Why do we have a page dedicated to our philosophy for designing and building guitars? How is this relevant to you buying your next guitar? We believe it’s a matter of perspective. After all, you’re buying a guitar… not a flat screen TV, or a toaster, or an iPad, or even a car. All of those things are just, well, things. A guitar is an instrument of true self-expression, granting the purest form of freedom possible. Your joy, anger, playfulness, heartache - a good guitar allows you to channel it all. A guitar is important.

We want to build you a guitar that you will play and love for the rest of your life. We don’t want it to be your next guitar. We want it to be the guitar… your guitar.

Sanjit, founder of OM Guitars, shares his thoughts below. Feel free to start a conversation with us at om.s1.guitars@gmail.com.

As I went through the early stages of my guitar-playing life, I bought, played, and sold many different guitars. I’ve owned Ibanez, Fenders, a Parker, a couple of high-end shredders, and finally some Carvins designed to my specs. Some of them were very nice guitars. But none of them had that combination of aesthetics, feel, and tone I was looking for. Nearly all guitars are made for the masses, based on designs from seventy years ago. You see, most guitar players have been convinced to think that a guitar should look and feel a certain way, so mass producers of guitars have no incentive to break the mold.

So I set out to design my own guitar. I wanted it to be compact, with clean lines and a modern aesthetic. I wanted the shape to be balanced and timeless. It had to be beautiful. Beyond aesthetics, the guitar itself had to have a great tone, regardless of the woods used. It had to sound great clean, overdriven, or distorted. It had to be a complete guitar.

After many design iterations, I finally drew up the OM S1 guitar. Over the last fifteen years, I’ve built several S1 guitars with different specs for myself. They are the best-sounding guitars I’ve owned, and the design still excites me to this day.

My guitar-building philosophy is grounded in three concepts: precision, tone, and feel.

PRECISION
When I say precision, I’m talking about using proven modern luthiery techniques, fit and finish, CNC-cut tonewoods, and high-quality parts from reputable companies. All OM S1 guitar bodies and necks are made in the USA by highly skilled luthiers. We use Hipshot locking tuners, ABM bridges, Wilkinson and Sophia tremolos, and All-Parts hardware and electronics. We use threaded steel inserts and machine screws to bolt the neck to the body, as these provide a much tighter joint than wood screws can. Mass guitar builders increase their margins by going with cheaper parts, and ultimately it makes the guitar feel cheaper and more disposable. We want to build you a guitar that you will have for the rest of your life. Every time you pick up an OM Guitar, you’ll be picking up a precision-built musical instrument.

TONE
Tone is a result of so many factors, from the scale length, to the strings, to the woods, to the length of the instrument cable, to the capacitors and tubes in the amp, to the speakers, to the room’s acoustical characteristics! They all matter to some degree. But ultimately, you can’t “undo” the fundamental sound of the guitar itself. OM Guitars are manufactured from top-quality woods, and I allow our customers to choose the strings and pick-ups that best suit their musical style. In my twenty-five plus years of playing, and fifteen years of building, I have learned a lot about how strings, electronics, and woods contribute to tone. I've applied all that I've learned into the OM S1 Guitar.

FEEL
Feel in this context is the degree to which one can seamlessly and easily play one’s instrument. It doesn’t matter how nice a guitar looks or sounds if you can only play it for twenty minutes before it feels too heavy, or fatigues your hands and wrists, or bites into your forearm. OM Guitars are light, have comfortable contours and fretboard access, and have thin necks that allow for endless hours of playing. I believe a great guitar should seem like a natural extension of the player.

Click here to learn about our build process.

OM Guitars offers four S1 models, with a range of prices and levels of customization. It’s important to me that working musicians and players of all backgrounds be able to afford my instruments. Indeed, the S1 Standard is one of the most affordable USA-made guitars available. I also want to give musicians the ability to create their dream guitars, and the sky is the limit with the S1 Elite model.

Please see the Models page for specs and pricing.