acoustic guitar body size

G · 2009-11-25T11:23:52+00:00

Hi everyone This is my random question of the day: what body size do you prefer and why?

acoustic guitar body size

Squonk

@ Sean you have good friends, Extremely blessed ?

Sean

Squonk I know, the dude is a good Oke, and I've learn t more about guitars and gear than I ever would have otherwise...that is to say when I'm not suffering from information overload ?

Bob-Dubery

Sean wrote: I've only ever owned and played Dreadnoughts. Your question has certainly got me asking myself why? ???

I suppose I've always been satisfied with them ? The volume aspect is important for me though because I often play unplugged in a small group setting. I'm currently using Gearhead's Fender DG3 while he's building one for me, and included in the specs I gave him was the dreadnought shape.

What? Gearhead builds acoustics? Let's have some details.

Sean

Well, not from scratch (although he is planning to do so sometime in the future). He sourced some bodies from somewhere (guess you wanted more detail than that :-[), the neck he'll do himself, but I'll rather let him elaborate later.

Bob-Dubery

Yeah. You can get body parts and even whole guitars in kit form from Stewmac and the like. They only seem to come in dreadnought and 000.

What woods you going for?

AlanRatcliffe

Martin Guitars also sell kits, as do Luthier's Mercantile.

I prefer parlour to auditorium size as anything else is too big for me - I'm too used to electrics and nylons, never having been much of a steel string player. Coincidentally, the midrange strong voice of a parlour suits fingerpicking very well.

Gearhead

Well, er, no kits here. I bought 2 dreadnoughts and 2 classical bodies from a Hohner cleanout. They stopped their production on the laminated top models and were practically giving them away. Nevertheless, the stuff is well thought through and properly built. I figured I could not leave them there for the price and took the best 4 (of a couple of hundred). The one classical is a beaut with flame maple veneered sides and back, hopefully it will have not-too-awful tone... Will move on to building entire acoustics as soon as I finish these and know where to source 5mm sapele locally (don't hold yer breath).
So, Sean's guit starts life as a Hohner body with no neck and just a rectangular gap where the tenon comes in. It has (some or other?) mahogany sides and back, a laminate spruce top and will get sapele neck/heel/headstock and ebony fretboard and bridge. All the bits and pieces are here, now just to finish ongoing projects to free up time to build the dreadnought and get my beloved DG3 back...

CDee

Gearhead wrote: free up time to build the dreadnought and get my beloved DG3 back...

Sounds like Sean is holding the DG3 for ransom. ?

Keira-WitherKay

body sizes are deceptive....... tho. i have heard a classical 3/4 size body built by marl maingard and it had more natural bottomend than many full size nylons i know..... guitars vary so try em all..and if you planning to be a plugged in player most of the time... a smaller body will be more comfortable and help reduce feedback ....

yeah but try em all.... some might surprise you

Bob-Dubery

Keira WitherKay wrote: body sizes are deceptive....... tho. i have heard a classical 3/4 size body built by marl maingard and it had more natural bottomend than many full size nylons i know..... guitars vary so try em all..

When I bought my Morgan I traded in a Takamine dreadnought. Now the theory goes that a dreadnought should be louder than an OM, but I think that theory should be extended to read "all else being equal". The Morgan was certainly louder than the Takamine. There was also a Larrivee dreadnought at the shop that was so loud I nearly fell off the chair when I tried it.

So, yeah, there are these rules of thumb, but they are not absolute and you should just let the guitar speak for itself.

G

thanks for the feedback, on more question. is a parlor size guitar also called a 000?

Bob-Dubery

G wrote: thanks for the feedback, on more question. is a parlor size guitar also called a 000?

If you've seen Joan Baez or Dolly Parton playing their eensy-weensy Martins, those are parlour guitars.

In Martin terminology those are size "0" (zero) guitars. Martin have a body size in between 000 and 0. You will be unsurprised to learn that it is designated 00.