Why are most custom builds circa OM size and smaller?
 

Or to put it another way, why so few Dread and Jumbo size builds? Its just my opinion/intuition that it appears as if the number of comissions for larger bodied guitars is disproportionately less?

You are right and I think it's because the vast majority of custom guitars are built for finger style play. I've done polls on playing styles and it was as high as 90% on this forum on one of the polls. You build for the market you serve. Flatbpickers may be drawn to the traditional makers like Martin? I have a McKnight Slope Dred, which is awesome but I see much of his newer work is geared to smaller guitars.

I think it depends on the luthier and the market they serve.... I bet John Arnold, Wayne Henderson, and John Hall do more dreads than not... But those guys primarily serve the Vintage martin bluegrass camp... And the currency there is a dread.

For other folks... The market is saturated with every sort of dread imaginable... Dreads are huge and often don't play nice in the house or on the couch. Unfortunately most "smaller" pattern factory guitars generally aren't that good. The vast majority of factory "small" guitar patterns are made out of plywood for kids, sold at discount stores, and are adorned with flashy decals. Even the "decent" factory parlor guitars often have a tone that's one step away from "shoe box with strings"...

Well actually I believe that we see a fair share of larger Mod-D's and SJ sized guitars here in the AGF custom shop forum. We also see many guitars called "OM" by their makers that are quite a bit larger/deeper than the Nazareth namesake.

I would agree that many builders cater to the fingerstyle crowd.

That being said, I just picked up a 28.6" scale Kronbauer maple jumbo baritone and just ordered a Bob Thompson torrified Adi+EIR dread with a beveled armrest. When compared to a Martin with a few features, price isn't bad.

I would expect that since we are building what people ask us to, it's because that's what most people are asking for.

Check out the AGF poll. Perhaps because they are most popular.
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=483454

The people with the money for a custom guitar are older and we can't get our arm over that darn lower bout anymore. And besides, we don't have much inclination to make such a bloody racket as we used to when we were younger. :D

My guess is because there's a fair amount of good small-shop builders making dreads that have decent resale value (Bourgeois, Collings, Santa Cruz, Huss and Dalton) that getting one-off dreads might not be that necessary. Also that Martin and Gibson have the market locked down for a majority of Bluegrass/Americana guys who might think those are the only two brands worth playing from a traditional/purist point of view...For the fingerstyle player there is a myriad of different tones and styles, whether traditional or modern, Celtic/Americana, etc. and normally more extended use of alternate timings that demand a more complex instrument.

Just look at the results from this poll last week.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...=483454&page=5

aaahh, sorry, I see Paul has already posted the same link.

It does look like those poll results are fairly accurate - if you check out the guitars for sale here on the AGF, the ratio of OM's to dreads, and certainly jumbo's, is surprisingly similar.

why smaller ones
 

While I tend to agree, I also feel the results we see here are a bit skewed. For instance, there are lots of dreads built for country artists and bluegrass that we never hear about here.

Because they are better guitars, of course!

Took the words right out of my mouth!

Sure and the East Germans thought Trabant cars were good too. :)

my too...;)
they sound more even and dynamic... simply better.. in my ears...:)