Dreadnought as fingerstyle guitar -- original instrumental

[Glennwillow]

This is a song I made up, which I named "If I'd Only Known."

I originally made this up as a warm-up song and then found myself using this piece to audition other guitars. After a while the song seemed to take on a life of its own.

The guitar is my 1967 Martin D-35 using John Pearse PB light gauge strings which are about 2 weeks old at the time of this recording. I use relatively short fingernails and use a Fred Kelly Slick Pick on my thumb, extra-heavy. The guitar is tuned to normal concert pitch, A = 440 Hz.

We have discussions on the AGF fairly often about whether a dreadnought is suitable as a fingerstyle guitar. I suppose it depends on how the guitar fits a person, but since I am so used to this guitar after 48 years since I got it in 1969, I find that this guitar works fine for me as a fingerstyle guitar. The 1 11/16" nut width is comfortable for me -- I don't have wide finger tips or huge hands.

Because the D-35 has only 1/4" non-scalloped X-bracing, it is braced a little lighter than a typical D-28, so it is a little bit more responsive to finger picking compared to a D-18 or D-28. The lighter bracing adds a little more bass and the slightly thinner top adds a little more treble compared to a D-28. It's hard to quantify what the Brazilian rosewood back and sides bring to the sound.

I think the guitar is fairly well balanced, at least for my tastes, but then I like the bass that this guitar has. There is no EQ and no reverb added in the audio recording. The large diaphragm mic up by my head is set in omni mode and is picking up room sound, so there is probably some natural room reverb in the recording from that. But this recording is pretty representative of what this guitar sounds like in a room with me playing this song.

My playing is a little loose in a few places. But again, this is fairly representative of how I play.

Thanks for listening.

- Glenn

[islandguitar]

Listened twice, Glenn....very nice easy feel to this song. Thanks for putting it out there!

[Kerbie]

Beautiful, Glenn! I found myself just closing my eyes and enjoying it. Well done and very pretty. Love that 35.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by islandguitar

Listened twice, Glenn....very nice easy feel to this song. Thanks for putting it out there!

Thank you so much, Fred, for listening and commenting! You listened twice -- very cool! That makes me feel good! Thank you!

Originally Posted by Kerbie

Beautiful, Glenn! I found myself just closing my eyes and enjoying it. Well done and very pretty. Love that 35.

Hi Kerbie -- Thank you too for listening and commenting. I can imagine that the sound of this D-35 takes you back to the D-35 you once owned. I am so very glad you liked this. Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts and provide support!

- Glenn

[JakeStone]

Beautiful - Energetic and mellow all at the same time...

Really nice!

[ukejon]

Sounds great.

[frquent flyer]

You make a good point! Tom

[reeve21]

Bravo Glenn! I also play finger style on a dread and find it comfortable

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by JakeStone

Beautiful - Energetic and mellow all at the same time...

Really nice!

Thank you Jake! You make me smile. That's an interesting way to describe the piece... Energetic and mellow all at the same time...

Thanks for your comments!

Originally Posted by ukejon

Sounds great.

Thank you Jon! I appreciate your listening and commenting!

Originally Posted by frquent flyer

You make a good point! Tom

Thank you Tom. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Originally Posted by reeve21

Bravo Glenn! I also play finger style on a dread and find it comfortable

Thank you Bob. I'm glad the dreadnought works for you!

- Glenn

[Howard Emerson]

Hey Glenn,
Well now you gone and done it.

Thrown a wrench into the works.

Fingerpicked a narrow necked dread.

The forum goes berserk.

Sounds fabulous, well recorded, and you play it very well. So nice to put a face & musicality to the name.

Best regards,
Howard Emerson

[KDepew]

Very nice. I enjoyed it very much. Obviously finger style with this guitar works really well for you. Thanks for sharing.

[TacomaDR20]

Well done - playing and recording. Nice guitar, I like your tone and attack, it's similar to how I play fingerstyle, except that it's good....

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Hey Glenn,
Well now you gone and done it.

Thrown a wrench into the works.

Fingerpicked a narrow necked dread.

The forum goes berserk.

Sounds fabulous, well recorded, and you play it very well. So nice to put a face & musicality to the name.

Best regards,
Howard Emerson

Hi Howard,

Thank you so much for commenting! What an honor! And I love your take on my experiment.

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by KDepew

Very nice. I enjoyed it very much. Obviously finger style with this guitar works really well for you. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Kevin! Yes, in truth, for me, fingerstyle works fine on this old dreadnought. Thank you so much for listening and commenting!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by TacomaDR20

Well done - playing and recording. Nice guitar, I like your tone and attack, it's similar to how I play fingerstyle, except that it's good....

Hi Tacoma!

Thank you for taking the time to listen and comment. Interesting that our approach to finger picking is very similar! Cool!

- Glenn