MARTIN OMC-28 (1990, Limited Edition)

  • Martin OMC-28 (1990) acoustic guitar
    Martin OMC-28 (1990, Guitar of the Month)

Overview

Brand name: 

Product: 

  • acoustic guitars

Series name: 

Dates of manufacture: 

1990

Martin released a limited edition of 76 OMC-28 guitars in 1990 - as part of their guitars of the month series. These were OM-28 style but with a rounded cutaway and oval sound hole. Martin announced this model as follows (in 1990):

"The original OM-28 Martin guitars were offered between 1929 and 1933. Because of their crisp delicate tone and heir slightly wider necks these instruments have been highly prized by finger-style guitarist. The OM "Orchestra Model" style is really a 14-fret version of the 000 size with a long 25.4" scale. The idea was suggested to C.F. Martin by Mr Perry Bechtel, a prominent banjo and guitar player of the 1920s and 1930s. Martin is offering the OM-28 as a 1990 guitar of the month, this time in a cutaway version, hence the designation "OMC-28".

Everything about the OMC-28 is unique, starting with the C.F. Martin & Co. logo painstakingly scroll cut from mother of peal and inlaid into a polished rosewood headstock veneer. The solid ebony fingerboard is inlaid with the M-38 pearl position marker pattern with an extra marker at the 19th  fret. A low profile neck enables easy playability, while the 1.75" neck width (slightly wider than standard) makes this instrument a delight for the finger-style player. Ageing toner on the solid spruce top serves to remove the "new look" while high performance, 0.25", scalloped top bracing contributes to that distinctive Martin tonal quality.

Other details include the zig-zag back-strip (a feature usually reserved for herring-bone models), gold-plated Schaller tuning buttons, a tortoise color pick-guard and matching "red-eye" bridge pins. This elegant instrument is a great guitar for the finger-picker. Each guitar comes with a limited edition label signed by C.F. Martin IV.

Retail Price $3148.00 with 630 case."

Specifications (17)

General

Finish colorsnatural finish
Finish effectsworn or aged finish
Made inUSA
Number of strings6 strings
Scale length25.4 inches scale-length

Neck

Body fretNeck joins body at 14th fret
Headstock inlays or logospearl headstock inlay/logo
Neck profilelow profile neck
Neck width1.75 inches wide at nut
Number of frets22 fret

Body

Body shape featuressingle cutaway
Body styleOM-28 style
Pickguard materialtortoiseshell pickguard
Soundholeoval soundhole

Fretboard

Fingerboard materialebony fingerboard
Fingerboard position markersdot fingerboard position markers

Hardware

TunersSchaller tuners

Prices (3)

DatePriceConditionNameComments
1990$2200.00excellent
1990$3148newguitar-listList price
2018$2400.00excellentTim in Texas

Reviews (1)

MARTIN OMC-28 (1990, Limited Edition) reviewed by Anonymous

5
Average: 5 (1 vote)
i have one .....its easier to say what i dont like about it.............absolutely nothing....

Gallery (0)

Players (0)

1 Comment

1990 Guitar of the Month Martin OMC-28

I've been playing guitar for nearly 50 years. I wish I could tell you that I was a great fingerstylist or even in the profession, but the fact is that the tone and music of a fine instrument touches the heart. For some such as I, touched by the tone of a good guitar becomes a lifetime adventure. Even if I have not touched my guitar in months when I pick it up I sometimes think that by letting each of us rest brings back the best in both (although regrowing the calluses can be more difficult).

I've always wanted to own a Martin. I worked in a music store while I was in college around 1971-73. We sold Martins but I was never able to afford to own one. I longed for a Martin for most of my life having owned other fine electrics. Just after my 40th birthday, my wife and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. She wanted a 10-year ring, and she knew what I wanted to remember our marriage. I tried many instruments and fell in love with the sound of a limited edition Martin "Guitar of the Month" OMC-28 signed by Chris Martin IV (only 82 or so made) - a lovely and wonderful fond memory of my marriage and the future years that we have together. I will be 60 years old next week and my Martin looks as beautiful as the day we brought it home - almost as beautiful as my wife. Yes, I still play (fingerstyle) and my OMC-28's tone has grown more lovely the longer I have owned it. My marriage has blossomed as well - this will be our 30th Wedding Anniversary in December (the same month we brought the Martin home).

I am a structural engineer in California and I live in the desert - having been in private practice in our home/office for 25-years. One room of the house (which I designed and moved into in 1993) is dedicated to three guitars that I own; my beautiful Martin OMC-28 Guitar of the Month, a Jumbo Taylor 915 that I received from Ben Harper as payment for engineering work I did for his grandfather's (Charles Chase) music store in 1992 in Clarimont California (Ben's grandfather has since passed a few years ago but Charles was a man I was very extremely fond of and whose Claremont Folk Instrument Center (that Ben now owns) was retrofit to mitigate and protect lives of those visiting the museum from earthquakes by me in 1992 and will hopefully hold up as well as these two fine guitars). Charles had Martin's on display - some of which he obtained that dated back to the early 1800's in New York). In 2003 I purchased a 1997 Guild Bluesbird (Guild's Les Paul and one of less than 450 made)  - all of these instruments were limited editions, wonderful craftsmanship, and made here in the United States.

While I am prone to play Blues on the Guild Electric currently (with an original Fender Blues Deluxe amplifier that is an original and not a reissue) but have hung all of my guitars on the wall of my small music room (a converted den and sitting room off the master bedroom), placed a humidifier in the room to keep the humidity around 40 percent (a trick to maintain here in the desert where all the homes I design use kiln dried lumber) and an air cleaner that removes most of the dust circulating the room when the weather alls us to keep the windows open. Evaporative Coolers helps maintain the humidity, but once the temperature rises over 110-degrees, the A/C comes on and the humidifier becomes most important (and must be filled often).

Nothing in my life will ever replace my Martin. I waited forty years to own one and my marriage is a testiment as to how wonderfully lasting my marriage, and my Martin have been. It was my wife's idea to hang the guitars as I had my reservations in earthquake country, but I can't explain the strong desire to play them when I enter the room and see my guitars on the wall along with the smell of fine woods waiting to be played. I watched one of the video's that Martin produced and I could not agree more that if a tree could talk, besides the fine homes that I am fortunate to design, the voice of the fine woods in my guitars could not sing greater praises to the long life of the beautiful trees and the fine workmanship that created such wonderful instruments - not a scratch on any of them and as beautiful as the day I brought them home.

I admit to exposing a great deal of wood in our home. From Cedar doors, exposed wood headers above the doors (stained and distressed to draw attention to the grain and knots) to large Douglas Fir exposed beams supporting the roof of our home and the delicate Indian Rosewood,  Sitka Spruce, Mahogony and Ebony necks and fine pearl inlays on the headstock of my Martin, and on the neck of my Taylor. We have used earth materials throughout our home including a 1-3/4 solid walnut mission style table that we constructed and finished ourselves - wood has been a long part of my life - a great love and having the good fortune to design and build my own home, I was able to expose the unique nature of wood throughout the house. I started my engineering career as a facility engineer in the largest redwood building ever constructed for the design and construction of Howard Huges Spruce Goose - now used as a setting for major motion films including Ironman. This was once Building 15 of the Hughes Helicopter plant in Culver City California that has the tallest redwood arches in the world. I don't believe many can appreciate fine workmanship from the past, but once the love of unique and fine woods not to mention mentods of construction and workmanship you can't help but enjoy the beauty of the form and function - and aged sound in fine woods such as my OMC-28.

Thank you Mr.Chris Martin IV. I finally own my first and only Martin Guitar and love to listen to it sing - growing better with age as is our marriage!

Dennis S. Wish, PE

La Quinta, California