OOO guitars in the early ' 80 ' s at the request of Hiro Tomita , our Japanese distributor at the time .
This design was in response to the needs of the new age trend in open tuning fingerstyles . Players like Kotke , Will Ackerman , Hecht , Basho , and Michael Hedges were all playing bass heavy Dreadnoughts contrary to what their compositions demanded , which would be an evenly balanced EQ more likely to be found in a classical guitar . These genre busting artists were using Dreadnoughts , well , because smallbodied guitars were passé back then . Smaller bodied guitars were associated with retired music teachers or dated vaudeville repertoires .
As labels like Fahey ' s Takoma and Ackerman ' s Windham Hill introduced players to more complex and demanding guitar styles , the need for an instrument with a complimentary EQ became obvious . Eric Clapton ' s mid ' 80 ' s appearance on MTV with an acoustic OM did not start the trend , rather it heralded a paradigm shift that was already underway .
C . F . Martin had long since dropped the anachronistic OM from their catalog when we did our first versions of their iconic design . There were others , notably Nick Kukich ' s Franklin OM , though a 1980 ’ s Frets Magazine review of our first OM and OOO is what prompted Chris Martin to write us a letter asking if there was enough interest in OM ' s to warrant C . F . Martin ’ s reentry into this market .
SCGC OM model sales eclipsed Dreadnoughts by the late nineties . Today OM , OOO , OO , and our own small-bodied H model , represent 70 %+ of our revenue . Their popularity reflects not only the above-mentioned shift in in playing styles , but also the increased sophistication of the contemporary player ' s repertoires . The booming bass heavy Dreadnoughts original application was like the drums in a stringed instrument ensemble , holding down the beat while the violin , or mandolin , took the single note leads . Except for the Dreadnought ' s historically correct presence in modern Bluegrass and