bound in white ivoroid. Like all pre-World War II 45s, the Schoenberg's top, back, and side edges are inlaid with narrow strips of abalone surrounded on both sides by extremely delicate wood purfling. Working with wood purfling this delicate is very difficult - much more so than working the abalone strips they surround. If you blink your eyes too hard, the purfling breaks on you, or if there's too much moisture, it begins to separate. All the abalone and purfling joints are meticulously and beautifully mitered. The ebony bridge is made in the original pre-War "belly" style, as opposed to the older pyramid bridges used on the Schoenberg Soloist. One of the features that distinguished the martin Deluxe from the standard 45 was its abalone-inlaid tortoiseshell pickguard; the one on the Schoenberg is not only beautifully executed, but beautiful to look at, as well. Much of the cost of this instrument is tied up in the amazing craftsmanship executed in its inlay and purfling.
An internal inspection with a light and mirror reveals a clean, spotless interior. The braces are beautifully delicate and scalloped, and there are virtually no specks of glue squeeze-out to be found. However, I detected a few discrepancies between the Martin and the Schoenberg. The Martin has a maple strip glued to the mahogany end block, and the maple strip's grain runs at a 90 degree angle, relative to the block's grain. This is absent on the Schoenberg. The second difference is Martin's fabric reinforcing strips glued to the inside of the sides; the Schoenberg has thin strips of rosewood glued to the sides. The Schoenberg also has an extra brace around the soundhole. (Schoenberg explains, "The additional brace above the soundhole is one change we felt necessary. For some reason, that brace was missing in the original OM's, and many of them cracked on the top along the edges of the fingerboard. Martin was very correct to add it to subsequent models.") Although few guitar owners ever get to see the inside of an acoustic body, it is usually the first place a guitar maker looks to examine the workmanship of another. On a scale of 1 to 10, the interior work of this guitar earns an 11!
The Schoenberg's neck is one piece of quartersawn mahogany reinforced with a traditional ebony bar inside. The ebony fingerboard is bound with ivoroid, as is the headstock. It's inlaid with traditional abalone diamonds, snowflakes, and cat's eyes; the headstock has the magnificent Martin "torch" pattern of beautiful abalone inlaid into a perfect Brazilian rosewood headstock faceplate. According to Longworth, the "torch" inlay was last used on the OM-45 and was replaced in about 1934 with the name "C.F.Martin" inlaid in pearl. Probably the most interesting feature of the neck is the use of the old-style bar frets. Bar frets were standard until 1934, when they were replaced by the current T-style fret, in which the crown (top part) of the fret is wider than the tang (the vertical portion that is set into the fingerboard). Old-style bar frets were thin and of even thickness above and below the fingerboard surface. These bar frets have a width of about .050", whereas T-style Martin fretwire measures about .085" for the crown and .022" for the tang. The bar frets sit higher off the fingerboard at about .053", versus T-frets, at about .043". Their height is equivalent to the highest "super jumbo" electric guitar wire, yet it is more than 50% narrower.
The final appointments include gold-plated, engraved banjo tuners with genuine mother-of-pearl buttons, fossil-ivory bridge pins, and a fossil walrus tooth end pin.
What can I say? I don't know how many times I'll have the opportunity to play an $11,500 guitar and compare it to its $40,000 ancestor, but the Schoenberg Deluxe is the most magnificent new guitar I have ever had the privilege of playing. Beyond the physical reproduction aspects, which by themselves constitute a wonderful achievement of craftsmanship, the Deluxe sounds and plays like a dream. In addition, the guitar is beautiful. Inlay artist Jay Darmstadter of Virginia did the exceptional pearl work for the pickguard, headstock, fingerboard, and bridge. The body inlay work is also exceptional and truly enhanced by the extremely delicate wood purflings on each side of the abalone strips. This instrument's wood selection is the best - the German spruce top is almost the definition of perfection, with regard to evenness of grain and color. And the Brazilian rosewood on the sides and back is killer - the kind of wood that makes a middle-aged guitar maker like me start to cry when I think how scarce wood like this has become.
As beautiful as this guitar looks, well, that's how great it plays and sounds. Its neck is wonderful, and I was very impressed by the feel and playability of the vintage bar frets. The other times I have played on bar frets, they have been on old Martins that have had the frets filed so many times that they were too low. This was only the third time I had played a guitar with full-height bar frets, and it was a neat experience. I felt that even if I got a little sloppy with my left-hand fingering, the bar frets provided enough accuracy to produce a full-sounding note. The string spacing is wider than on contemporary guitars, and it seems more comfortable, too. I was able to articulate individual notes better, without my left-hand fingers touching surrounding strings they shouldn't have been touching.
As for tone, I am willing to say that this is the best-sounding new guitar I have ever played. This guitar really speaks: It has volume, definition, and a tone quality that is truly exceptional. It's always hard to talk about tone; there are definite limitations to the ability of language to articulate what we hear, but you know as soon as you play this guitar that it's extraordinary. It has volume and sustain, and it's even all over the neck. I only hope to be around to hear this guitar after it's been played for 60 years, because the original 1930s guitar is truly amazing.
My only reservation about the Schoenberg Deluxe is the use of an ebony bar to reinforce the neck, rather than an adjustable truss rod. I realize the ebony bar is correct from the standpoint of accurate reproduction, but for my money, I would order mine with an adjustable truss rod. Eric Schoenberg agrees that the adjustable rod is an excellent idea and can save trouble in the long run. He adds, "On the other hand, the ebony bar probably influences the tone, and thus makes it sound more like the original."
Now $11,500 might seem like an incredible amount of money, but when you look at what the original OM-45 Deluxe costs now - if you could get one, even if you had $40,000 - the Schoenberg is very reasonable. And if you check the cost of custom furniture and artwork today, the Schoenberg Deluxe actually starts to look like a bargain at $11,500!
The Schoenberg Deluxe is an extraordinary reproduction of the rarest of collectable Martins. It is built with great care and love by the fine folks and incredible craftsmen at C.F.Martin and at Schoenberg Guitars, with each instrument personally approved by Eric Schoenberg. Only 14 people in the world will have the privilege of owning one of these guitars, but it means that at least twice as many people will now be able to experience one of the steel-string's most outstanding specimens.