Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by codedog »

telefiend wrote:
AiRdAd wrote:
codedog wrote:
Yes, I'm talking myself into buying something way above my skill level...
That's my motto!!!!
Nothing wrong with that! It's an acoustic, not a 100w stack for your living room.
Interesting analogy. My OM is reasonably loud, even with finger picking. I bought the parlour to have a pleasant resonant experience at a much lower volume. In looking at dreadnoughts I have no doubt it will be almost the analogy of 100w stack in my living room. After all, those beasts are made for playing with vigour.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by codedog »

kwhelan wrote:
robnobcorncob wrote:Cole Clark are great until they start to buzz...

http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?t=5528
you can find these threads for basically any brand if you start looking
Now that you mentioned it, I remember seeing a Taylor Mini in Alan Farrow's workshop. He was fixing the back that was coming away from the lining. He mentioned he had seen that type of fault a few times before. Again, this may well be due to improper storage... I didn't ask the circumstances surrounding the failure. The owners themselves may have been less than truthful about that.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by telefiend »

codedog wrote:
telefiend wrote:
AiRdAd wrote:
That's my motto!!!!
Nothing wrong with that! It's an acoustic, not a 100w stack for your living room.
Interesting analogy. My OM is reasonably loud, even with finger picking. I bought the parlour to have a pleasant resonant experience at a much lower volume. In looking at dreadnoughts I have no doubt it will be almost the analogy of 100w stack in my living room. After all, those beasts are made for playing with vigour.
Haha, I suppose so. I think a dreadnought is probably still more appropriate for a living room. You can still lightly finger pick them and have the toanz at low volume. Living room volume 100w is all kinds of silly to me.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by telefiend »

codedog wrote:
kwhelan wrote:
robnobcorncob wrote:Cole Clark are great until they start to buzz...

http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?t=5528
you can find these threads for basically any brand if you start looking
Now that you mentioned it, I remember seeing a Taylor Mini in Alan Farrow's workshop. He was fixing the back that was coming away from the lining. He mentioned he had seen that type of fault a few times before. Again, this may well be due to improper storage... I didn't ask the circumstances surrounding the failure. The owners themselves may have been less than truthful about that.
Suspect that a lot of the time it's user negligence rather than build issues with these sorts of things.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by robnobcorncob »

kwhelan wrote:
robnobcorncob wrote:Cole Clark are great until they start to buzz...

http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?t=5528
you can find these threads for basically any brand if you start looking

there are millions on taylors having the top split or come away from the sides
in USA you can send them back to factory for repairs and many many do
If you make a quality instrument out of wood it is highly strung beast, made of extremely light thin components that are extremely humidity sensitive materials and if you don't treat it right it will bite you
the taylor site is full of How tos on weighing your guitar and either drying or wetting your guitar to get the neck and action back to correct. how to tell if the grain is too dry by looking at the top and back shapes and even the laminates and varnish wrinkle
a big heavy ibanez or takamine is not the same thing.
not saying one couldn't sound any better, its a personal choice thing but if you want a thin light resonant guitar you need to be someone who appreciates and treats it with respect.
If your going to leave it in the back of the car then get something built like a tank
I agree, if you go looking you WILL find trouble.

Guitar repair is my living, In my line of work I see the worst side of every brand of guitar. Any mainstream brand will have issues if you leave it in the back of a hot car or in a damp closet for long periods of time.

Cole Clark have issues unique to them due to the manufacturing process they use (And refuse to change) which is no fault of the owner... but as I said, they are great until they start to buzz, which admittedly not many of them do, but when they do it is a frustrating repair due to the countersunk/"trench" bracing design. If you own one and it doesn't buzz then all power to you and I hope it continues to be fine. If you want repair horror stories (for any brand) then I'll save that for a different thread.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by olegmcnoleg »

Rob, I'd love to hear some of those war stories, the good and the bad. Really admire the folks who can do this kind of work.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by telefiend »

+1 I'm in for the horror stories.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by robnobcorncob »

Ok, I'll see what I can rustle up later this week!

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by codedog »

That'd be awesome! I'm hoping it will be an ongoing thread. I'm sure others have had horror stories too. I'm especially keen on acoustic guitar ones.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by SimonHirst »

It's a different kind of story but could have ended quite badly for my D35.
I was asked to guest as a performer for a organisation named Starjam which is a charity that helps disabled kids who are interested in performing get out there and experience it. Great folks and wonderful kids.
During the little Q&A at the end there was one little guy who just couldn't take his eyes off the guitar, and he raised his hand and said something to the sentiment of "your guitar is amazing", so I told him he'd better come up and have a quick go. He did, and seeing the the complete joy on his face of strumming the guitar was such a wonderful thing. However, when he went to give it back to me he didn't actually hand it to me but just held it out (semi in my direction) and just let it go as he turned and ran back to his friends...haha. I caught it about an inch before it hit the floor.
Would I do it again?
Every day of the week.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by Molly »

olegmcnoleg wrote:Rob, I'd love to hear some of those war stories, the good and the bad. Really admire the folks who can do this kind of work.
Definitely. I want more in my life to worry about... LOL.

I do actually want to hear the war stories. Ta

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by telefiend »

SimonHirst wrote:It's a different kind of story but could have ended quite badly for my D35.
I was asked to guest as a performer for a organisation named Starjam which is a charity that helps disabled kids who are interested in performing get out there and experience it. Great folks and wonderful kids.
During the little Q&A at the end there was one little guy who just couldn't take his eyes off the guitar, and he raised his hand and said something to the sentiment of "your guitar is amazing", so I told him he'd better come up and have a quick go. He did, and seeing the the complete joy on his face of strumming the guitar was such a wonderful thing. However, when he went to give it back to me he didn't actually hand it to me but just held it out (semi in my direction) and just let it go as he turned and ran back to his friends...haha. I caught it about an inch before it hit the floor.
Would I do it again?
Every day of the week.
That's a real rock n roll move on the kid's part :lol:

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by Slowy »

olegmcnoleg wrote:I've not seen this model before...any good?

https://www.trademe.co.nz/music-instrum ... f18c679c97
Diplomat was a brand used in NZ (Possibly elsewhere too) in the 1960-70s. They're generic Japanese production and if your expectations are modest, they may serve.
My first electric; the one that put me off SG's for life?
Diplomat.
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who so survive.

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by olegmcnoleg »

I can start us off with a horror story, and it is about a dreadnought. A few years ago I was on sabbatical in California. I saw a lovely dreadnought cutaway on EBay, the most beautiful woods and all handmade by a luthier in Colorado. I struck up a conversation with him and we agreed a price. I drove from Santa Barbara to Denver to pick it up (!) Tried it out, it was lovely, paid in cash, drove away.

That is, of course, when the trouble started. The guitar would not intonate, action was terrible, the awesome tone had completely vanished. Sent the guitar back, he made some adjustments--said he could not really see a problem, but it was no better when I got it back. After a LONG, protracted exchange as to how this could happen, it turned out that he had built the guitar in his shop with the humidity controlled at 20% (which is higher than the normal humidity where he lives, which is 10%!). All his previous clients lived in the area and so I was the first one he even had a problem with. Even at 50% humidity in CA, the guitar was a mess. Back in Auckland...no chance at all.

Which might explain why I am am anal about controlling humidity as a way of getting the best out of my guitars. But setting the humidity at 20% is completely impractical as it would damage my others. In the end, I just sent the guitar back, did not get a refund, there was no point in trying to keep it, all swelled up like a ballon, it clearly needed very dry air to survive. Chalk it down to experience :eh:

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Re: Dreadnoughts... your thoughts?

Post by SimonHirst »

telefiend wrote: That's a real rock n roll move on the kid's part :lol:
Absolutely! He was a natural...

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