Malaysian Blackwood / Sitka OM Guitar
Tonewoods
The Malaysian Blackwood OM guitar was a return to the OM body style to compare to the Phi body style.
Malaysian blackwood back and sides with abalone backstrip. Curly koa binding, ebony headplate, fingerboard and bridge, abalone / Malaysian blackwood rosette. Five piece neck. KTM-9 finish.
Completed in 2011.
Voicing and Construction
Voicing was performed according to the book set by Ervin Somogyi. I purposely tried to build this guitar on the verge of collapsing. The soundboard is about 2.2 mm thick, and bracing was trimmed by tapping the soundboard for consistent, open sound. After assembling the guitar and recording the impulse response per the books by Trevor Gore, I further reduced the X braces adjacent to the bridge plate. Back thickness is 2.1 mm.
The open, full sound established a benchmark for my other guitars.
Resonances:
Top monopole 177 Hz
Cross dipole 228 Hz
Long dipole 349 Hz
Back 228 Hz
Air 94 Hz.