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I wold like to know what style and size of guitar do you use to play blues? Why?

Bob,

I've been searching for the perfect blues guitar for 30 years or so, as I play British folk and and delta blues around the English clubs. I have narrowed down the basic requirements.

The one thing I will not compromise on is that the body and sides should be mahogany, blues needs the woody growl that only mahogany can give. As to the top, it should be responsive to a wide dynamic of fingerstyle play so to me that cuts out Sitka. So, Englemann, WRC, Adirondack or European? I've tried them all and like the reponsiveness of and sound of European and Adi.

Body size? I like 00 sized, but would settle for a 000.

So, what do I use? Is it one that I built? When going to a club I take 4 guitars (and a lute) for different styles of playing. A mahogany (or koa)and European for English folk, A Brazilian and European to accompany my wife's singing, a Mahogany/cedar OM for dropped tunings, all of which I built myself.

So what do I take for the blues? I have to admit I still take my pre-war Martin 00-18 Mahogany/adirondack with 70 years on the clock. I hope one day to be able to make a blues guitar that's its equal. I do sometimes also take an all Koa resonator dobro (see pictures on 'square neck resonator' thread) for bottleneck playing.

Hope that helps.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I also like mahogany. I built a L-00 style with sitka top and 24.9 scale. Honduran mahogany b/s.

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Yep, double O is the way to go. I played a Collings C10 and had to look around the guitar store for my socks afterward.

My first attempt is here, a mahogany and adi top, just like Colin said, funny thing was it was a 19 year old kid making the decision on woods after she heard my comments. I told her, if she were blind, and could only hear, she'd pick those two woods.

She passed up coco, indian, cedar, englemann, koa, santos rosewood, ovangkol and sapele to get that combo.



L-Double Oh!

Hi Bob,
I have been a Blues guitarist for many years...
Trust me, the Best choice would be a OOO wide neck Mahogany. I believe Bruce Dickey has some Mahogany shells ready for completion. This would be my choice for shure.
Have him put a 1 3/4" neck or wider. And Bobc is right about the scale=24.9 is great!!
The sound will be excellent from the start and only get better with time.
Trust me!!
Good Luck.
WalterK WalterK38404.8739351852

I love the Triple O shape, it's very personal size guitar. So yeah, I bet it would be good too, thanks for bringing that up Walter.