If you’ve never experienced a Maple-and-Adirondack OM guitar, like NiagaraFalls, this here’s an opportunity not to be mist. Marc Beneteau has been building world-class guitars in his one-man shop in St. Thomas, Ontario or thereabouts since 1974 or thereabouts; he has perfected his art, and his instruments are of the highest order, acoustically and aesthetically.
This is Marc’s interpretation of a classic OM, close – but not obeisant -- to the original in shape and size, but incorporating many of the improvements Marc learned over the long span of his career. The scale length is 25-3/8”, neck width at the nut is 1-3/4”, and string spacing at the saddle is 2-3/8”; all this is correct for a true OM. On the side of divergence the body width is 14 15/16th”, the waist in 9 3/16” and the upper bout is 11 3/16” while the depth at the bottom side is 4 7/16”. Total length is 40 ½”. Purists may note that the C F Martin equivalent measurements are 15” at lower, 9 3/8” at waist, 11 1/16th” at upper, 4 1/8” depth and a total length of 39 ½” – so the Beneteau is a bit larger in upper bout, body depth and total length while the Martin is slightly larger in lower bout and at the waist. Aren’t you glad you asked?
The top is high-grade Adirondack spruce, with very close grain toward the center, as the guidebook decrees, and gradually increasing to wide spacing at the edges; many believe this is the ideal grain structure for an acoustic guitar top. The top was treated with an aging toner that gives it a golden glow (and so will you when you play it). The back and sides are intensely flamed maple with a tight, almost “spiky” quality to the figure, also with a honey-gold hue. The body binding is Honduran mahogany, as are the fingerboard, pyramid bridge, back strip, head plate and headstock back-plate. All of Marc’s purflings are hand-made and perfectly mitered – the top is bound in five plies of black-maple-rosewood-maple-black, and the sides and back and backstrip are bordered in two plies of maple and black. The soundhole rosette is a wide circle of Honduran Rosewood, surrounded by two rings of five-ply purfling just like the top, and the edge of the hole is bound in rosewood.
Overall, the decoration is simple and spare, approaching austere; the one dramatic exception is the use of the eight classic Nick Lucas inlays in the fingerboard. Although it’s not likely that Mr. Martin would have invited Messrs. Gibson and Lucas to decorate one of his fingerboards in 1930, nonetheless the combination is true to the period, and the effect is dramatic.
The one-piece mahogany neck is crowned with an unbound headstock in the distinctive Beneteau shape, with a single, elegant script “B” inlaid in pearl and guarded by six gold Waverly gears with butterbean knobs (“nothing to see here; move along”). There is an OM-shape Tortis pickguard adhered to the proper place; and a gold strap pin crept into the case one quiet night and attached itself to the treble side of the neck heel, possibly because the prior owner came home from a night of copious revelry did not latch the case shut that night.
An L.R. Baggs iMix pickup system has been professionally installed, combining an iBeam and an Element pickup to amplify the sounds of angels. A small pair of volume and mix controls nestle quietly at the upper edge of the soundhole, ready to do one’s bidding in the tone-shaping department.
And the sound, what of that, pray tell? Like choirs of angels, someone once said. The use of maple for the back and sides gives a transparent clarity to this guitar’s voice that sets it apart from ordinary Orchestra Model guitars. It is very responsive, bright yet warm, an ideal instrument for fingerstyle soloing.
The condition is excellent plus, possibly; it would be mint minus except for a few superficial scratches on the top just west of the soundhole and some scratches on the pickguard. It is housed in a high-quality Canadian-made hard shell case with arched top and back).