What is the difference between a dreadnought and folk style guitar?
Grey Ham asked:
I am looking to buy my first guitar and i have seen that there are these two styles. I was just wondering what is the difference, what is cheaper and what is better.
I am looking to buy my first guitar and i have seen that there are these two styles. I was just wondering what is the difference, what is cheaper and what is better.
I have also heard that there are nylon and steel-stringed guitar…. what’s the difference there?
Acoustic guitars can be divided into nylon string, steel string flat top, and steel string arch top.
Nylon string guitars generally come in two types, flamenco and classical. Flamenco guitars have violin style tuning pegs instead of machine heads and have a plastic tap-plate over the soundboard to protect the surface and allow percussive tapping with the fingernails. Classical guitars have slotted headstocks with machine heads.
Flat top guitars come in five different sizes: O, or Concert is the smallest, about the same size as a classical guitar. OO, or Grand Concert is the next size up and OOO, or Auditorium is the next size up from that with the Jumbo and the Dreadnought being the largest. All these guitars except the Dreadnought have pronounced waists, the waist on the Dreadnought being just a slight indentation of the sides.
Archtops are in between Auditorium and Jumbo size.
Nylon strings give the mellow sound generally associated with classical or European folk playing, but some artists, most notably Willie Nelson, use Nylon in contemporary music.
Flat tops are by far the most common acoustic guitars. Concert sized guitars are the most trebly, giving a sound associated with English folk music, and as the guitars get larger the voice gets deeper until with the Dreadnoughts you get the thumping bass sound associated with Bluegrass.
Archtops are used primarily in Jazz. Most are electrified these days, usually with on pickup mounted to the fingerboard.
Putting steel strings on a nylon string guitar will damage the instrument; Putting nylon strings on a steel string guitar will result in a weak, Mickey Mouse sound. ⌡Machine Head⌠
The Dreadnought body is bass-heavy, and is the preferred instrument for bluegrass because of it’s (the guitar’s) role as the bass instrument, concentrating on bass runs and chords. If you are going to be using the guitar to accompany a singer like the folk singers do, then the folk-style (00, 000, OM, etc.) is probably more what you are looking for.
I would visit some stores and listen to both types of instruments, play them yourself, even if that involves merely holding the guitar and strumming the strings. You will begin to hear the differences and then you can decide which you like better.
Nylon is usually used in classical and flamenco guitar playing while steel is used in electric and some acoustic. Steph.