The dreadnought guitar explained
Today, we know the Dreadnought guitar as the most popular steel-string guitar model. What is the history of this model and why is it so popular?
History of the Dreadnought guitar
It was CF. Martin who introduced the Dreadnought in 1916 as an alternative to the much smaller Parlor guitar. Martin named this guitar model, because of its size, after a 1906 British warship, the HMS Dreadnought. These first models were not yet produced under the Martin name. They were built for the Oliver Ditson Company and production took place on a very modest scale. The 12-fret Dreadnought had a solid spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides. Production of the Dreadnought was stopped in 1920 after only four years of production. It wasn’t until 1931 that Martin released Dreadnought guitars again, this time under his own name. That year two models were introduced: the D1 (spruce top, mahogany back and sides) and D2 (spruce top, rosewood back and sides).
The sound of a dreadnought guitar
The Dreadnought guitar quickly became the most popular steel-string guitar model after WWII because of its powerful volume, its lower-mid-range tones and its expression, and all other guitar brands soon started building Dreadnoughts as well.
The guitar model found plenty of attention from country artists who at last had an instrument that would fit well with fiddles and banjos as an accompaniment to vocals. Through the country music, the guitar easily found its way into the blues, pop and rock music. Today, the Dreadnought has established itself in virtually all styles of music, becoming the most iconic model of all time.
Javatar introduced a Dreadnought Slope Shoulder model
Javatar has also introduced a Dreadnought ‘slope shoulder’ model. This model with more rounded shoulders and a rather deep body as such resembles a Gibson J45. The Javatar Dreadnought is built with a solid AAA Engelmann spruce top and solid mahogany back and sides. The Javatar Dreadnought Slope shoulder has an incredibly powerful sound with a perfect balance between highs, mids and lows and an endless sustain. The Dutch magazine ‘Gitarist’ awarded the Dreadnought with the maximum five stars: “We think the Javatar guitars may well compete with instruments a lot more expensive and for the money thus saved you can do a lot more other nice musical things” (Gitarist, 362, May 2021) Come and try out a Javatar Dreadnought in our studio or buy a Dreadnought in our webshop.
