The History Behind the Breedlove Concert Body Shape

It begins with a concert.
 
You’re in high school, hormones raging. Music is seeping in from the air, from friends, from the radio, maybe from a Spotify playlist … You go see your first live band and your life is changed. You need to play.
 
Every musician, whether a touring pro or an occasional front porch picker, has this story—that transformative moment when music becomes something more than a passion, a calling.
 
For Breedlove, it began with a Concert, too.
 
Larry Breedlove wanted to make a guitar that would not just speak to that passion, but also be a righteous tool for the calling.
 
After much searching, scraping and sanding, he found that in the Concert, which remains the defining Breedlove shape to this day; with larger and smaller models, the Concerto and the Concertina, organically spawning from its perfect form.
 
What makes the Concert work is the way that very specific form follows basic function. Any guitar that feels great in the lap will work just fine on a strap, and the Concert sits balanced on the knee invitingly. It just asks to be played.
 
Its profile, as Breedlove designer Angela Christensen will tell you, is optimal for all kinds of music-making. The Concert already existed when Christensen joined the brand in its earliest days, but even as a brilliant craftsperson, she didn’t see any reason to meddle.
 
“The concert is us,” she says. “We were very fortunate to have such a great foundation to start with here at Breedlove.”
 
“Larry Breedlove and Steve Henderson wanted to create something that was unique and very comfortable to play,” she recalls. “So, they came up with the Concert, and from the time I started, that was just always our main guitar.”
 
Everything about the Concert is ergonomic. Its Delta bridge profile and 25.5” scale length combination feels like home for fingerstyle play, which is largely what inspired the original design. But you can bash or gently strum and thrum to your heart’s content, because it takes a pick just as well as it takes to flesh. Its body depth, 4” at the tail, is comfy, too, without requiring quite the tiring reach of a classic dreadnaught. And its 1.75” nut and slim neck taper fall right into the player’s fretting hand.
 
“There's something special about it,” says Christensen. “We've hit a sweet spot with this mid-sized guitar that is really versatile for so many people and players of different personal body shapes. It's just the perfect fit, so most people can feel comfortable playing it.”
 
Let’s face it, though, plenty of pickers will take sound over feel any day. Not necessary with the Concert! The same specs that make it feel like an old friend make it sound like one, too.
 
The Breedlove Concert shape, virtually in any wood combination, is nothing if not balanced. It’s nearly the antithesis of the defining midrange scoop so common to large body guitars.
 
“The air chamber size and the 4” sound hole diameter work together like a team,” says Christensen. “Literally, the balance, the feel of the guitar in proportion to itself, is just right. It's not super neck-heavy or off-kilter, so physically it's balanced in your hands, too. But there's just something that's offered within the tightness of the 9” waist against that upper bout. We get more clarity, but with the size of the chamber it can still deliver some blossoming. The voice that it projects is really versatile.”
 
The sound coming from a Concert is focused, with each string having equal weight in each chord. You’ll get plenty of bottom and plenty of shine, but you’ll get body, too—a sonorous call neither booming or shrill. That’s what has made the Concert the go-to style for the deftest fingerstylists as well as the perfect foil for folk, blues and indie vocalists.
 
“You can feel comfortable attacking it with a heavy hand and really driving it with the right wood combination,” Christensen reiterates. “You'll get that punch and everything that you're looking for, but you can also be more of a finessed player with a lighter hand, and still get this nice volume out of it because it’s just the right size.”
 
Not every guitar body style suits every player’s style. Some will want the wider wash of a big Concerto, while others favor the funky, almost in-your-face boldness of a Concertina. The Concert splits the atom, bringing together the defining elements of its cousins without being anything like a compromise.
 
“We want projection, we want volume and we want complexity of tone from a guitar,” says Breedlove owner Tom Bedell. “And we get that in the Concert.”
 
Whether the view from your personal stage is a bedroom closet mirror or a teeming throng, the Concert will get you where you want to be.