DREADNOUGHT vs. GRAND CONCERT | How Do Guitar Body Shapes Affect Sound? | Tone Testers

Two guitars with the exact same specs... except for their body shape. On this episode of #ToneTesters, we put two iconic guitar shapes - the Dreadnought and the Grand Concert - head-to-head. By isolating the rest of the variables, we're able to get to the bottom of the question: how much does a guitar's body shape affect its tone?
If you're team Grand Concert, check out the Ava:
orangewoodguitars.com/products/ava
If you prefer the Dreadnought sound, check out the Hudson:
orangewoodguitars.com/products/hudson
Shop Now: orangewoodguitars.com/collections/guitars
About Tone Testers:
We all know the frustration of A/B tests that don't isolate the variables. Here at Orangewood, we've got access to instruments that are completely identical so that we can accurately test these guitar tone myths. Tune in as we discover the science behind the sound to find out which choice is best for all kinds of guitarists.
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About Orangewood:
Orangewood is the leading direct-to-consumer guitar brand reinventing the way people shop musical instruments. We run on a simple vision to make quality guitars more affordable and accessible to a new generation of musicians.
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[@PatrickBreenMusic]

Such a treat to be a part of this video! Thank you for having me Orangewood! p.s. I’m def team Grand Concert!

[@hardpivot]

It was a treat to test both of these guitars! Personally, I'd buy the Grand Concert (and borrow a Dreadnought for studio recording).

[@danielnadar75]

Grand Concert! All the time! Every time! I think it will be fair to say I am into acoustic guitars because of the Grand Concert Body, it's something I feel very comfortable to play and playability is the major factor, you wanna pick up your guitar more often and that's what Grand Concert is for me!

[@frankpaws]

They both have their place. Solo or featured the Dread, in a track with more instrument Grand. Though now I'm thinking I need to get a dread

[@hannahjames2264]

Ok cool! Very helpful video. Thanks Orangewood :)

[@MJ-sj9ho]

Great info thank you!!!🎉

[@t3chwood]

Grand concert all the way! Great vid.

[@eddiepark6191]

my favorite is grand dreanought

[@ishaanmalhotra3008]

Thanks, loved this comparison. I enjoyed the Grand Concert more. To me it feels like it has more character, while Dreadnought sounds muddy(relatively)

[@FD_Boss]

I have the Brooklyn. It comes with a set of .012’s. I put a .010 E and a .013 B and it really balanced out the sound, as a whole for me. The .012s kind of over powered the mids and lows., I found. Anyway, the setup was great, I like the Brooklyn a lot.

[@stephensmith60]

I have the 'Echo Live', and the 'Brooklyn'. Two completely different sounds and playability. I always thought that for just sitting around at home and playing, practicing, the 'Brooklyn' is my go-to. The 'Echo Live' would be more for playing before an audience. I keep them both on stands in my living room, ready to pick up and play at any moment. It's hard for me to pick one over the other. I also have a Martin, but I prefer either of my Orangewoods over the Martin. And I've been through a LOT of guitars. In All honesty!

[@2musiclover534]

Stephen, may I ask which Martin you have? There's a HUGE range of Martin prices. Thanks.

[@studiowizard6286]

Pretty good comparison video. Good idea to use the same mic, mic distance, strings, playing style, etc. I would also recommend playing the same exact phrase for each instead of switching midway through a longer phrase since the chords are different. Play an entire phrase on guitar A, then play the exact same phrase on guitar B. That'll make your A/B test even better! Good work otherwise.

[@xhudaori6942]

Right

[@anselmountain6884]

in simple word: MIXING , the GRAND CONCERT is meant for front , because it sound more like a singer while the DREADNOUGHT has the whole spectrum so it can be in the middle and back

[@walterstreet1467]

I like them both but would probably go with the grand concert 6:21

[@altemose_prime]

Very informative video. Thanks. As far as looks, I do not like the looks of the Dreadnought with a cutaway. The grand Concert looks much more balanced. I'm currently looking for a new acoustic. Both sound so similar, I think I would go with the Grand Concert.

[@xhudaori6942]

Do I need cutaway as a beginner?

[@SeedOilFitnessOfficial]

Grand Auditorium cutaway >

[@sneadmc]

Thanks for making leftys...have the Oliver

[@alphanumeric1529]

Starting at 3:04 you can hear the Grand Concert whistling note. Honestly this sounds terrible. It is something relatively high, like 3-4khz whistling/quickly oscillating/ringing. In all of the strummed notes on the Grand Concert you can hear it. It is inharmonic, meaning the pitch is not related to the chord or notes that are strummed so it stands out like a shattered tooth, no matter the chord that is played it is just the same ringing note, it is just the guitar itself, maybe the bridge has slightly detached or the compensated bone bridge is too loose so is vibrating/ringing in the wooden bridge or a string is ringing in a poorly cut nut, or there was a kink in a string before it was strung up and tensioned, something is causing this terrible oscillation. The only problem that is slightly positive is that maybe the mic is damaged, and the more strident tone/energy of the Concert Grand is overloading the mic, and the mic is reproducing the nice harmonic resonance of the body of the guitar as inharmonic ringing annoyance. I can't believe a guitar company would put up a video of their guitar sounding like this. If I received a guitar that sounded like this, I'd send it back and never even consider purchasing a guitar from this company in the future. I'm shocked. But maybe they're being legit, like this is how our guitars really sound, in which case, deep respect to them for their honesty. I wouldn't recommend anybody buy a Concert Grand because of what they've demonstrated about the sound of their Concert Grand in this video. The Dreadnought sounds fine, I'm no cork sniffer, I don't believe in $10,000 guitars, I think people, as always, are paying for prestige branding and hierarchical status, which is some useless Chimp Empire type behavior that has lingered on into our species and seems to dominate most people in the western world. I'm not down with it. I just care how things sound and play, and I know you can get a great playing and sounding acoustic around the $300 range, and by range I mean for even a little less than three hundno. It's just that this Concert Grand is so profoundly annoying, I wouldn't even use it for practicing, I couldn't, every chord I would play, I'd just hear the same unchanging inharmonic oscillating note. I'll note the time stamp of every time this inharmonic oscillation/ringing is heard in this video: 3:04 chord 3:17 chords 3:36 individual arpeggiated notes causing this inharmonic ringing 4:03 fingerstyle, not playing the 6 string, the low E string, the guitar is not making this ringing, but the final strum at 4:06, the ringing is BACK! He does catch the low E string on that final strum, so maybe it is an issue with the low E, or perhaps the low and high E are slightly out of tune and this is causing a beating/ringing tone, perhaps augmented by a damaged mic? But really, it sounds like when the guitar is played good and hard, aka loudly or moderately loudly, aka normally, it can't handle the energy and just rings inharmonicaly. Whoa, this took a lot longer than I thought it would. I am just shocked that a company would represent their product in this way! And again, I have nothing against this guitar company, or against any particular body shape... I landed on this video because I was thinking of purchasing an Orangewood Concert Grand, I've heard them in videos and they sound great, but in this video... holy cow! NO WAY!

[@phanhuyduc2395]

Well the problem lie in the guitar, not the shape. Martin have the small 000 shape for many years and they all great 😂

[@jeffwilliams8074]

I want to buy a starter guitar for my 20 year old grandson($250 budget). Are Orangewood guitars better than the usual suspects?

[@friedfish69]

Before the sound comes out of the sound hole? The sound comes off the wood. The wood vibrates, causing the air to vibrate. The sound hole limits and controls compression of air inside the resonance chamber. Kinda hard to trust "expert" opinion when you get something that basic wrong.

[@ememe1412]

This idea of Helmholtz is also bandied about but is often misunderstood. Example, the real, audible effects of the soundboard deflection on the compression of the air inside the resonance chamber. The efficiency of the coupling of the air inside and outside the soundhole. The amplitude of resonance frequencies based on the size of the soundhole. And one that often seems missed, the sound produced by the string vibration, vibrating the wood which propagates as sound waves through the air, emanates from both sides of soundboard. So sound emanating from the internal side of the soundboard also reflect inside and leak out the soundhole alongside the chamber resonance controlled by the port. This effect is noted as, at worst, 'muddiness', at best, 'rich/complex overtones' of individual plucked notes. Luthiers have tried to control this by relocating the soundhole to the ribs or f holes and variations to keep the primary tone heard to be from the forward/outer projection of the sound board...

[@BattleToonPwn]

Does anyone know what playing styles song was that at 3:12?

[@Randy-sb2eb]

Dreadnought all the way!