The Dreadnought is arguably the single most recognizable steel string guitar model in the world. Officially introduced in the early thirties by C.F. Martin, this guitar has found its way into every style of music. With an extremely powerful voice, the Dreadnought was designed to have the volume to battle the banjos of the time, yet has influenced a diverse pallette of musical styles.

Today's luthiers can refer to the 70 plus years of research and experimentation that has gone into this model. Many players want a Dreadnought for its heavy bass response, while others need the volume, yet require more high end brilliance to cut through in ensembles. McAlister Guitars offers many variations on the Dreadnought, providing guitarists the ability to choose the best sound for their music.

Selecting pre-war style scalloped bracing to more contemporary tapered- style bracing or by opting for standard or large sound holes, the fundamental voicing of the Dreadnought can be greatly altered to specific needs. This provides an opportunity for the guitarist to have their Dreadnought built in a manner that won't ask them to adapt to the tone of the guitar, but rather have the tone of the guitar adapted to their needs.

McAlister Guitars also offers 3 distinctive body styles of Dreadnoughts: The popular 14 fret Martin design; The classic 12 fret round shoulder Martin design; And the old Gibson style slope shoulder models- including the 12 fret "SmeckAlister" (more information below).

Standard specifications:

* custom dimensions at no charge

SMECKALISTER

In 1999, Jackson Browne asked Roy McAlister to build an interpretation of his beloved Gibson Roy Smeck guitars, built in the 1930's. Jackson left Roy with a few of his finest examples and commissioned two guitars, one in Brazilian Rosewood and one in Mahogany. Roy studied the guitars for a couple months and learned all he needed to reproduce the essence of these beautiful old vintage Smecks. Jackson Browne has since retired his main Smeck to utilize his custom McAlister 'Smeck' as his main guitar, which he coined his "Smeck-Alister."

What started as a custom commission of two guitars has now evolved into a standard model. As word spread that these guitars were being produced by McAlister Guitars, Roy began taking several orders for them... affectionately adopting the 'Smeck-Alister' name designation from Jackson Browne.

This is a wonderful, huge sounding 12 fret short scale 'Dreadnought' that produces a very complex tone. These guitars can be voiced to hold up in blue grass music or be delicately fingerpicked. Because of the surface area and design of the top as well as drive location of the 12 fret bridge, a lot of bass response is realized with this model.

Though you may not see this style of guitar as regularly as others, it is one you will keep in your lap for as long as you can when you do finally come across one.