The dreadnought is a type of

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

body developed by American guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin & Company. The style, since copied by other guitar manufacturers, has become the most common for acoustic guitars. At the time of its creation in 1916 the word ''dreadnought'' referred to a large, all big-gun, modern battleship of the type pioneered by in 1906. A body much larger than most other guitars provided the dreadnought with a bolder, perhaps richer, and often louder tone. It is distinguished by its size and square shoulders and bottom. The neck is usually attached to the body at the fourteenth fret. Martin dreadnought guitars are also known as "D-size" guitars. Their model numbers consist of "D-" followed by a number, such as "D-18" and "D-45". The higher the numerical designation, the more decorative ornamentation on the instrument.

History

The dreadnought style was developed in 1916 by Martin specifically for the retailer Oliver Ditson Company. The model was retired after dismal sales. In 1931, after revising the design, Martin began producing dreadnought guitars under its own brand, the first two models named the D-1 and D-2, with bodies made of mahogany and rosewood respectively. The popularity of and demand for Martin dreadnought guitars was increased by their use, almost exclusively, by folk musicians of the mid-20th century, including most bluegrass guitarists. Dreadnoughts became the standard guitar of

bluegrass music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it la ...

, used by many bluegrass musicians to produce a signature sound. Martin dreadnoughts manufactured prior to 1946 are highly desired by musicians due to their loud volume and exceptional tone due to the use of scalloped bracing. The

Gibson Guitar Company Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was former ...

's response to the Martin dreadnought was the round-shouldered

Jumbo Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and ...

, which it introduced in 1934. It introduced its first square shouldered guitar, the

Hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics ar ...

, in 1960. Since then, dreadnoughts have been made by nearly all major guitar manufacturers worldwide in both standard and more recently single- cutaway forms.

References

External links

What is a dreadnought guitar?
on Sixstringsacoustic website
What is a dreadnought guitar?
on Guitarsurfer website {{DEFAULTSORT:Dreadnought (Guitar Type) Acoustic guitars

History

See also

References

External links