Although popular music of the 1920s featured the tenor banjo as the preferred rhythm instrument, the guitar’s popularity rose steadily through the decade, and by the ’30s, it had overtaken the banjo.

As had been the case with tenor banjos, mandolins, and classical/minstrel banjos in earlier eras, the best-selling fretted instrument attracted the most attention from makers, and the growing competition among guitar makers toward the end of the ’20s sparked a flurry of innovations, the most radical of which were the resonator guitar and the electric guitar.

One of the more subtle – but no less important – innovations occurred at Martin in 1929, with the introduction of the Orchestra Model, or OM, which had 14 frets clear of the body. The move from 12-fret to 14-fret necks, coupled with the introduction of larger-bodied guitars in the early ’30s, marked the acoustic flat-top guitar’s arrival at modern specifications and marked the divergence of steel-string flat-tops from gut-string classicals.

The idea of a longer neck, to give guitarists easier access to the higher register, was hardly revolutionary. Gibson’s Style O Artist model of 1908 had a cutaway body that met the neck at the 15th fret. Even Gibson’s lowly L-1 of 1908 had 13 frets clear of the body. Gibson’s first f-hole guitar, designed in 1922 by Lloyd Loar, had a 14-fret neck. But all of these Gibsons were steel-string archtop guitars. Flat-tops were a different matter, probably because of their longstanding ties to classical music, where the 12-fret neck remains the standard today. The difference was evident when Gibson introduced its first flat-tops in 1926, and even though they were built for steel strings, they had 12-fret necks.

With the rising popularity of the guitar, competition among players raised the level of play, and one could reasonably argue that the emergence of virtuoso non-classical, steel-string guitarists (starting as early as 1922 with Nick Lucas’ recording of “Pickin’ the Guitar”) would have inevitably led to a demand for longer necks. However, the strongest force behind the move to 14-fret guitars came from the banjo players who started switching to guitar in the mid ’20s. Their tenor banjos typically had at least 15 frets clear of the edge of the resonator and all 19 frets clear of the body (extended fingerboard notwithstanding), and plectrum banjos had 19 frets clear of the edge of the resonator and 22 clear of the body.

Consequently, it should have come as no surprise to the Martin company when orders came in for longer-necked tenor guitars. For their first 14-fret tenors, Martin simply made the neck longer and moved the soundhole accordingly. Perry Bechtel, an Atlanta-based plectrum banjoist and guitarist, already had a 14-fret Gibson L-5, and asked Martin to make him a guitar with a 15-fret neck and a 27″ scale (plectrum banjo scale). Bechtel settled for a 14-fret version of his 000-28, and Martin designer John Deichman drew up a new, shorter body that would allow the soundhole to remain in the same place relative to the waist and the lower bout.

Bechtel received his 000-28 Special in August, 1929, and ordered another. The Wurlitzer company apparently heard about it and ordered one, too. These first 14-fret 000s had Martin’s standard slotted headstock. Martin began working on what was to be a Perry Bechtel signature model, but by December, Bechtel’s name was dropped. Martin replaced the slotted headstock with a solid headstock and billed the new model as the 000-28 Orchestra Model, soon to be OM-28.

This month’s featured guitar is an OM-28 from early 1930, and features the rectangular bridge with pyramid ends that had been Martin’s standard for the better part of a century. The new OM also had a small, teardrop-shaped pickguard – the first Martin with a pickguard as standard equipment. It had a 25.4″ scale length, the same as the 12-fret 000-size guitars, which was longer than the 24.9″ scale on all the smaller sizes. Martin had made a number of solid-headstock six-strings since the 1800s, typically with ivory friction pegs, but the OM’s solid headstock reflected the influence of the banjo, because the OMs were fitted with straight-through banjo-style tuners (as were earlier Martin four-string tenor and plectrum guitars).

Martin quickly introduced a full line of OM models, including an OM-18, OM-18P (plectrum neck), OM-42, OM-45 and OM-45 Deluxe (the latter would be the fanciest production model offered by Martin until the recent D-50 and D-100). Acceptance of the 14-fret neck was immediate, as indicated by the fact that Martin produced only a single 12-fret 000 model in 1932 and none in ’33.

Changes came quickly for the OMs. First, the pickguard was enlarged, the belly bridge replaced the rectangular pyramid-end bridge, a gold silkscreen logo (soon changed to a decal) was added to the front of the headstock, and right-angle tuners replaced the banjo tuners. On the OM-28, fingerboard inlays were added at frets 12 and 15.

By ’34, the 14-fret neck, the pickguard, belly bridge, and headstock logo had made their way across most of the Martin line. All Martins with a 14-fret neck were being referred to as Orchestra Models, and to eliminate confusion, Martin simply dropped the OM name. The OM-28 became the 000-28. Then, inexplicably, Martin shortened the scale length on the 000 size from 25.4″ to 24.9″, effectively eliminating the OM specs.

In its five-year run, the OM-28 sold 487 units. Sales of OM-28s dropped quickly after its initial burst. One factor may have been the introduction of the cheaper OM-18, which sold 765 units in four years. Another factor was the introduction of the Martin dreadnought, which would become Martin’s most popular body size.

The OM – in essence, a long-scale 000 – was absent from the Martin line until a special run of OM-28s in 1969. The style returned to regular production with an OM-21 in ’93. Distinguished from the 000 by its 25.4″ scale length, the OM once again has a secure place in the Martin line.

For more, see Martin Guitars: A History by Richard Johnston, Dick Boak and Mike Longworth, and visit www.perrybechtel.com.

This article originally appeared in VG’s October 2010 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.