It is amazing what a serious guitar company like Breedlove endures to create a very special, powerful dreadnought. We decided the ideal tonewood would be a cocobolo body with a salvaged Sitka spruce top. Why cocobolo? Dalbergia retusa – cocobolo – is close to Brazilian rosewood in tonal dynamics. It is dense,reflecting the bass tones efficiently while delivering great tonal balance…and it is stunning in it’s visual character and beauty.
It is highly regulated in Mexico where it’s harvest is restricted in most areas, so I personally traveled to Costa Rica in search of legally harvested and documented cocobolo. Our search ended up in Nicaragua where we secured enough fully documented logs to fill a container and ship it to Oregon. The orange, red and brown figured hues of the cocobolo is stunning. It’s music capability ideal for the full robust projection desired in a Breedlove dreadnought.
Our hand selected salvaged Sitka spruce soundboard pairs perfectly with cocobolo for our dreadnoughts. We sort our Sitka by stiffness, reserving the more stiff tops for this Legacy Dreadnought. Built to be played in an ensemble with other instruments, the Legacy Dreadnought is braced to deliver astounding energy and full sound.
