Subject: THE DOOLIN DREAD
Posted by Gregory Michael on 8/19/02

I wanted to share my thoughts on a very unique acoustic that I had Mike Doolin build for me. It is a double cutaway dreadnought with easy access to a 22-fret neck. It boasts an Adirondack spruce top, Brazilian rosewood body, peg head veneer (on both sides); fret board, bridge, and heel cap. The neck is from mahogany and entire guitar is bound in curly koa. The build quality is right up there with the best in the high-end industry (Olson). The guitar is very clean inside and out.

Sound...

I was a bit skeptical about ordering an acoustic with a double cutaway. Mike assured me that his design would not detract from tone or volume. I am blown away by the complexity and depth on this guitar right out of the box (and it will only get better of course). I haven't played too many Adirondack/Brazilian guitars and wasn't sure if these two woods were really any better sounding than Sitka/Indian, but wow there is really some magic going on here. I'm sure Mike's luthier ability had something to do with this too! As far as I'm concerned this instrument can handle just about any kind of playing quite well. From picking to tapping to light to heavy strumming... it does them all well. I was thinking about ordering a finger style guitar from Mike as well, but I'm not sure that I really need to. We'll see.

Playability...

Mike pretty much did an Olsonesque finger style neck on this guitar for me. The shoulders are a bit more rounded though. The string spacing is perfect for me as well. A 1-3/4 inch nut with a 2-1/4 string spacing at the saddle suits me well. The neck plays fast and feels great for finger style, strumming, playing lead, and any other that other stuff you can try to do being a guitar player. You know, that crazy stuff that Keaggy does.

Unique features...

Mike has several features on his instruments that drew me to them. First and foremost, the double cutaway with easy access to a 22-fret neck is a genius idea. The neck heel is much more carved out than on a typical acoustic guitar helping out with the easy all fret access concept. He joins the neck in a very unique way at the 19th fret rather than at the 14th fret. You can go to his website and read about his neck joint. Basically, it's the coolest and most practical that I've ever seen allowing for adjustments similar to Taylor's newer neck joint, but better in design and function. The pinless bridge... not sure what this does, but it looks cool and works great. It's quicker to change strings and I don't have to worry about banging string ends on the top.

This guitar is the first dreadnought that Mike had ever built with his double cutaway design and I'm sure he will be making many more. His instruments are top notch and his cutting edge designs are not only pretty slick looking, but serve great purpose and push the industry in the right direction. He is a great guy to work with. We sent about 50 e-mails back and forth before and during the building process and he was always helpful, creative, and full of great ideas and pictures of guitar he had already built.

You can see Mike's work at www.doolinguitars.com

You can see my guitar at www.doolinguitars.com/dreadnought.html