Fingerpicking a dreadnought?
 

Now I know you can use picks or fingers on all guitars and make them sound good. I am basically a fingerpicker used to OMs but I am considering a Martin D18 or Gibson J45 in order to get a deeper bass sound. Any views? Any finger pickers use dreadnoughts?

I finger-pick all my guitars, using plastic thumb-pick and nickel finger-picks. My Dreads sound great finger-picked - different to the Lowden, and different again to the Brook, but excellent in their own way.

My advice? Go For It! :up::up:

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

I do everything on my Martin Dreadnought. (Dreadnoughts are all I've ever known and I only own the one acoustic).

If my picking approach is more Travis style then I use a plastic thumb pick and Dunlop metal fingerpicks on fingers one and two (don't use my ring finger), however if I'm picking more a banjo/classical style, then off comes the thumb pick.

Good luck!

Yes, no problem. I use a pick, hybrid pick and fingers and just fingers with my D-18 and it works equally well for me with all approaches. I found the post-2012 iteration of the D-18 is much more responsive to a lighter touch than its straight braced predecessor.

I bought my Gibson J-15 as a 'do everything' guitar, although I currently fingerpick 90% of the time. It has plenty of bass and is a more balanced fingerpicker than any Martin Dreads I've tried, which I find too full of bass (a daintier thumb can sort that out, I suppose).

I don’t know, how’d it sound when you tried it?

For me, it’s TOO bassy, but I’m used to an 00 body, so am probably just whaling away too hard on the e, string.

Dreadnoughts are great for anything, but if you're after more bass and like a smaller guitar, try a 12 fret model. They are often warmer sounding.

Sometimes a really loud DN can be a little less on the responsive side. My Adi+EIR Bob Thompson requires a lot of effort. My sitka+Brazilian Don Sharp Samogyi inspired DN is takes much less effort.

Works fine for John Prine.

I'm a long time dreadnought fingerpicker using a thumb pick and bare fingers. Having tried varied sized guitars over the years, I've come to the conclusion that square-shouldered dreads are my desired guitar shape. They do it all, and IMO they do it all very well. Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise...

I notice that many of the answers are "yes," but the next thing added is, "I use a thumb pick."

To be clear, you can do anything on any guitar, and somebody is doing it right now (and doing it well).

If you fingerpick with your fingers and have 13's on your dread it will work fine as long as you customarily use enough right hand finger pressure to excite the top. I did it for years, but I found I got less volume from the dread because I don't use a lot of RH finger pressure. A little counter-intuitive, but I get better sound from a 000 with 12's.

You'll find out pretty quickly when you try one.

You can certainly finger pick a dreadnaught and get good tone from it. Players like Gordon Lightfoot, Paul Simon, Dan Fogelberg, James Taylor, Jorma Kaukonen, etc. come to mind. This was a few decades ago before smaller guitars like 000's and OM's became so popular. A lot of it depends on your set-up and choice of strings. I finger pick my D35 with 12's all the time (without any kind of picks on my thumb or fingers) and I think it sounds great. YMMV.

I fingerpick a dreadnought no problem! I know what you’re saying....I love OMs but want more bass...hence the switch to dreads. However, to the best of my knowledge both the Santa Cruz Tony Rice and Taylor Dan Crarys are built with lighter tops and different bracing So fingerpicking is easy and they seem a little more balanced to my ear. Good luck with the search!

Yep - a Dread with 12s is good for bare thumb and fingers. If you use thumb- and finger-picks, 13s are best, IME.

The usual disclaimers apply......IMHO, YMMV etc.

I am a flesh-only fingerpicker. Dreads are fine but I much prefer 12's to 13's for this application.