Acoustic Guitar Body Types

Acoustic guitar bodies are generally categorized into a number of types, according to its shape, size and the presence of a cut-away. There are five types, in general: dreadnought, jumbo, cut-away, parlor and orchestra.

Dreadnought

This is the most popular design of the acoustic guitar. It has a large body and a boxy shape. Tone wise, dreadnoughts have a strong full sound and big bass response. Dreadnoughts are powerful and require stronger touch– usually they are more suitable for playing with a pick rather than finger style. They are the ideal choice for a singer in a band who strums chords and use it as a rhythm guitar. After C.F. Martin designed this type of guitar, the design became what ‘represents a typical acoustic guitar’. It is considered the most ideal body type, since it maintains the perfect balance between the low and the high pitches that its strings produce.



Jumbo

 



Gibson J - 45





 

There are numerous variations of sizes and shapes referring to this term but generally speaking it is a large bodied guitar with a more rounded body and round shoulders and narrower waist than the dreadnought. They too have big sound but somewhat less boom-y than dreadnoughts. This type is widely used as it produces low-pitched sounds with a relatively small body.The smaller Jumbos like a Gibson J-45 are very versatile and can handle strumming and finger picking very well. However, because Jumbo generally tends to be large in size, it may not be the right guitar for a beginner, or small framed player.

Cut-Away

Most acoustic guitars are available in a cutaway version. The cut, literally the decorative removal of a portion of the body, allows easy access to the upper-most frets. It will affect the tone and volume to some degree, but this option is very popular. There are two types of cut-aways available : Venetian, and Florentine. The Venetian cut away has a round carved part. The Florentine cutaway is more sharply carved.

Florentine Cutaway                                                 

Venetian Cutaway

00, Parlor (Concert body)

C.F. Martin & Company (aka Martin Guitars) set the standard for identifying guitar sizes by number. These numerical descriptions are sometimes used by others. Sizes begin at 5 (the smallest) and go up to 0000 for a Grand Auditorium (nearly as large as a Dreadnought). A 00 size guitar is smaller than a 000. which is smaller than a 0000. The number system does not include Dreadnought or Jumbo models. Some of these guitars have 12-frets above the body instead of the 14 found on other models and on larger instruments. So, even though the term Concert or Grand Concert may bring to mind a large bodied guitar, you now know it's actually more compact than the Dreadnought or Jumbo. This style provides great tonal response across the bass, mid, and treble ranges with reasonable sustain. Because of its size, it is so called the "Ladies Model". Despite its small range of vibration, it enables the player to express the most delicate sounds. This is very much preferred by the fingerists.

Orchestra, or OM

Originally developed by Martin by shortening the body of their 000 model. (The Martin OM later became the Martin 000, so today's OM's are based on the original.) The Martin OM was one of the first mass produced guitars with 14 frets above the body. Though originally designed for classical players, it quickly gained popularity among cowboy and bluegrass performers. Orchestra's size is in between that of a dreadnought and a parlor.