Martin LJ OMC28

This is a Martin OMC28 Juber model. I do not list the features since you can easily go to the website for Martin guitars to find them out. I purchased this guitar over ebay. The guitar had problems with the frets and fretboard; the guitar buzzed throughout the fretboard. Parsons guitar tech did a "pro-setup" on it at $135, but it buzzed even more after he worked on it. I was qutie disappointed at that time. I found another guitar repair person, who found the real issue with the guitar. When you placed the straight rod over the fretboard, it was touching on the first fret and the highest fret, where it should have been touching on the 12th fret. Parsons apparently did not put the guitar on a device to consider the neck tension when he leveled the guitar, but My $135.00 was gone. It turned out the fretboard had to be leveled. Fortunately, this new repair person did a great job. Now the guitar plays much easier than a brand new model, and the sounds wonderful. I do have a bit of issue with the open A on the 5th string and the second fret on the second string; the frequency issue which you hear a bit of dissonace because one of them is very slightly sharp or flat. I am going to consult with the guitar tech who was able to do the magic on my fretboard. As far as materials go, this guitar has no flowers. However, the money was probably spent more for the quality of tone and sound. The modified moderate V neck may feel a bit odd at first, but it gets quite comfortable afterward. Tuners seem to be ok, it does go out of tune so that you probably have to tune after playing a tune or two. The body size is quite comfortable if you like to play it on your lap.

The most outstanding aspect on this guitar is that the evenness of every notes on all over the fretboard. This includes all the way up on the fretboard. This guitar produces extremely clean sounds all over the fretblard. It's so clean that you would think that the guitar literally simply maximizes strings. At first, you may think that this guitar has no character because of that. However, as you play more, you may begin to realize that it is not just directly transfering the sound of the strings used. It has a very clean sound with a bit of silkiness. The sound is full, but not loud as regular OMs. When I play very lightly on a fret, it does buzz at the moment when a string touches the fret wire. I have to play a little firmer against the frets to avoid that. The guitar sounds somewhat brighter than regular OMs, but not as bright as some of the Taylor models. It is a bit silky pretty sounding guitar. I suppose that Laurence Juber is not as quite known as Clapton or other legends, so many guitarists may purchase other signature models. I think that this guitar is a jem. It is not as dark as Claptons, but a lot more silky clean tone. It has a cutaway, but the tone is even all the way up. It is a bit of sleeping beauty. This model is a rosewood model. I also played a Madagascar mode. There is not too much difference I heard. The Madagascar sounded a cut warmer closer to reguar OMs. I don't think one is less than another. Both sound great!

I bought a used guitar and I already mentioned about the set-up issues which I encountered. Apparently, cutaway guitars are more suseptible to the kind problem I had. We just do not know when this can happen and how often since each wood is different. They reside in different parts of the world in a guitarist's hands. However, if you do have similar problems which a repair person cannot fix, you may want to try another person to work on it. One it is fixed, the guitar sounds really wonderful.

I wouldn't say that this guitar is a rock-solid guitar. I consider it to be a high end sensitive guitar. It is no doubt that you can use it on your gigs. I am planning to install a Baggs IMix. You may want to get used to tuning this guitar often if you have the original tuners. I think that the guitar will produce great sounds, but I may not take it just anywhere because I don't want anything happen to the guitar.

I cannot comment on this since I bought a used guitar. Although I did email them about the problem I have never received a response from Martin.

I have been playing guitars for 21 years. I currently own a Taylor Clint Black model, Martin OM21, Michael Kelley fretless bass, Regal dobro, Raines Nylon, Gretch Hot rod, and 1938 DiMauro. I owned various guitars in past including L5s, L7, Epihpone Triumph, and others. I played even more guitars in past. I think that this guitar ranks one of the bests. I wish that the intonation issues get resolved one way or another. I hope that I would not have to buy another one.