New Dryad Drednought Model Hatcher Guitars

[Treenewt]

Mark, that strap button bevel is genius! What a great idea!

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Treenewt

Mark, that strap button bevel is genius! What a great idea!

Thanks Treenewt. I got the idea from the my kayak building experience. It is common practice to recess the hardware on kayak decks to keep things from hanging up or generally getting in the way.

m

[Mark Hatcher]

As part of my 2022 new standard features are full titanium 2 way adjustable truss rods:



These fully adjustable truss rods have several advantages over more standard rods. First off titanium is lighter weight without giving up dependability or adjustability.

Here is a comparison between these and a popular standard 2 way truss rod:

The standard rod comes in at 3.65ozs.



The titanium truss rod is 2.05ozs.



The difference is 1.6ozs. making the standard truss rod 78% heavier.

To add a little perspective, when I switch a guitar neck from Honduran Mahogany to Indian Rosewood it adds an average of 2ozs.

Another advantage of this truss rod is it sits in a shallower pocket:



This makes for a stronger neck that is less prone toward twisting.

Now there is nothing really wrong with the popular standard type truss rod, I have used them for many years. With that said, in this year's offerings I am aiming to just do better than the popular standard. I took a hard look at my hardware and have simply found I can do better.

m

[canuck7]

Does the Torrefied Maple/Western Red Cedar PINA have the full titanium 2 way adjustable truss rod ??!!

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by canuck7

Does the Torrefied Maple/Western Red Cedar PINA have the full titanium 2 way adjustable truss rod ??!!

The Piña does not have the new full titanium truss rod. I am just now introducing them with this Dryad. However, this Piña is a 12 fret guitar with a shorter neck and it also has a lighter weight slot head so there is already a lot of weight savings in the design.

m

[ukejon]

Cutaway dread…..very nice indeed.

[Celts88]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

Once the sides are all joined up I glue the support for the arm bevel:

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

I am planning an arm bevel on this one and I've been contemplating the rib bevel too.

Mark

Since only the support for the arm bevel is shown does that mean you decided not to go with a rib bevel?

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Celts88

Mark

Since only the support for the arm bevel is shown does that mean you decided not to go with a rib bevel?

Yes, I did decide to leave that off but, it is not too late to include one of someone were interested in buying this guitar.

m

[mikealpine]

Mark, this is coming together so nicely! Not sure if this is a silly question, but are you envisioning a strummer, finger-styler or “all arounder” for the type of player this would be suited for?

[Mark Hatcher]

That is a good question Mike, it’s not silly but it will be a long answer. When designing, building and voicing a steel string guitar in order to get a good tonal balance it is necessary to bring up the bass as steel strings are naturally treble heavy.

There are a lot of ways to do this. The worst ways involve muting the trebles until there is a balance. The best ways to bring up the bass response usually involve lightly built tops, active backs, correct voicing techniques when designing and tuning braces, optimizing the sound hole location and size, body design and body air volume. There is more but I don’t think these are controversial ones.

A dreadnaught design has the air volume and the body design that is already more conducive to bass responsive than smaller guitars. With this natural advantage it lends itself to voicing for more top end without compromising the trebles and lighter touch response.

So the short answer is I am taking advantage of a dreadnaught’s natural proclivity for a wide field of response..

[Mark Hatcher]

I'll have my first two Dryad commissions to start beginning the first of April.
They are both to be made with mostly Northeastern sourced materials. Here is an accumulation of woods for these two guitars:



Your looking at Red Spruce from the Northern Appalachian mountain range along with Eastern Black Walnut, wild Black Cherry and various forms of Hard or Sugar Maple.

One guitar will have torrified curly Hard Maple sides and back:



And a very clean Red Spruce top:



The other dreadnought will have mildly curly 100+yrs old Northeastern Black Walnut back and sides:



And a Red Spruce top with a little more character in the grain lines:





The designs will vary some. One will be long scale and have a ladder braced back.
The other will be a short scale with a lattice braced back.

I feel like I'm off to a great start with my new Dryad model!

[Guitars44me]

Beautiful woods, Mark!

Off to a great start for the new model…. Way to go

Paul

[Erithon]

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

... have a ladder braced back.
... with a lattice braced back.

That seems like a pretty dramatic difference to me! At least when it comes to structure. Does this have any effect on how you voice the soundboards? Does a ladder-braced back lend itself to one general sound over a lattice-braced back? Besides your Woodsman, is the Dryad the only model you offer with a ladder-braced back?

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by Guitars44me

Beautiful woods, Mark!

Off to a great start for the new model…. Way to go

Paul

Thanks Paul!

Originally Posted by Erithon

That seems like a pretty dramatic difference to me! At least when it comes to structure. Does this have any effect on how you voice the soundboards? Does a ladder-braced back lend itself to one general sound over a lattice-braced back? Besides your Woodsman, is the Dryad the only model you offer with a ladder-braced back?

The top isn’t voiced differently for the different backs as the backs are voiced to the top. Generally, the goal is to have the back’s tap tone pitched 3 or 5 full steps higher than the top. This is to avoid wolf or dead notes.

This difference is when the top and back are isolated. Once the body is closed they are coupled by the air in the body and sound much closer in pitch. So don’t worry if you don’t see much difference between the top and back on a finished guitar.

The two different back bracing designs are different approaches to do this.
In my opinion the ladder braces tend to have a have a little more of a dryer traditional tone. I think ladder braces work a little better for forward projection.
The lattice bracing extends the bass range a bit and creates a little more surround sound for the player. Lattice bracing makes for more of an active back.

Making these two dreadnoughts at the same time will be a great experience for me to test my opinions. You can bet I’ll be doing a lot of critical listening to these two side by side.

m

[mikealpine]

Mark, it’s very exciting that you already have commissions for this model! Looking forward to seeing the finished guitars and getting a really good idea of what they look like. Hopefully you can get so,e sound clips, as well. I admit, this is a very tempting model!