{"id":30473,"date":"2016-09-01T18:00:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/?p=30473"},"modified":"2016-09-01T14:32:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T12:32:11","slug":"celebrating-the-100th-birthday-of-the-dreadnought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/gear\/celebrating-the-100th-birthday-of-the-dreadnought\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the 100th birthday of the Dreadnought"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100 years ago, a new shape emerged from the basement of a company in Boston. Few people may had realized that a game changer was born, and a century after, almost every musician in the world would identify himself with the legendary dreadnought acoustic guitar.<\/b><\/p>\n

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Name and History<\/h2>\n

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The Dreadnought guitar (or “dread”) is certainly an iconic<\/b> instrument. Found in every kind of music genre (particularly in pop and\u00a0country\u00a0music), it started its life as the favored tool for country musicians<\/b>. Like many unexpected innovations, the dreadnought shape is a mixture of great ideas, uncommon requests and… astral convergences<\/b>.
\nThe name comes from a British battleship<\/b> that was a turning point in terms of innovations during the first years of \u2018900, becoming the first ship known to have destroyed a submarine. The dreadnought was huge<\/i>, imponent<\/i> and masterful<\/i>, the main characteristics that were poured into the guitar’s design.<\/p>\n

John Deichmann<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/b><\/a>Martin<\/a><\/b>\u00a0is the first name bond to the Dreadnought guitar, because they provided the name. Surprisingly, the first models didn\u2019t sport the Martin logo and were produced by the Oliver Ditson Company<\/b>\u00a0around 1916. It all started when Harry L. Hunt, manager of the Ditson<\/b> company, visited Martin’s laboratories in Nazareth<\/b>. John Deichmann<\/b>, a senior luthier, used to keep a prototype<\/b> of his instruments by his workbench. And Harry saw the future: a big, bold and squared acoustic guitar, that John designed and used as an Hawaiian<\/b> instrument, keeping it on his legs and playing it horizontally with a metal slide. Guitarists at that time were struggling to be heard<\/b>, as the Spanish guitar, due to his gut strings, was not as loud<\/b> as a\u00a0banjo<\/b><\/a>. Steel string guitars<\/b> were born to solve this crucial problem. Oliver asked John to build a\u00a0“normal” version of his prototype, using a spruce<\/b> top instead of mahogany to obtain a brighter sound, the Dreadnought was born<\/b>.\u00a0Production as \u201cMartin\u201d officially started many years later, as Martin remained skeptical despite the huge success<\/b> of the guitar, and finally released the D-1x<\/b><\/a> (mahogany bottom and sides) and D-2x<\/b><\/a> (rosewood bottom and sides), both with a spruce top, \u00a0in 1931.
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\n<\/a>\"Gibson<\/a>Gibson<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>responded with the introduction of the Jumbo<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>in 1934, without much success , and\u00a0consequently the Hummingbird<\/b><\/a>, in 1960, gaining consent from many western and country musicians. This Gibson alternative has always been aesthetically more refined<\/b>, with vine inlays, big block fret markers and the famous Gibson headstock<\/b>. They\u00a0also produced the J45<\/b><\/a>, a performant and famous model that is dreamed by several collector all over the world.<\/p>\n

<\/a>From that moment, thanks to the licensing<\/b> that Martin gave to all the manufacturers, virtually every guitar builder<\/b> made his own version of the Dreadnought shape. Amongst the various options, Taylor<\/b><\/a> made a name for his superb crafted instruments, a trademark sound for every rock, pop and country guitarist. Their 510<\/b><\/a>, 410<\/b><\/a> and 610<\/b><\/a> models are highly ranked among professional guitarists. And there’s place for cheaper, but equally well crafted<\/b>, alternatives such as the 110E<\/b><\/a> and 110CE<\/b><\/a> .<\/p>\n

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