Build Thread: Kraut Modified Dreadnought

[needspeed]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Make sure you get the twist latches. They are awesome and much better than the stock latches, in my opinion.

Thanks for the heads up on the latches. Look forward to pics when she makes it to your home.......Steve

[JonBarclay]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Our very own Billy Boy is the only person not named Ray to ever play this modified dread. I hope he was not modified with dread after playing it. Ray tells me the guitar sounds decent.

Beautiful. I quite like the guitar as well

[steveh]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Our very own Billy Boy is the only person not named Ray to ever play this modified dread.

Wow! - careful of those rings/bracelets on the top!

Just kidding - I'll bet it sounds great. Thoughts Billy?
Can't wait to hear those inevitable vids.

cheers,
Steve

[Billy Boy]

Wow! I don't want to say too much about Juston's new guitar because I don't want to steal his thunder. But, I felt very special to be able to play a little on Juston's absolutely stunning guitar. You can see from the pictures that it's absolutely gorgeous beyond words. And I loved the Italian spruce top...so silky and delicious. The ebony back and sides is exquisite. And, of course, the inlay is stellar. Note the green color in some of the inlay...absolutely perfect!

And yet, with all those good looks, she can sing too! For me, looks are great, but heart is where it's at! Juston's guitar has a remarkable voice. It's loud yet subtle, has a big, round bass yet the mids and highs are equally present, and overall very orchestral and yet has remarkable note-to-note separation. I know you've read things like this about so many guitars, and I really don't have an adequate guitar vocabulary to accurately describe all I heard; but, it is one of the finest guitars I've ever played and it was just freshly strung up. I couldn't get over how much I was hearing from Juston's guitar, and some of that may have come from the sound ports, which are simply unbelievable.

I also found Juston's guitar to be very playable. The fan fret is subtle...3/4". And the 26" on the 6th string gave it so much presence. Personally, I'd be stringing her up with New/True Mediums to get the medium gauges on the 1st, 2nd and 6th strings while retaining light gauge on the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings.

Juston's going to LOVE his new Kraut guitar! LOVE it!!!

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by Billy Boy

Wow! I don't want to say too much about Juston's new guitar because I don't want to steal his thunder. But, I felt very special to be able to play a little on Juston's absolutely stunning guitar. You can see from the pictures that it's absolutely gorgeous beyond words. And I loved the Italian spruce top...so silky and delicious. The ebony back and sides is exquisite. And, of course, the inlay is stellar. Note the green color in some of the inlay...absolutely perfect!

And yet, with all those good looks, she can sing too! For me, looks are great, but heart is where it's at! Juston's guitar has a remarkable voice. It's loud yet subtle, has a big, round bass yet the mids and highs are equally present, and overall very orchestral and yet has remarkable note-to-note separation. I know you've read things like this about so many guitars, and I really don't have an adequate guitar vocabulary to accurately describe all I heard; but, it is one of the finest guitars I've ever played and it was just freshly strung up. I couldn't get over how much I was hearing from Juston's guitar, and some of that may have come from the sound ports, which are simply unbelievable.

I also found Juston's guitar to be very playable. The fan fret is subtle...3/4". And the 26" on the 6th string gave it so much presence. Personally, I'd be stringing her up with New/True Mediums to get the medium gauges on the 1st, 2nd and 6th strings while retaining light gauge on the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings.

Juston's going to LOVE his new Kraut guitar! LOVE it!!!

That's it??

[Billy Boy]

Originally Posted by justonwo

That's it??

...for now

[justonwo]

Ha ha. Well, needless to say, I'm excited.

[JonBarclay]

I second Steve's request for vids! After the build thread & BillyBoy's non-thunder-stealing (!) review, you can't leave us hanging for long!

Juston, that guitar looks fantastic. Wasn't sure how ebony would look, but the depth to the grain under finish is beautiful! You'll have to resist being mesmerised every time you play it

Jon

[justonwo]

I received the guitar on Thursday and have had a few cumulative hours to play it. I'm also aware that the guitar's sound is likely to evolve somewhat in the coming weeks, so I don't want to get too detailed in talking about the sound since I don't think the instrument has fully settled in.

First of all, this is my first extensive experience with ebony (though I did play a delightful Circa 00-12 with Macassar ebony at HGF) and to the extent that I'm already familiar with the top (European spruce), I think I can parse out the effects of the ebony back.

Two words describe my initial reaction: big and loud. REALLY big. In fact, my 4 year old was sitting next to me when I plucked the first notes and she asked me to turn it down. The bass notes are big and rumbly and sound like the bass/cello section of an orchestra. In fact, with a bass this big, you would almost worry about the mids and trebles getting through without the whole thing sounding muddy and garbled. Ray is able to build a mids/treble voicing that can compete with the big bass all of his guitars produce, which is probably one of the most important aspects of his builds. The bass is huge even on his OMs and yet it doesn't mask the instrument's voice.

The attack on this guitar is sharp and aggressive, in addition to being loud with lots of headroom. In my opinion, the ebony doesn't have the overtone content of rosewood. Rather than spend its energy budget on overtones, the ebony seems to front-load the sound with volume and attack. It sustains, but its not Goodall-style grand piano sustain. I actually view that as a positive attribute because the Goodall Standard I owned for a few years was just that: a grand piano with the sustain pedal depressed. While that sound initially strikes a player as beautiful (and it is), it can really lead to muddling, and that was the main reason I ended up parting with the Goodall.

So to me the ebony imparts more fundamental, volume, and attack than your typical rosewood, with less sustain and overtone content. For a big bodied guitar like this, I think those characteristics preserve the note separation and clarity that otherwise might be lost by the "grand piano" effect. And yet the sound is very much orchestral, the way Billy Boy described. The bass notes are big, round, and breathy, very cello-like, which was precisely the impression that caught my attention when I first played a Kraut Modified Dreadnought. The mids and trebles are clear, authoritative, and beautiful. It really is very much like having an orchestra inside a guitar.

The cumulative effect when I'm playing a fast-ish fingerstyle song is that you hear a very powerful but melodic voice, and the tendency toward note separation and fundamental gives you a very pure sound. It's not a warm guitar, at least not yet ("warm" in my mind meaning a softer attack and longer decay); its focus is really power and clarity, and I think that matches really well with the big dread body.

I am hoping that as the guitar matures it will soften the attack just a hair and put some of that energy into just a touch more sustain. Ray tells me to give it a couple of weeks to settle in. In the meantime, I'll be playing it every chance I get.

Of course it goes without saying that it's a beautiful instrument, built to the very highest standards. I don't have any immediate comment on the effect of the fan fret. Whatever the effect, it's subtle. I'm currently playing it with lights on all but the high E and B, where I have mediums. This sounds and feels well balanced to me. The setup is right where most of my acoustics have been and is very comfortable and playable. The neck profile is slightly shallower than Ray's standard, though not by much, which means the neck is on the large side of average.

One last comment before I give the guitar a couple more weeks to settle in. The top Ray chose has to be the single nicest piece of spruce I have ever seen. It is flawless, and the crazy silking makes it really stand out. It looks gorgeous against the contrast of the black ebony.

[steveh]

Originally Posted by justonwo

I am hoping that as the guitar matures it will soften the attack just a hair and put some of that energy into just a touch more sustain. Ray tells me to give it a couple of weeks to settle in.

Stoked to hear you've finally got it.

My Kostal MD - which will be much closer to your guitar than most others - was like that when new. Very impressive with a thunderous bass but a hair bright, aggressive, and stiff. Jason assured me that all this would settle down over the next few weeks and indeed it did. These are not factory guitars - they're lightly built, and they need some time and playing to find their equilibrium.

Some of my pals who first played my MD just a couple of days after delivery, played it again last weekend, and several noted how it had become less bright, rounder and smoother. Play it hard, everyday, and let us know how you get on.

Cheers,
Steve

[justonwo]

Yeah, Ray told me it would take a couple of weeks for things to loosen up. I'm confident it will happen and glad to hear you experienced that with your Kostal. I'm just thrilled to have something so tonally (and visually) unique. Something very different from my Meridian to mix things up.

[riorider]

Originally Posted by justonwo

Yeah, Ray told me it would take a couple of weeks for things to loosen up. I'm confident it will happen and glad to hear you experienced that with your Kostal. I'm just thrilled to have something so tonally (and visually) unique. Something very different from my Meridian to mix things up.

First off, beautiful, Juston. Superlative. I've been following thread all along with great anticipation of the first "final" posts.

But - visually.... "very different"???

black coco <=> ebony; blue spruce <=> euro spruce

For something really different you need to go with something very red and quilted on the B&S and something rich and deeply colored on the top... Wait - I know that guitar!

Best,

Phil

[mikealpine]

I know my BTO is not the equivalent of your new Kraut, but at least wanted to tell you that my Macassar Ebony backed guitar has blossomed into something really special, which I really didn't fully understand until recently. I had put it up for sale to fund a Stehr build coming, and in the time since it has been listed, it has changed really nicely. I think that yours, over the next few months, and even following in the next year or two will develop into all you want and more. Enjoy it through the changes, and please keep updating the post!!

[needspeed]

I would love to see some pictures of it now that it is home.....Please, Please, Please ......Steve

[Fsgeek]

Congrats on the wonderful guitar... I think my guitar should be next in line...