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Davy Graham was a legendary figure among the underground clubs in the early sixties, and is widely credited with popularising DADGAD tuning. His avant-garde approach to playing, along with his willingness to experiment, alienated him from the mainstream and propelled him way ahead of his time. His influence on a whole range of guitarists including Paul Simon, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch and Jimmy Page simply cannot be overestimated.

In 2007, after a period in the wilderness, the acoustic prodigal son returned home with an album entitled Broken Biscuits. At the same time, Westside Distribution, UK representatives for Martin Guitars, released a special commemorative model to celebrate his career.

The Martin OM Davy Graham is not a remake of an older model. Rather, it is the result of a collaboration between Westside and Graham himself, and constitutes part of the new Artist Series of acoustics to come out of Martin's US Custom Shop.

Many guitarists believe that the OM – a combination of Martin's modified 14-fret 000 body shape, long 645mm scale neck, solid headstock, 46mm nut width, 385mm maximum depth at the end wedge, and 60mm string spread at the bridge – offers the most versatile combination of features available in a steel-string acoustic guitar.

"As you play a chord you can feel every part of the guitar's body come to life and breathe. This OM is a competent strummer but, as you'd expect, fingerstyle is where it excels."

Today many guitar makers, including many small shops and hand-builders, create instruments modelled on the OM pattern.

The first thing that hits you when opening the luxury hardcase, which is supplied as standard, is the wonderful array of tonewood aromas that waft from the guitar. Some say you can tell a lot about an acoustic just by the way it smells.

If you were to loiter around the acoustic section of your local dealer long enough, eventually you'd see someone give a soundhole a quick sniff, because high-end acoustics have an engaging, exotic fragrance that draws you in and demands that you start playing. The Davy Graham OM is no exception.

The DG's dimensions are as per other standard Martin OM models. At its widest the body is 381mm, which makes for a very comfortable playing position. The guitar's length overall is the usual OM length of 995mm, which has proven to result in a perfectly balanced guitar: no nose-diving here.

There are 20 medium sized frets – 14-to-the-body – a bone nut and the customary long scale length. As mentioned, all the ingredients are here for a first-rate fingerstyle acoustic.

What we don't find, however, are any elaborate or fancy mother-of-pearl inlays. The fingerboard markers are slight and delicate. The marquetry to the back is beautifully crafted, yet discreet. The Davy Graham OM possesses a real understated, subtle charm. It's as if she's been caught without make-up on but still looks great.