“If you couldn’t see the guitar that was being played, you would never guess it had such a thin profile!”
When you think of Breedlove, you generally think about our four unique acoustic guitar body shapes. What if we told you that there is another shape starting to make waves of its own? There is, and it’s called the Breedlove Concert Thinline.
Crafting a thinline acoustic guitar that delivers to Breedlove standards was no easy task. These mid-size guitars would need to feature a shallow body without sacrificing a harmonically rich and responsive tone and volume. On top of that, they had to be comfortable for all guitarists to play.
The Concert Thinline body shape took a lot of time, prototyping, and innovation to get perfect. Though the project dates back years, eventually, we nailed it, crafting an easy-playing, gorgeous-sounding acoustic-electric guitar that’s an ideal choice every time you take the stage.
Construction
We knew we wanted to use our Concert body shape as the platform for the new design. It’s already carefully engineered for optimal ergonomics and tonal balance. Now we had to figure out how to slim it down while keeping everything that makes it a Breedlove favorite.
The first thing we did was test quite a few different body depths. This was much more complicated than slicing off half the body and regluing it into a trimmed-down 6-string. Not only did we have to find the perfect body depth, we also had to achieve the ideal taper from the sound box’s heel block to the tail block on the lower bout. We’re all thrilled with where we landed, as it sounds great and is extremely comfortable to play.
Then came the really hard part.
Tone
So much of an acoustic guitar’s tone comes from its size. The bigger the body is, the more air can move inside the soundbox, producing the big, billowing low end we all love.
Some how, we needed to make an acoustic guitar body that’s nearly an entire inch thinner while sounding as rich and warm as its full-depth namesakes. We achieved it via specialized bracing that we fine-tuned through our proprietary Sound Optimization process. Even with the considerably thinner body, the bass was back!
As Breedlove Wood Management & Product Development Manager Angela Christensen pointed out, “The results even surprised us. If you couldn’t see the guitar that was being played, you would never guess it had such a thin profile!”
Still, we knew it was the Breedlove players who would have the final say. So, again, we reached out to the Breedlove family of artists to get their input. And finally, after many, many versions, measurements, wood shavings, and play tests, they agree. Don’t take our word for it. Try a Breedlove Concert Thinline for yourself at a local dealer and experience its comfort and tone for yourself.
Concert Standard = 3.75” @ neck; 4.5” @ tail block; 4” dia. soundhole
Concert Thinline = 3” @ neck; 3.62” @ tail block; 4” dia. soundhole
Check out the New Oregon Series Thinline!
