Official Luthiers Forum!

Just build a good guitar, in fact, build a great guitar and enjoy the experience. If it's a dreadnought, make it a good one, add your own style to it. If it's electric, have fun with a slightly different design or copy something you like. Who cares what any one else thinks, you're the builder. I like dreadnoughts but I also build OM's and 000 12 frets, am just now finishing a 12 fret D-45 and a Tele copy.
I have a good friend who is writing a book on the history an development of the dreadnought.
It's going to have some amazing information in it, things that might change the way you look at the guitar, or maybe not. One thing I'm sure of, it will be a good read. He's still putting all the research together so it will be a while 'till it's done but worth the wait.

Call them any name you want, just respect everyone's right to enjoy and build the guitar that
they like. Life is too short to do anything else.

Best
Bruce

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Bruce Herrmann
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

The aesthetic and sonic qualities of different styles of guitar is surely on topic.

Which is why we can say here that the dreadnaught (to use Martin's earlier spelling) lacks grace in its shape, exudes a certain crude machismo, in 99% of its examples sounds unbalanced and boomy, and panders to the "more must be better" delusion.

Electrics are a whole 'nuther story. Many are beautiful and sound great. But moreover they are not analogous as a category to dreads; one would have to pick out a particularly ugly and unwieldy electric model ( a B.C. Rich?) for that analogy.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Oh heck... Less filling, tastes great....
The debate carries on.
My daily guitar is a double whammy with my "Epi" Epiphone Masterbilt dreadnaught - which I have seen poked fun of and trashed several times here. I just chuckle inside and don't dare publicly state that I have one... oops... just did. I got the thing before deciding to build a guitar or even knowing what an OM, L-OO, SJ, etc. was. Picked up at the local Guitar Center, dang it if it didn't sound better than half the Taylors I was picking away and drooling on. But I do play it similar to Bill Greene's comments about the sensitive, overly coddled folk - almost always soft, simple fingerpicking or strumming while humming "I am a rock" or "Fire and Rain" or even "Annie's Song" ... good stuff man!! Who knew I had the wrong guitar all along. I need a hug... and apparently an OM too.

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Anthony, So, you don't see the value of building threads Adam put together for us? Shucks, folks should really consider what he offered us, and for free.

And Tommy Emmanuel and that Boogie thread, if that doesn't inspire a guitar builder to get off his duff and build guitars, what will?

Off Topics are less and less on my radar, with less time to surf. So I find myself not going over much. Over there we expect to see really unrelated matter to building.

This thread is kind of a personal preference thread. But it is part and parcel to the spirit of good-natured fun we expect around here. Charles got the stink out and the rest of us got to wave our hands and say, "Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!"

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

This is getting silly. Just because I don't happen to like Dreadnaughts (original spelling) or Dreadnoughts (current usage), or indeed the music or musical culture associated with them, doesn't mean I dont have respect for the builders or players of them, provided of course that they are good at it. One of the builders on here for whom I have most respect is Mario, he has a skill and knowledge level that I and most here could only hope to aspire to. But I wouldn't want one of his dreadnoughts either, not out of disrespect to Mario, but they simply don't fit in with the musical styles that I like.

We are all not the same, I doubt if many of you would have wanted to be up with us this morning at dawn celebrating the old festival of May Day, following the 'obby 'orse, or toasting the Green Man. Different strokes.....

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

By-the-way, Brian Setzer generally plays Gretsch guitars not Gibsons... But, I'm willing to bet that he owns both fingerstyle guitars (OM, OOO) and also dreadnaughts...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Ah, a person with a solid sense of self, and a healthy sense of humor. (Besides, the ladies totally dig that "Annie's Song" stuff.)

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
dread Audio Help /drɛd/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dred] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object) 1. to fear greatly; be in extreme apprehension of: to dread death.
2. to be reluctant to do, meet, or experience: I dread going to big parties.
3. Archaic. to hold in respectful awe.
–verb (used without object) 4. to be in great fear.


American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This naught also nought Audio Help (nôt) Pronunciation Key
n.
Nonexistence; nothingness.


Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
naught Audio Help /nɔt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[nawt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun 1. nothing.
2. a cipher (0); zero.
–adjective


either way you spell it, dreadnought or dreadnaught means "fear nothing" - definitely the guitar for manly men who fear nothing

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Reguards,

Ken H

The dreadnought body, lacking the elegant curves, may not be as eye-catching as other style guitars but I presume it was intentionally designed that way by Martin to achieve its unique sound. When chorded and strummed or flat-picking it has very pleasing sound with prominent overtones, bass, and volume, in my opinion. In its genre of music, bluegrass etc., it’s hard to beat.

...to paraphrase Freud ... "Sometimes a guitar is just a guitar."

long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

First dreadnoughts made by Martin were Ditsons,
and it took around 15 years to persuade mr Martin to put his own name to the headstock
because the he thought the model did not have the tonal balance Martin guitars were known for...

Ok Bruce - so the link to Adam's build was on topic, my apologies. Feel better? So Bruce you are saying your limited time to surf or post in the Off Topics section is a good excuse to post in the Main Forum? In the words of the immortal Grumpy "sigh".....lol

Hey I am a huge Tommy Emmanuel fan and am going to see him this Saturday night. I have an extra ticket, would you like to come? He motivates me to practice more not build a better guitar. I can tell you, you wouldn't be impressed with any of Tommy's guitars "Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"

Two things......

First - whom ever posted under "guest" thanks for that! I had read something like this prior but could not recall the details.

In hanging around at David Collin's shop one of the many things that I have learned from him is that often, when considering vintage guitars, what we see was determined more from a stand point of making manufacturing practical. Instead of some of these instruments being the product of an effort to optimize the instrument for tone and playability they were designed to use the materials that were at hand with the fewest iterations of the manufacturing process.

Now before I get flamed here I am going to qualify the following with an absolute "I don't know this for sure - it is only something that occurred to me while reading this thread....."

And the thought is - when considering guitar shapes is not the dread one of the easiest shapes to bend? Would not an easy shape with few if any dramatic curves aid manufacturing by reducing waste and breakage?

Again the above is just thrown out there as complete and utter speculation. But this thinking is the product of the idea that what some of us see as our icons in the guitar world, no matter what they may be, may in fact be as they are in an effort to produce a product that kept costs down and value up. And there is nothing wrong with that what-so-ever. In fact had this not been the case many of us would have never been able to afford to learn to play Smoke On the Water...... with attitude.....

As for dreadnoughts being for manly men...... I have never felt the need to express my manhood via a guitar...... I would however state that if something is going to be sitting in my lap my personal preference is an OM or smaller guitar........

Lastly, for now.... when you look at the picture below are you in awe of the inherent beauty of the instrument or do you feel like you want to puke......

Looks ok, but the pickguard is too small.

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Horton, MI

3:20am in China and I can't sleep just because some one wtor thD word

Kind of like how do you install a guitar on a pick guard.......

Michael, I'm not sure I got that. I don't speak Chinese. Was that Dreadnought/naught in Chinese?

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

3:20am in China and I can't sleep just because some one wrote the D word [/quote

Thanks Anthony, I'd really like to go with you and hear Tommy, but I have to work. By the way I'm building dreds and electrics too....

I'm sure you can find another OLFer who'd jump at that ticket though. How nice.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

My mother said many years ago "Ever so often a family just has to air the dirty laundry to keep the place from stinking". (Said in good humor bretheren) it must be time

I like Dreadnaughts, they are long, they are louad, they are tough, they are battle tested. Besides, what else cones wth 12 16" guns and torpedo launchers

Ain't we all different? Yup!

Are we all the same?

I hope not!

The beauty of music is the variety. The beauty of art is the variety. The beauty of humanity is the variety.

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Steve Walden
Aspiring Builder,
Bartlesville, OK

Howard I love Bernie Rico's Bich'es!!

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"It's a Tone Faerie thing"
"Da goal is to sharpen ur wit as well as ye Sgian Dubh"
"Sippin Loch Dhu @Black lake" ,Kirby O...

When i bought my first 'real'(as in a little better than a piece of crap) guitar a year ago, I ended up buying a dread. This was not really what i wanted but just because i had a hard time finding a store that carried other body sizes. Although nice sounding it is uncomfortable to sit and play compared to the smaller 'OOO'(just didn't know that at the time)

a couple of weeks ago I went into a store that had a couple decent OM size guitars and asked the clerk "Can i try that martin OM hanging over there?", he didn't know what i was talking about, he thought that dreadnaught was just another name for a steel string guitar, had never heard other shapenames, and he worked at a guitar store

After i've tried some nice OM guitars, i can honestly say that for my liking and playing style, few guitars can beat a well built OM....

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Frank

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

All well and good, Ken, but the name was taken from the dreadnought class of battleships, which in turn get their name from the prototype the British HMS Dreadnought. These were ships dedicated to big long range guns that began to be built in the decade or so before WWI. The name is appropriately used for this big square-shouldered boat of a guitar.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.