1994 David Oddy OM
Peghead Nation instructor Flynn Cohen demonstrates a custom guitar he had built while studying with John Renbourn.
Flynn Cohen is a Vermont-based multi-instrumentalist who teaches Peghead Nation’s Irish Backup Guitar and Irish Flatpicking Guitar courses. Flynn can be heard playing in various settings, including the folk trio Low Lily, with Irish accordion player John Whelan, and the occasional solo set. Flynn’s main guitar is a Martin 00-18V, but he also treasures a custom OM that he had built while studying with fingerstyle legend John Renbourn in England in the early 1990s. Having arrived in England with a 1950s Martin 00-17, Flynn found that the guitar didn’t suit the intricate fingerstyle material he was working on so he started looking for a new instrument with a wider neck and a bigger sound.
Built by the late David Oddy (1932–2017), the guitar has typical Martin OM-style dimensions. A former engineer for British Telecom, David began building stringed instruments in the early 1970s, specializing in flattop guitars and the mandolin family, but also offering tenor guitars, cuatros, and more. “There were a few people in the town of Totnes who had his instruments, so I knew who he was,” says Flynn. The guitar is built with a spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, and it differs from vintage Martin styles in its choice of appointments. It has a bound ebony fingerboard with no inlay, a simple three-ring rosette, a Brazilian rosewood bridge, and a brass nut. The guitar’s heel cap is made of genuine tortoise shell.
In demoing the guitar, Flynn returns to some of the music he was studying at the time he got the guitar. He starts out playing John Renbourn’s “Morgana” and moves on to “As it Fell on a Holie Yve” by early lutenist Anthony Holborne. He also shows how the guitar sounds in a backup situation, played with a pick, and ends by playing Michael Hedges’ “Layover.”
Since David Oddy’s passing, the shop has been continued by his son Nick, who continues to offer instruments that follow in his father’s tradition.
To study with Flynn, enroll in his Irish Backup Guitar or Irish Flatpicking Guitar course now!
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