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I second that. 12 fret with slotted HS. I've never played one, so i cant comment on the sound, but I do like the aesthetics of it far better than a 14 fret dread.

Probably because the upper bout is enlonginated (sp?). You all probably know that they just closed up the upper bout to make a 14 fretter. Joe you can just take any dred plan or sloped shoulder plan and streach the upper bout to the 12th. fret. You don't need an special plan. You can even put more curve in the lower bout if you want to take some of the lower bout boxieness out too. That's the advantage of build as you customize to your liking. You've seen how Todd Lunneburg keeps his tops to shape and bumps out the side for his armrest. You shouldn't have a problem making customizing one of you Dred plans.

Yeah, we were trying to do something that had a "vintage" look, without appearing too "Martin-esque" (which is kind of hard to do in a dread)

... Nice git of yours by the way.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

For me a pyramid bridge or a straight bridge like an old Advanced Jumbo helps keep the tone balanced on a Dread.....without having to use tone bars the size of rail road ties.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

My second build was a D size guitar, East Indian back and sides, sitka top. I used a 1 3/4 nut and 2 1/4 string spacing on the saddle since I mostly play fingerstyle. I built the D for when I flat pick jam with my bluegrass buddies and did not want to beat up my smaller guitars trying to keep up with the other instruments. It a great sounding guitar either played fingerstyles or pounded on with a flat pick. I play it a lot but find that it is a little hard on my bad shoulder so will sell it eventually. After finishing the Manzer style wedge small jumbo I am thinking of building a wedge D next, I have a nice set of Cocobolo from the Zootman that would be cool to use on it.

As for the thoughts of no one using a D for fingerstyle, Hedges did and it sure sounded good in his hands, actually many of the modern percussive fingerstyle players seem to be moving towards larger guitars.

Mario Proulx (Grumpy) builds what he calls an OM/D which is a OM sized guitar with the waist and upper bout shape of a D and it is very popular. I have heard one and it has a great sound and the extra space in the box adds plenty of bass.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I know a fingerstyle professional player whose been playing Fingerstyle for years on an old Guild 12 string Dred cutaway.

I've got nothing in particular against dreds, just that the world has an ample supply and I don't feel any need to add to it. One could stretch this argument by saying that the world has an ample supply of steel string guitars that I don't feel any particular need to add to it.

I find myself playing steel less and less, so I go with the "build what you play" attitude.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

+1 on that point there Fred. Anyone who thinks Dreads are only for bluegrass should listen to Stefano Barone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDFP_MbvyGc&feature=fvst

Here is a video of Pino Forestiere playing my Dred at a Michigan Fingerstyle Society workshop, the sound is bad as there was background noise and was done with my cheap Sony digital camera. Pino normally plays a Brazilian rosewood 1958 Martin D28, more of his music can be heard on the Candy Rat web site. It seems that for tapping style Dreds work real well.
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z228/fetellier/2009%20Guitar%20builds/?action=view&current=pinoplaysmydred.flv

Here is the same guitar played in a more folk/country style fingerpicking, same camera and background noise.
http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z228/fetellier/2009%20Guitar%20builds/?action=view&current=MOV04175.flv

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

That is incredible Fred. Must be a great feeling to have such an amazing musician play an instrument you built. Lovely Dread too.

The great thing about belonging to Michigan Fingerstyle http://www.fingerstyle.org is we have 6 or more concerts per year and bring in some of the top solo fingerstyle players. There is always a workshop involved which I attend and usually have the players try what ever of my guitars I have with me. It is a huge thrill to hear them played by these type of musicians and often they let me video them. The only drawback is I can't make the guitars sound that good and at 61 and lacking in talent I guess I never will.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

drew up a nice dread today for my #3. decided i wanted to try a double X. just want to know from anyone who has done a double X do you still add any additional tone bars than the 4 main lap jointed braces? is there any need? can it hurt?

I think Alan Carruth uses them alot. I don't remember seeing any tone bars in the pictures. Aren't the second X braces sort of the tone bars or replacement for them?

yeah the one piece of the second X runs right along where a tone bar would. just seems like a few more open spaces. i can see this bracing being very stiff and great for sustain. both X are at 110 degree angles which runs cross grain well. i guess ill just have to wait and see if i feel like putting more bracing on. its easier to put more on if you need it then take them off when you over brace

You should start another discussion if you want to find out about Double X Bracing. Thay's off topic here.

The term Dreadnought (or Dreadnaught- both spellings are correct, the English used Dreadnaught more than we did here on this side of the Atlantic), did come about from a Battleship but goes back even further than that to a small pub in Ireland.
Henry Hunt from the Ditson company wanted something larger that what was available from the Martin company at the time
so the plans were drawn up in 1916 and a guitar was made around 1917. A few were ordered over the next several years but they went away when the Ditson company went bankrupt in the Great Depression. Fortunately, someone at Martin, probably
the factory foreman John Deichman, brought the idea back in the early 30's in the form of the D-1 and D-2. They really caught on when Gene Autry ordered his 12 fret D-45 in 1934 and it took off from there.
Back in the era around WW1, the term became so common that anyone or anything big was a "dreadnought". So it was a simple choice for Martin to apply the term to their largest guitar. They were not the first to make a bigger guitar, Lyon and Healy made their huge bass guitars which dwarfed the first Ditson 111 models by Martin.
I still make them from time to time and always enjoy building them. Here's one in progress...

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

Not my favorite body style, but lots of people won't have anything else. I must say that properly done, they can be extraordinary. My first introduction to guitars was in the late 60's in high school with a friend who had a 48 D-28 that was about as good a guitar as I've ever heard. I didn't know there even was a different body style until the early seventies.

Here's a few shots of one I built last year.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com