Santa Cruz OM and OM/PW's Tone and Neck playabilty

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:14:48 +0700

Maow PMed me as below. I PMed him back and then without asking for his permission, I copied and pasted mine here. I don't see any confidential matter of what he asked me and I think it'd be better to share it here just in case some others are curious to know too.

I'm quite sure that Maow doesn't mind and essentially as a Professional teacher like him who alway willing to pass on their knowledge whenever they can

[quote='Maow']
น้า Nap ครับ
อยากทราบว่า santa cruz OM ที่เป็นตัว standard แตกต่างจากตัวที่เป็น prewar อย่างไรบ้างครับ ถ้าหากเทียบกันในเรื่องของเสียง และ playability ของ neck

Dear Maow,

Strictly In My Opinion, the "sound" different between OM and OM/PW that I own are quite substantial to my ears. But bear in mind that the OM is 2004 (ser#2436) while OM/PW is 2007 (ser#3461) so I'm not sure if the age differential plays a major factor to their sounds or not, so you may have to take that into some consideration too even if physically they both are just like brand new ( I bought both of them USED).

Also I'm using D'addario J16 and Elixir Nanoweb 80/20 Bronze light gauge strings in comparing these 2 guitars. The results are clear to me that if you're blindfolded and play these 2 guitars you will recognize each of them with no mistake.

The sound (tone) of OM to me is more pronounce, "In your face", punching, subtly louder and I suspected that it's more pleasure to (rock & roll) young people's ears than the "over the hill" guys.

The sound (tone) of OM/PW to me is more mellow, "Dreamlike", may be a little less volume and not as punchy as OM and I suspected that it's more pleasure to the melancholy kind of guys.

In all there are no better or worse for these 2 guitars to my ears. Just like sometimes I'm in a mood for different kind of music or singers or songs and they all give me different kind of pleasure in different time.

Now about the "neck" feels and playability. I simply love Cruz's necks and particularly the Modified V neck that fits my hands/fingers so well. I'm a kind of guy who love to go (and stumbled all over the neck!). The OM has more "standard" C shape neck while the OM/PW has the modified V shape neck. To me I was surprised myself when I had a chance to play the V shape neck few years back (on the other guitar, not Santa Cruz). I think I like to play V than the Standard C! And not too many people that I know prefer to play V!

Again, please take my opinion as a grain of salt, Your Mileage May Vary of course

Sample of OM;

Sample of OM/PW

NimitGuitar webboard - Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz OM and OM/PW's Tone and Neck playabilty