Pratley Classic OM Cutaway Blackwood/Bunya 2024 (New)
Pratley Classic Series OM, all solid bunya and blackwood, made in Australia 2024. I really like this, it's a delightful guitar. Pratley's OM shape is similar in dimensions to a Maton 808 or Martin 000, with a slightly thinner and smaller body than a dreadnought. The cutaway and clever neck join mean you can easily get all the way to the top frets, and it's nicely intonated all the way up too. It's very comfy in the hands: compact without being squishy, quick and responsive, nice and light, and that neck... it's like playing and electric guitar, so easy. The tonewoods here are great too. The bunya top features some beautiful wide grain lines and a mix of red and gold highlights, and has a similar tonal profile to cedar: warm and full, balanced through the midrange, plenty of attack and low end. The back and sides are made from Tassie blackwood, which shares some similarities in look and tone with Hawaiian koa, another acacia family timber: it's bright and clear, with excellent note separation and a focused, articulate midrange. And, it looks beautiful. They make a great combo, especially in this body shape. It's balanced and full with plenty of natural volume and low end and a singing clarity through the mids and highs. It's a great option for guitar and voice performers, with plenty of dynamic range and articulation available to inject extra nuance into chords and lines. This is smart money for a working player, or a nice addition to the loungeroom for the chillers.
Pratley Guitars kicked off in 2004, under the guidance of Martin Pratley, a keen woodworker with a background in pro industrial design. There's a few interesting things about the design of all Pratley's offerings. First, the neck: the idea was to get as close as possible to the feel of an electric guitar neck on an acoustic. It's a slim, round C shape, and the join is a set-neck style, so there's a block inside the body that's glued to the neck with a wedge style join not dissimilar from a horizontal dovetail. The upshot is that the clunky heel is gone, and you get easy access all the way up to the top frets. The top has a clever A/X bracing pattern too, so there's two long braces extending along the whole top coming together to a point near the rear strap pin. This allows for plenty of resonance and a nice open tone, but was also specifically designed to eliminate any swelling tendencies in the top and make sure that bridge stays nice and flat and firmly attached. They also use a bunch of environmentally friendly and attractive Australian tonewoods like Queensland maple, bunya pine, Tasmanian blackwood and Johnstone river teak. They're very sustainable timbers to use, as the trees grow to a large size much faster than spruce, rosewood and mahogany, which are old growth species that have to be shipped long distances to get here.
* photos show actual guitar you will receive *
Model: Pratley Classic OM Cutaway Blackwood/Bunya (PROM-SCE-BWB)
Made: Gold Coast Australia, Apr 2024
Serial: 042410758
Finish: natural, satin nitro
Body: solid QLD Bunya top, solid Tasmanian Blackwood back and sides, OM shape, A/X bracing
Neck: Queensland maple, Johnstone River teak fretboard, 25.5" scale, 12" radius, set neck/wedge join construction
Weight: 2.13kg
Mods: none
Pickup: L.R. Baggs StagePro Element System
Accessories: Pratley lightweight semi-hard case
Cosmetic condition notes: brand new with manufacturer's warranty. No major marks.
Overall: brand new condition (10/10)
Playing condition notes: Action is low, neck is straight, intonation is good. Setup with 12/54 Elixir strings.
Fret Life: 10/10, brand new