In a guitarist’s line of work, it’s easy to become lost among the limitless choices offered by today’s luthiers, from exotic tonewoods to advanced, progressive bracing techniques, scale lengths, body shapes, soundports, pickups. Then, every once in a while, you pick up a guitar which reduces all of those options to chatter, and you are reminded of the one thing which every luthier strives for, but rarely achieves: tone. In picking up this Somogyi OM, one thing is made abundantly clear: this is an instrument which represents the luthier’s ideal voice. So rich as to redefine the language we use to describe it, the notes that spill out of this carved celtic knot soundhole are fundamental, and move with an ineffable grace. Playing this guitar is a transformative experience, every time–the surgically-precise separation of the strings allows passages to be played with the utmost articulation, the basses rolling like church bells in harmony with glistening treble notes.
For the fingerstylist, there isn’t a finer guitar, and all manner of altered or open tunings intonate beautifully across the Japanese-Maple-Leaf-adorned fretboard. Between the Rodgers tuners at the headstock and the carved celtic knot on the endgraft, few guitars could hope to exude timelessness like this OM does, and almost no other guitar is so blessed with straight-grained Brazilian Rosewood or Bearclaw Sitka Spruce, finished with French Polish for maximum resonance. Ervin probably broke the mold when he built this 2010 OM, number 429–let’s just hope he has a spare.
I could play this guitar for days and not get tired. It reminds me of my old Somogyi 000, which had the same style of celtic knot--but playing this OM makes me forget all about that 000 in terms of the fullness of the voice and the clearness of the bass strings. 
With the same sound and playability characteristics of most Somogyi guitars, this one stands out more for its leaf inlays which adorn the fingerboard and body. | Scale Length | 25.125 in |
|---|---|
| Nut Width | 1.75 in |
| String Spacing | 2.13 in |
| Woods | Spruce - Sitka, Rosewood - Brazilian |
In a guitarist's line of work, it's easy to become lost among the limitless choices offered by today's luthiers, from exotic tonewoods to advanced, progressive bracing techniques, scale lengths, body shapes, soundports, pickups. Then, every once in a while, you pick up a guitar which reduces all of those options to chatter, and you are reminded of the one thing which every luthier strives for, but rarely achieves: tone
I could play this guitar for days and not get tired. It reminds me of my old Somogyi 000, which had the same style of celtic knot--but playing this OM makes me forget all about that 000 in terms of the fullness of the voice and the clearness of the bass strings.
With the same sound and playability characteristics of most Somogyi guitars, this one stands out more for its leaf inlays which adorn the fingerboard and body. 