ClydeTower
Member
Hi all!
I’ve been toying with the idea of picking up an Oxnard M20 for a while, so if ever the opportunity presented itself, I wouldn’t let it go by. So, recently a 2015 M20e vintage sunburst popped up on my radar. I bought it sight unseen and had it delivered to the border as I usually do. When I got home, I immediately unpacked it and opened the case. My first impression was this little parlor guitar is a thing of beauty. Simply gorgeous. The satin finish really works well with the deep dark variations of the mahogany. And the sunburst makes it that much more beautiful, a feast for the eyes for sure. The guitar is basically new, not a single solitary scratch. The 1 ¾” nut suits it well for finger style and the short scale neck feels very comfortable.
That is where the love affair ends unfortunately… I had such high hopes for this guitar, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all. After the first strum, I knew this guitar wasn’t for me. Simply put, it has a very pronounced boxy tone, much more than I was expecting. It’s especially true when hitting the low E and A strings. It sounds very constrained to my ears, with almost no bottom end. Not much volume either.
I’ve played a few parlor guitars at my local shop, a martin 00-15 among others, and although they also had the typical boxy tone you would expect from a small bodied guitar, they also had a healthy bottom end which mixed in there makes them sound full and rich. To my ears, this particular M20 sounds almost like a toy. I plugged it in hoping that would make it come alive, but that didn’t help either, actually, it sounded worse.
I so wanted to love this guitar. Maybe I just got a dud, or maybe my ear just isn’t attuned to the particular boxy flavor of the M20. I’d be curious to hear a vintage M20 and see if it sounds similar. I have no doubt there are some great sounding M20s out there, but for me, this wasn’t one of them. So I put it up on my local CL and sold it soon thereafter for more than what I paid for it. So no harm done.
The hunt continues!
I’ve been toying with the idea of picking up an Oxnard M20 for a while, so if ever the opportunity presented itself, I wouldn’t let it go by. So, recently a 2015 M20e vintage sunburst popped up on my radar. I bought it sight unseen and had it delivered to the border as I usually do. When I got home, I immediately unpacked it and opened the case. My first impression was this little parlor guitar is a thing of beauty. Simply gorgeous. The satin finish really works well with the deep dark variations of the mahogany. And the sunburst makes it that much more beautiful, a feast for the eyes for sure. The guitar is basically new, not a single solitary scratch. The 1 ¾” nut suits it well for finger style and the short scale neck feels very comfortable.
That is where the love affair ends unfortunately… I had such high hopes for this guitar, but I guess you can’t win ‘em all. After the first strum, I knew this guitar wasn’t for me. Simply put, it has a very pronounced boxy tone, much more than I was expecting. It’s especially true when hitting the low E and A strings. It sounds very constrained to my ears, with almost no bottom end. Not much volume either.
I’ve played a few parlor guitars at my local shop, a martin 00-15 among others, and although they also had the typical boxy tone you would expect from a small bodied guitar, they also had a healthy bottom end which mixed in there makes them sound full and rich. To my ears, this particular M20 sounds almost like a toy. I plugged it in hoping that would make it come alive, but that didn’t help either, actually, it sounded worse.
I so wanted to love this guitar. Maybe I just got a dud, or maybe my ear just isn’t attuned to the particular boxy flavor of the M20. I’d be curious to hear a vintage M20 and see if it sounds similar. I have no doubt there are some great sounding M20s out there, but for me, this wasn’t one of them. So I put it up on my local CL and sold it soon thereafter for more than what I paid for it. So no harm done.
The hunt continues!
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