Educate me

[Knottyhed]

OK, so I keep reading about guitars that are dreadnoughts, or jumbo's etc. etc. I gather it's something to do with body shape, but what exactly. Can anyone explain because google isn't being very helpful.

[Tony Burns]

There are so many body shapes , sizes , cutaways etc. to really get into it . My best advice is to get to as many music stores that you can tolerate and play as many different makes as models as well as wood types as your poor little fingers can tolerate . A place like Elderly in Michigan is a good start - Jumbos are boomy ( almost too much of a guitar for some people ) Dreads usually louder than OM's - as well as having a narrower fingerboard , OM's ( my current favorite ) have 1 3/4 nut , wider board and a smaller body , which is good for most fingerpickers and more comfortable because of the smaller body size . But in reality , their are no rules - you can flatpick or fingerpick any guitar or neck width - finding whats best for you and not following any set rules will work best for you - Michael hedges , one of the bet players and fingerpickers in the world used a Martin D-28 - most fingerpickers say the narrow boards are not best but again its what you like - their honestly is no best guitar for any particular purpose -

 

you just completed Guitars 101, congratulations - your next instruction and class now begins ----------

[Knottyhed]

Thanks for the reply - but I'm not actually asking which is best, or most appropriate for finger picking etc. I'm just wondering what makes a guitar a dreadnought, or a jumbo etc. etc. what features would it have to have to be described as such.

[missedmyexit]

The body size/shape is what gives the acoustic it's name.

 

 

That is just a example of a few of the sizes/shapes. I think Freeman has a Martin link somewhere that shows them in more detail.

[Freeman Keller]

The size designations are largely determined by legacy Martin sizes. Around the turn of the century guitars had small bodies with tight waists - these were the size 0 and 00 and Parlor models. As player wanted more volume Martin (and other followed) created the Orchastra Model, or OM, then the bigger Dreadnaught. Gibson developed its guitars along other terminology, but its big boomy size was the Jumbo (Martim's J). (That history is a real oversimplification, but basically guitars have "grown up" over the past 80 years).

 

http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/choosing/size.html

 

Each of these sizes has well defined dimensions, so to answer your basic question, you can take a ruler and this chart and determine what size you are looking at

 

http://www.martinguitar.com/guitars/features/shapes.html

 

I have another great graphical picture but I can't post it from this computer - I'll do it tonight if nobody else does.

[AugTPD]

Here's a link to a page with some explanations of different sizes as well as a lot of pictures. Should help out a bit.

 

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Guitar/FlatTopSizes/sizes.html

[Knottyhed]

Thanks guys, that's cleared it up nicely.