Dreadnought vs Jumbo Acoustic guitar

Squonk

what are your thoughts?
Is there a difference in the sound. I haven't managed to get my hands on a decent Jumbo yet.
I have always played dreadnoughts and enjoy the sound and shape, but some of the Jumbo's I see in Magazines etc has got me drooling just a little.

Vintage-Vibe

Hi Squonk

There are some DEFINITE differences:

1 - Jumbo is a bigger body, therefore (if quality of wood & cuts
are the same): LOUDER
Bigger under the strumming armpit, so to
speak (and quite possibly heavier)

2 - Generally, the bigger bodies tend to have a slightly more
scooped midrange - great for big strumming with a pick, but
not as much string to string clarity and midrange content.
(ie a smaller parlour sized body would generally suite finger-
picking better than a jumbo.

3 - If you want to think jumbo listen to classic 60'/70's bands
like The Who - Pete Townshend used the Gibson Super Jumbo
for that typical "big" sound"

Dreadnought tends to be the best of both worlds for
strumming & picking - Neil Young likes his dreadnought
Martins.

For the fingerpickers (steel string that is) a smaller body like a
parlour size, grand auditorium or mini jumbo works well.
Eric Clapton's Martins (and now his signature model) are
typical eg's of the Martin "000" size - check out any of his
current DVD's for that "sound"

4 - GENERALLY, the bigger the body, the bigger the string gauge
required/used to get the body to project the sound better -
ie most modern dreadnoughts etc use 11 to 52 gauge strings,
whereas jumbos tend to be strung with 12 to 54 gauge
strings (Taylor like to use 12's on ALL their bodies)

5 - Sometimes getting a HARD CASE for a jumbo is a lot harder
than getting one for a dreadnought - I remember 1 year at
Bothners we went for almost a year without jumbo cases !

6 - just as a lot of classic rock bands have one player using a
single-coil loaded Fender and the other a humbucker loaded
Gibson, an acoustic duo with say a jumbo and a
dreadnought/smaller size works very well

Fingers sore ... hungry ... ?

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote: what are your thoughts?
Is there a difference in the sound. I haven't managed to get my hands on a decent Jumbo yet.
I have always played dreadnoughts and enjoy the sound and shape, but some of the Jumbo's I see in Magazines etc has got me drooling just a little.

Sure there are differences in sound. If you played a dreadnought and a jumbo from the same maker you'd expect them to sound different. Factor in differences in maker, woods used, scale lengths etc and there's all kinds of differences.

Probably it's best to not think in terms of "jumbo" or "dreadnought" or any other such label, but to find a guitar that gives you something you want.

Squonk

Thanks for all the Info.

I most probably would stick to the dreadnought because if it being more versatile, but a Jumbo would look good on a guitar stand next to me.

aja

Just what I was looking for, thanks!

theskyiscrying

hey,

so i know the real differences between dreads and jumbo's, seeing as i play a jumbo myself (guild). people automatically assume that given it's size the jumbo has a fuller and often warmer tone. this assumption however is wrong. the massive difference between a jumbo and the rest is the wood. typical dreads are made from sitka spruce (top) or cedar (top) and rosewood or mahogany (sapele in taylors/larrivees etc.) these woods give them different tones, the cedar top being a softer wood than the spruce so it will have a slight warmth to it. the back and sides are the huge difference maker however, mahogany, although quite heavy which is its downfall to some, has a very warm tone, for instance as far as i know jason mraz plays a guitar with mahogany sides for his recordings. rosewood is lighter and produces a sharper tone. however both of these woods increase in warmth and body with the increase of size.

Jumbo's are made of maple. this sets them completely apart from really all other acoustic guitars. and the average jumbo has much more high end than low, however i got lucky haha and found a guild that seems to have highs and a good balance of lows to go with it. maple is an extremely light hardwood, so it produces a very good picking tone and also gives good strumming tone but depending on the depth of the body it could be better for one or the other.

a dreadnought is never really a bad choice, they seem to be the standard for all guitar players as they're the most common. auditorium's are a great guitar that come with the option of either rosewood or mahogany back and sides, they're not too big, not typically too heavy, and so they work well for everyone it seems. a common example of this is a Taylor 314-ce, a very common higher end guitar (not in terms of taylors but in comparison to most guitars yes). i have loved jumbo's since i started playing guitar. i am dominantly an electric guitarist but something about a jumbo just got me, haha similar to many other people. if you know stevie ray vaughan then you may remark that my name is "theskyiscrying" making the point that i am a fan of him, and also heavily influenced by him. Stevie played a 12 string guild jumbo, if you'd like to see this in action check out mtv unplugged srv. oddly enough i didn't realize he played a guild until after i'd already gotten mine, if you want a good jumbo these days it seems that gibson is the only common option in front of you, easy to find. but do i want to drop 5 grand for a gibson sj? no sir. i thought i'd look at guild seeing as they've made quite possibly the best jumbo's of any company for more than 50 years, and found that i could get a solid AAAA grade maple jumbo for under 2 thousand. when i played it in comparison to the gibson, it BLEW IT AWAY.

if you're going to purchase another guitar or at least have it on your mind, i'd say you really need to try them out, some of everything, and check out the different woods all over the body, that'll help you find your sound. and as big as they are, i have no comfort issues playing my jumbo standing or sitting. granted i am also over 6 feet tall so if you're on the smaller side it may not do the same for you.

oh, and a last issue that you should always keep in mind, make sure the guitar you're looking at has a neck that you like. because a different body size is much easier to get used to then carpel tunnel because the neck does not cooperate with your hand. i for instance have discomfort playing taylor's and seagull's, as i find their necks very C shaped, and well, quite thick. the guild necks however actually remind me of my gibson les paul, so the transition is nice, and the neck is very comfortable for me to play.

haha when you're a 17 year-old with a part time job buying expensive guitars, you do your research. haha so i guess i've just got a bunch of this info on deck to help anyone else that may need it. let me know if you have any questions i might be able to help out with, i've got opinions on just about every steel-string acoustic and any electric, and unlike many people i'm not going to say my way's the only way. because that's just stupid haha. my preferences are gibson and guild, but i actually really do like playing a strat or a tele, and well, i played a prs custom 22 that blew my mind, but when i play my les paul or my jumbo nothing touches it. well my es-335 borders on them haha but still.

anyways, i hope you can find some help somewhere in all that, anyone who may read this.

thanks

nick

Bob-Dubery

theskyiscrying wrote: hey,

so i know the real differences between dreads and jumbo's, seeing as i play a jumbo myself (guild). people automatically assume that given it's size the jumbo has a fuller and often warmer tone. this assumption however is wrong. the massive difference between a jumbo and the rest is the wood. typical dreads are made from sitka spruce (top) or cedar (top) and rosewood or mahogany (sapele in taylors/larrivees etc.) these woods give them different tones, the cedar top being a softer wood than the spruce so it will have a slight warmth to it. the back and sides are the huge difference maker however, mahogany, although quite heavy which is its downfall to some, has a very warm tone, for instance as far as i know jason mraz plays a guitar with mahogany sides for his recordings. rosewood is lighter and produces a sharper tone. however both of these woods increase in warmth and body with the increase of size.

Jumbo's are made of maple. this sets them completely apart from really all other acoustic guitars. and the average jumbo has much more high end than low, however i got lucky haha and found a guild that seems to have highs and a good balance of lows to go with it. maple is an extremely light hardwood, so it produces a very good picking tone and also gives good strumming tone but depending on the depth of the body it could be better for one or the other.

You have a Jumbo with a maple TOP? That's very unusual, and certainly not a rule for Jumbo guitars. You see a lot of them with maple back and sides (thanks to our good friends at Gibson) and usually with a spruce top, but you see plenty with rosewood back and sides too. Recently I saw a fab Larrivee jumbo with mahogany back and sides.

Shapes and wood combinations are not tied together. I have seen all mahogany dreadnoughts, all koa OMs etc etc.

The original idea behind dreadnoughts was that they were louder and projected better. Martin did away with the narrower waist that had been common until then in order to produce a guitar with more mids, more punch and more volume.

Theoretically OM and 000 sized guitars have better definition, record well and work for finger-style players, but good guitars and good players tend to be very versatile - sometimes surprisingly so.

Personally I prefer acoustics with a well defined waist - which rules out Dreadnoughts - I find they have a richer, better balanced sound. But then there is this 1960-something Martin D28 over at Hugh's Fine Guitars that might be used as an inducement for me to break some laws.

jgbrown54

The best way to choose any guitar is to find one that has a sound that you like and fits your hand and body.

I have a Fender 1600SXE Jumbo. Fender manufactured the 1600 SXE between 1993 and 1995. It is a Jumbo style acoustic with a natural finished solid sitka spruce top, round soundhole, tortoise shell pickguard, rosewood back & sides and a mahogany neck. The 20-fret rosewood fingerboard has mother of pearl block inlays.The bound rosewood veneered peghead features a pearl "Fender" inlay and three-each-side gold tuners. The 1600 has 2 piezo pickups with volume/treble/bass/mix controls.

I ran across this in a music shop and only had to pick it up and play a few notes and chords to know that this was the guitar for me. As a flat picker I do a lot of playing with a strummer that plays a dreadnought. I was playing an Ovation and my single string at a time playing could not be heard clearly over his full chord strumming and baritone singing. I would have to compensate by using a small amp.

The full body sound of the jumbo was able to bring me up to a level that I no longer needed the amp and we can play together acoustically. However, the real power of the fender comes through when using an amp thanks to the Volume, Bass, and Treble controls and the fact that the Fender had 2 piezo pickups mounted in different areas of the body and a Fader control between the two. It allows me to balance the sound from the low end to the high end to get a overall balanced sound. The jumbo body also gives it a longer sustained tone after a pluck.

wern101

Vintage Vibe wrote:
2 - Generally, the bigger bodies tend to have a slightly more
scooped midrange - great for big strumming with a pick, but
not as much string to string clarity and midrange content.
(ie a smaller parlour sized body would generally suite finger-
picking better than a jumbo.

I recently acquired a '75 Ibanez Vintage 627 that was in bad shape. I added some TLC which included new nut and saddle. I find that strumming with a softer pic (Red Sharkfin) actually sounds better than when strumming with a harder pick. It seems to bring out individual string clarity quite nicely.
Its the first 'big' acoustic I got and ever played and I enjoy the deep 'thundering' sound when hitting the E and A strings hard. That said, the instrument as a whole does sound better when finger picked.

Squonk

Best to have a couple of acoustics then ?. I originally posted this when I first started playing steel string in 2008 and have gravitated to more of a fingerstyle method of playing which my Takamine Dreadnought can handle!

I have played on a couple of OM models that are brilliant for fingerstyle, At Hugh's Fine Guitars there was a Webber OM and 000 model that responded well, both had Cedar Tops, brilliant response!

I suppose the Dreadnought is in between the Jumbo and the smaller models, so maybe a bit more versatile!

Can you believe it that 8 years later I have yet to play a Jumbo!

Foottapiologist

wern101 wrote: That said, the instrument as a whole does sound better when finger picked.

Squonk wrote: and have gravitated to more of a fingerstyle method of playing

That's reassuring. My acoustic guitars are all very different for me, but the one constant is I'm only ever satisfied when I'm finger picking. No matter how much effort I put in with a wide variety of plectrums I just can't get a tone consistently acceptable to my ear.

domhatch

to my mind, there's no particular reason to settle for either. i'd say play around a bit and find something that gives you a 'best of both worlds' scenario. case in point, my larrivee lv05e. (the e is immaterial, really.)

the upper bout is reminiscent of the clarity and separation of a dread. while the open and wider lower bout adds depth, warmth and loudness to the sound. some might say there is a touch of compromise about the idea of settling for one where two would be better, but come on. it's a larrivee. i don't feel compromised at all.

if you're going to be finger picking, and you're a stickler for separation and clarity, you're going to be disappointed by a jumbo from a tone POV, methinks. not when you're comparing them against the parlors, 000s, etc.

but squonkster, really? 8 years on and you've yet to play around with a bigger body? you dunno what you're missing out on!

awesome
dh|