A nylon string dreadnought?

[Jack Lord]

I also posted this question on the Acoustic Guitar Magazine forum. Those of you who look at both, please bear with me. Thanks.

I'm about to make my first classical guitar. I would like to use my dreadnought fixtures if possible (Fox bender, forms). What is the history of this large a shape for a classical? What are the pros and cons? Should I bite the bullet and make new fixtures? This will be used by my 25 year old grandson for fingerpicking contemporary music, not a "classical" player. He would probably appreciate 14 frets clear of the body, but with nylon strings, I suppose I should stick with 12. I just ordered "Acoustic Guitar: The Composition, Construction, and Evolution of One of World's Most Beloved Instruments" by Richard Johnston (and Frank Ford) which I hope will shed some light on this topic.

I did see an ad in AG Magazine by Phoenix Guitars for a 14 fret, OM size nylon string guitar with cutaway and slotted peg head ("The perfect guitar for jazz and fingerstyle"). That sounds exactly like what I would like to build. It also looks like it has an additional sound port in the side.

[Martin Edwards]

Good reasons why not?

nope, I can't think of any either.

you want to have fun making interesting and unique guitars or do you want to make replicas of what everyone else has made?

My first acoustic was a replica of a Lowden, made under the close supervision of an ex Lowden luthier. when people see it they ask "is that a Lowden?"

the rest of my builds are my OWN ideas. guitar shaped mandolins, dread bodied acoustic bass, doubleneck acoustics, a hollowbodied piezo equipped doublecutaway Les Paul.....

go for it!!

[Donald A. Fortune]

Hi Jack-- the first thing that I need to say here is never say Hi Jack at an airport LOL
Now that I have your attention I will get to my comment-- The only rule that I know of when
building a guitar is "there aint no rules"
Ive been working on a hybred guitar of my own design now for about 3 months,so far I have a body that was origonally going to be a solid body and insted It is a coimpletely hollow body built
on the same idea as a "d" size guitar,wiht the exception of the size... its a modified version of a less paul but larger in size with a 14-!/2" lower bout..2 inches thick.
Ive also messed arround with dred size bodies with classical head stock and 14 frets to the body
and cutaway to boot.... 1-13/16 nut for the ones that want to play finger style.
I think that the only diference in what yopu want to make and a true classical guitar is the size of the body... and the larger size maby giving more boom or voice.
I say go for it and see what happens and best to you on your project.
Donald

[Magnus Hultin]

Jack,

There were guitars made in the sixties, probably not very far from what You are aiming at, by the Levin guitar company in Sweden. They were made for Goya Music, with a Goliath body (Levins version of Dread), 12 frets to the body, slotted head, and with the neck width just slightly narrower than a classical. What made them a bit special was that they were fan-braced.

They were made for steelstrings but I imagine they could be used with nylon strings.

I have a Goya F-27 (F for "Folk-guitar") from 1964, but have only used steel 12-52. Perhaps I should try on a nylon set?

Link to a 1964 goya catalog:

http://goyaguitars.tripod.com/catalog64_6.htm

/Magnus