Wilson Dreadnaught #2

**craigw** · Jun-28-2018, 10:06pm

After building 23 mandolin family instruments I was able to build my 1st Dreadnaught guitar last year and just followed up with #2 dred, stringing up for the 1st time this afternoon. This one has a bear claw Carpathian top with Santos back and sides. It's forward, scalloped braced with Waverly tuners and a shop built wenge bridge. The 4" sound hole is surrounded by a shop crafted rosette with alternate ebony/redwood strips. The guitar is bound with birdseye maple.
My guitar building partner, Gary Cox, was head of the wood working department at our local community college for well over 30 years and his precision touches abound on this instrument. It still has a few setup tweaks to be made but I'm more than happy with the tone and loudness even with the light gauge strings for the 1st test. I'll be adding a Martin style pick guard in a few days. Now it's back to the shop to start a couple more mandos!

**Steve Sorensen** · Jun-29-2018, 1:43am

Classic beauty. Pick it for us Craig!

Steve

**Skip Kelley** · Jun-29-2018, 6:22am

Craig, nice work! I bet it's a hoss! I like the rosette!

**craigw** · Jun-29-2018, 11:44am

Got to give a shout out to John Preston of Old World Tonewood for supplying the really cool bear claw Carpathian top. This one may have been out of the same tree as my 1st Dreadnaught but the claw was a little more parallel than cross grain like the 1st.

**Drew Egerton** · Jun-29-2018, 12:16pm

looks great, how does it sound?

**craigw** · Jun-29-2018, 12:49pm

Really liking the sound of this one! Very loud and resonant and sounding a heck of a lot older than two days. I just fiddled with the action and have it pretty much dialed in with possible exception of checking and making some slight adjustments with nut slot depths! This should be another Bluegrass banjo killer! lol

**craigw** · Jun-30-2018, 1:29pm

I'm adding a couple of shots that show the guitar after adding the pickguard and of the birdseye binding. This has a somewhat unusual neck joint. It's a bolt-on with a floating action adjustment bolt imbedded in the neck heel and accessed by removing the threaded strap button. By inserting a T handled allen wrench the bolt can be turned minutely to raise or lower action. The player can change the action as needed depending on varying humidity and temperatures that might effect action or if a different action might be desired for whatever reason!

**Skip Kelley** · Jul-01-2018, 9:04am

Craig, that is a very cool neck joint!

**craigw** · Jul-02-2018, 11:36am

I thought should add some shots of the adjustable neck assembly prior to and after the glueup. The player can adjust the guitar's action when needed "on the fly" by removing the threaded strap button and inserting a t-handle allen wrench to access the adjustment bolt. I play in a couple of regional bands and have utilized this feature a few times with good results on my 1st guitar.