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The latest "The Sounding Board" magazine that I got from Martin has an article about the M-30 Jorma Kaukonen Custom Artist Edition that sounded interesting. The M body style is a 25.4" scale jumbo sized top and back with the sides being 000 width. The M-30 is EIR with Italian spruce top, 4 5/16" sound hole, and forward shifted 5/16 scalloped braces.

Has anyone tried this combination, and if so, what were your impressions? My next build was going to be a jumbo, but I am now giving some thought to this combination.

Alan

I have played several M sized Martins but not the Jorma model. They sound real good, and are comfortable to play, I also have thought of building one.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
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Pretty much nothing but raves for the M and J body styles over at UMGF. The body shape is Martin's jumbo, kind of a small jumbo compared to say Gibson. Presents a slightly bigger face than a dreadnought. The M is OM depth, whereas the J is the same body shape but dread depth. I got myself a Martin J a few months back and it is totally sweet.

Peace,
Sanaka

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...imagine there were no hypothetical situations...

Thanks Fred, Sanaka, and Todd. Now I have a third options to consider: Todd's 4 3/8" depth.
I wanted to do something different this time, and was going to do a deep OM, using 4 7/8" sides, but have decided that I would prefer the M/J option. I'm looking forward to building this one.

Alan

My gigging guitar is a Martin JC-16 and it's a very versatile guitar. I played a few MC models, which are the same body shape but shallower body and they had great balance. The JC is deeper, about 4 3/4 and has a sound somewhere between a dread and an OM, or as I have heard a couple places, and OM on steroids. It makes a great gigging guitar.
Kent

Stefan Grossman plays a Martin J Size

http://guitarvideos.com/00martinguitar.htm

He reckons he needs the larger body size to get the range of different tones he needs for his extensive repertoire.

I have played one of these and it does not feel that big apart for the neck which is a bit thick for my hands. As I progress this style will definitely be on my future build list.

John

I have built a J depth and a wedge based on the J/M outline which is 000 depth at the bass lower bout and J/D depth at the treble lower bout, this causes the depth at the tail block to be in between depth and both have a great sound, a great bass without the boom of a D. The wedge can be heard at http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z228/fetellier/
The 4th and 5th videos are the J wedge, the 1st 3 are the OM/000 size wedge.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
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