I'm looking for some advice. I'm building a guitar for a buddy of mine. He's got koa fever so I picked up a nice set from Volcano in the swap meet. Here's where I need some help. I've built 7 so far, but they've all been for me. I like smaller bodies and play a little finger style and flat pick with a fairly light touch. He, on the other hand, likes dreds, light guage strings and he mainly flat picks using medium picks. But he plays with a VERY VERY heavy touch. I would think a dred or a jumbo would probably be the best body type for his style, but what kind of sound board? My initial thought would be that addi would respond best to a heavy touch (or certainly better than something like cedar). What about bracewood? Would you go with scalloped or parabolic braces? I don't think he's expecting it to sound just like a D28, but I want it to be in the ballpark and I want it to be able to stand up to his heavy picking. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bob K

Thanks Steve, glad to know I'm thinking along the right lines.

Bob

Michael, would you inlet the bottom ends of the X into the linings or taper them off until they're flush to the soundboard?

Thanks for the help guys.

Waddy you're not known as a man of few words so that one had me stumped.

Bill, I think he uses lights so he doesn't rip the bridge right off the guitar. Lunch would be great - maybe sometime in the next few weeks if you're free. I could sure use input before I start this project.

Bob

I have been stuck building dreads lately and right now I am on my 9th in a row. All have been for people that like the same things your client likes. By far, I have found that the adi top with parabolic bracing has been the preferred sound they are looking for. I also use a variation of Mario's magic tone bar, which adds some volume to the guitar without becoming brash in tone.

I feather out my braces also, as mentioned above.

Allen, on my smaller guitars I inlet the all the braces in the upper bout but feather out all the braces in the lower bout. It keeps rigidity where it's most needed but loosens up the lower half of the soundboard. (I inlet all the braces on my backs.) I believe it's fairly common practice, but I've never built a larger body guitar and wanted to check.

Hope that helps.

Bob