Martin - OMC Cherry Electro-Acoustic Guitar review

SOUNDS
This OMC has a distinctive sound. The maple in the build lends that typical, slightly restrained sense of headroom in the dynamics, yet volume and projection are generous in a folk-size context, particularly the warmly resonant bottom end that provides a rewardingly firm footing. The guitar's overriding unplugged strength is its purity of tone – clean, open and very smoothly delivered.
The Ellipse system has plenty of gain and replicates the acoustic sound well when fired up. The low end can dominate slightly, not through any undersaddle imbalance but simply because of the guitar's inherent richness. However, this is easily tempered by selecting the appropriate combination of phase and bass-switch settings. Blending in images is effective for introducing mic-like ambiences, though a little goes a long way before the results start sounding artificial, at least in a live situation. As I've remarked before about the Ellipse Aura, most of us are likely to be perfectly content with the undersaddle alone. Keep things simple, I say.

The OMC Cherry is not only a highly enjoyable fingerstyle performer that’s beautifully put together, it offers a visual persona distinct from Martin’s more mainstream mahogany and rosewood-backed OMs, adding an engaging element of individuality. If you bought one, who could blame you for feeling just a bit smug for helping to save the planet – or some endangered trees, anyway.