Raising The TOne

Inspired by our trip to martin, explores what separates a stunning dread’ from a dull duffer

bring out different things in an acoustic guitar. Some acoustics only come fully to life in the hands of heavy strummers, while others will only yield up their best in the hands of gentle fingerpickers. So, what things should you look for when you’re seeking a dreadnought that will suit your musical personality?

“We’ll start by asking people, ‘What type of music do you enjoy?’” explains Scott Sasser, director of Martin’s Custom Shop. “‘What do you hope this instrument would sound like?’ That allows us to assess if this guitar is going to be an anvil to the hammerlike strumming that they’re using every night – or if the guitar is going to be used in a more intimate setting. Maybe it’s going to be used for recording in a close-mic situation and so they need a voice that is expressive and articulate.”

The process of tailoring an acoustic to a particular player’s needs starts with the soundboard itself – usually made of one of the varieties of spruce known to offer good tonal qualities. As the ‘speaker’ of the guitar, the top has a fundamental role to play in defining the character of the finished guitar.

“The back and sides are going to bring their sauce to the gravy, for sure – but the top will move the needle the most, the fastest,” Scott says.

To explore what that might mean for individual players, I give Scott my own example – I’m primarily a fingerstyle acoustic player who, perhaps unusually, favours dreadnoughts over the smallerbodied acoustics typically associated with fingerstyle playing. What top material would he recommend in my case?

“For a lighter player, we may opt for one of the European spruces, such as Italian spruce, with Engelmann being the loosest of the varieties,” Scott explains. “But those