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  • Guitar Of The Month - October 2019

    Phoenix Dreadnaught Acoustic

    I've been building guitars and basses for around 6 years - largely electrics and generally for my own use of for fellow band members and occasional commissions.  I am attracted by the slightly quirky and 'wonder if this could be done' projects but also by the sheer challenge of an acoustic.  My first acoustic build - an OM for myself - was around 5 years ago.  I then built a dreadnought for our band's vocalist's 'special' birthday.  Then another dreadnought for my own use.  The 'Phoenix' is my 4th acoustic build

    Why Phoenix?  Well, the build itself started with a discarded neck blank - a former bass project where I made a miscalculation and cut it the wrong length.  A new neck was made and the bass completed...but I was left with this less about 6 inches:

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    Me clearing out some old offcuts, including the short version of above, coincided with an offer by Matt - an excellent pro-player I know and who was planning to do some self-promotion videos - to use some of my own basses and guitars in his videos. 

    He wouldn't take anything towards the cost of videos, so how could I offer a 'thank you'?

    Hmmm...well, he's an excellent acoustic player and he likes the acoustic among the borrowed instruments.  So, could a blank like that above, be turned into a blank like this below??:

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    And thus the Phoenix rose from the ashes.... :)

    Spec is:

    - 25.5" Scale; 19" Fretboard radius

    - European spruce top; black limba back and sides; ebony fretboard; walnut rosette/tailpiece/headstock plate

    -  Full size square-shouldered dreadnought

    - Two pickup systems with individual outputs: LR Baggs Anthem (piezo & condenser mic); K&K Pure Mini (saddle-plate transducers)

    It took around 4 months to build and finish.  The full build diary is here 

     And here's the finished guitar:

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    Happily, Matt loves it (always a great relief when I build anything for other people). 

    Here is a quick clip taken on my phone on the day I passed it over to him:

     


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