Builder CF Morrison has built many fine guitars and mandolins - with beginnings in the early 1970's, with time spent in Bozeman MT as a builder for the Flatiron company. While some more unique designs would be seen in his half century catalog of instruments - CF Morrison instruments appear to generally embrace design work from Martin guitars.

This OM style flat top is one such guitar, that while not something that existed in the Martin catalog, it is certainly something that was worthwhile in exploration. A 15.25" lower bout instrument with a 4" depth at the base (3 3/8" towards the heel), it sits comfortably as one would expect. The book matched spruce top is tightly grained, with a thin scalloped X bracing pattern internally, with a wide but thin rosewood bridge plate. The back and sides are made out of three pieces of Maple in the vein of a 35 style Martin, with a V bracing at the seams and parallel ladder braces. The Maple shows nice flame throughout - accented by full multi ply wood binding. A tall and decorative rosewood bridge, it is fitted with two independent saddles for the treble and bass strings. Both saddles are tilted ever so slightly, retaining a fair bit of height on their already tall bridge. The instrument shows a thicker gloss finish, with checking present subtly. While being in good aesthetic and cosmetic shape overall, the top does have a slight belly/wave behind the bridge, with a fairly slight sinking at its sound hole. A thick popsicle brace is present in the upper bout, but admittedly the fingerboard extension does show a notable amount of "fall off" - not too troubling for most players as upper fret register access is generally rare anyhow. The top does show two sealed cracks in the rosette traveling from the fingerboard extension (parallel with the first and sixth string) - a fairly common point of concern that is overall not too troubling here.

The 25" scale neck is constructed out of mahogany with an unbound rosewood fingerboard. The profile has a soft V feel to it, the neck running the slim side at about .81" in depth at the first fret to about .96" at the ninth fret. It has a finger picking preferred 1 23/32" nut width, which compliments the profile well, even for some who favor thicker necks overall. The neck has a non adjustable rod present (identified with a magnet), which has helped keep the neck very straight - the neck angle is nice with a straight edge off the 14th fret to the top of the bridge as it should be, yielding playable action that measures 6/64" in height at the twelfth fret of the sixth string and 5/64" on the first string. The frets show some wear, but with no issue. The fingerboard with some slight indentation, really indicating to me that this is a very playable instrument, more so than to create any worry. The tuners have been replaced in their lifetime, now sporting chrome Schaller which function well for this instrument.

Sonically speaking, this is a *very* unique and nice sounding guitar. Their is rich definition and a bit of boom in the basses, but this guitar really shines by having a beautiful mid range voice. All the mentioned parts of this guitar extract a loud, defined, long sustaining character to this guitar that's not like any standard OM. Finger style players will appreciate the amount of string "thump" that even the treble strings have - retaining the fundamentals of the individually picked notes - while strummers will find the thickness that creates a true wall of sound in every position.

Includes a mid level gig bag.