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Just curious. I was wondering if this has been done before, or are there guitars out there already like this? I like the shape of the 000/OM, but the sound of the dreads. I've been thinking about making the depth of the sides similar to a dread, but shaping the top and back to the 000 or similar. Advantages, disadvantages? I welcome any and all opinions.

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Brad Tucker

Brad,

I know diddley about dreads so take this with that background but I thought that a significant part of the dread sound comes from havimg not much of a waist compared to OM's as well as the deeper body. So this part of the dread sound probably wouldn't be present.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave,

Thanks. That's what I'm looking for...things I have not considered, and that is one of them. The dread does have more soundboard area. Maybe one could expect a sound somewhere in between the 2 sizes? Keep 'em coming!

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Brad Tucker

A lot of us build smaller guitars (concert, grand concert, orchestra etc.) with more depth than the Martin paradigm, up to 4.5" at the tail for me. It tends to increase the bass response, of course, but only a D sounds like a D… Personally I loosely designed my A-1 around D dimensions, but with a tighter waist for comfort, I am sure there are others.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

Thanks, guys,

The 0000/Grand Auditorium sounds like what is my line of thinking is, Todd. It's just an idea I have been tossing around. I really appreciate the feedback.

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Brad Tucker

My experience with deep body OM/000 is that after 4.5" the main freq drops dramatically. It helps to increase the sound hole by about a 1/8-3/16 on diameter.

If you want the punchier boom sound of a dread Then you might try building a 16" lb near OM shape that is 21" in length and 4 5/8" major depth.

I have never found a deep body At OM dimensions to be neat the cannon a dread is.

These OM/D's are Mario's specialty I think. Alot of people have/are trying this including myself. I'm currently working on a quilted honduran mahogany/carpathian guitar that is loosely based on a Martin OM plan but about 5/16" more body depth and not as tight a waist. I just freehanded my template from an OM plan on one side and folded it over to make a perfect match. Also the soundhole is a bit larger.

The voicing process has made me very excited to be able to hear the finished product soon. I believe it is gonna be a "keeper" for sure. I'll weigh in in a month or two when it is finished. Right now it has the top completed and the sides almost ready to accept the back. Here the back is just laid up there and the dark spot on the headblock is a saw mark:

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

Deeper bodies quickly tend toward boomy bass, lack of balance, and sluggish response. No free lunch to be had here. It also weakens the coupling between top, air, and back, so the drop in resonant frequency is less than you might expect from the volume difference (As Al has often explained). I'd agree that 4-1/2" is about the limit. Even more like 4-3/8".

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

All this discussion is fine, but if you want to hear some deep bodied OM's, check out

http://www.mauelguitars.com/audio.htm

The Duane Clark and 3 of the Doug Smith cuts were done on koa/cedar Grand OM's ...different guitars at different venues several years apart. See if you hear what you like and maybe that will help in the decision making process.

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Hank Mauel

Can I ask actual dimensions for the soundhole please I too am doing my first build an OM style guitar to Kinkheads design and like a bassy guitar so may mod it and use this bracing http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/ts0 ... clk=191731 I want to do all I can to help the little un and easy it's birth by picking your collective brains

Thanks

John

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

Typical Martin-style OM soundholes are 3 7/8" I think.

Mario Proulx was probably the first to experiment with this. Check out his site. Its very informative.

Best of luck

SR

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"We might not be big but we sure are slow"

I build a guitar that is very similar to the OM/000, but I use dread sides on it. I call it my "DM" model.

To my ears, it has all of the brilliance of the OM trebles and has the volume of a dread. The only difference between what I build and the OM is that the upper bout is slightly larger. I actually prefer the sound of these over a dread. there is a sound clip of my playing one on my YouTube page at http://www.youtube.com/hodgesguitars if you are interested.

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Reguards,

Ken H