Sponsored By
 
Preston Thompson D-EIA
 
A great style-28 dreadnought made with Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce.
August 5, 2019

Preston Thompson Guitars offers guitars in all common flattop sizes, but the company’s reputation rests in no small part on its experience building excellent dreadnoughts. This goes back to company founder Preston Thompson’s roots in the bluegrass world, when he built guitars for Peter Rowan and Charles Sawtelle, among others. Sadly, Preston passed away earlier this year, but his work is being continued by the builders he trained in the company’s Sisters, Oregon, shop. We recently had a chance to check out a Thompson D-EIA, and in this video, I’m joined by Peghead Nation’s Scott Nygaard, who plays the guitar solo and in a duet with Peghead Nation fiddle instructor Chad Manning. 

The D-EIA is Thompson’s standard rosewood dreadnought model. The guitar is built with an Adirondack spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides, and conforms to standard style-28 specs. Our demo guitar’s specs are upgraded with binding on the fingerboard and peghead, both executed in white ivoroid to match the binding on the body. The woods used on the guitar are of very high quality: the Adirondack spruce top displays narrower grain than is commonly seen on Adirondack, and the Indian rosewood has the rich, reddish hue typically found on top-grade examples. Our demo guitar has generous neck dimensions that combine Thompson’s standard “soft-V” profile with a 1¾-inch nut and wide 2 ⁵/₁₆-inch string spacing at the saddle. 

Following tradition in its design and construction, the D-EIA also offers the tonal qualities you would expect from a great dreadnought. Played with a flatpick, it produced great punch and volume, but with more balance than many rosewood dreadnoughts. Played in a duet with fiddle, the guitar offered a rich, smooth chordal voice when providing backup and an extroverted character when soloing. But it’s not just a flatpicking machine; when I played the guitar fingerstyle, it produced great volume and complex tones, and the wider neck and string spacing felt great for playing without a pick. 

Overall, the Thompson D-EIA is everything that a great style-28 guitar should be. It has a big, rich sound, enough versatility to work for pretty much anything that calls for a steel-string flattop, and its vintage-style looks will please traditionalists as well as anyone who wants a no-frills, high-quality guitar. 

SPECS: 14-fret dreadnought body. Adirondack spruce top with scalloped, advanced-X Adirondack bracing. Indian rosewood back and sides. Mahogany neck. Ebony fingerboard and bridge. 25.4-inch scale. 1¾-inch nut width. 2⁵/₁₆-inch string spacing at the saddle. Nickel Waverly tuning machines. Made in the USA. $6,600 ($6,200 base price). pktguitars.com

 

Related Fine Lutherie Posts
 

Preston Thompson D-EIA

A great rosewood dreadnought with a few custom touches.

Read More

 

Preston Thompson D-GA

An understated dreadnought built with granadillo and Adirondack spruce.

Read More

 

Preston Thompson 0000-SBA

A custom guitar built with “shipwreck” Brazilian rosewood.

Read More

 

Maegen Wells A-Style Mandolin and 15-Inch Archtop Guitar

Luthier Maegen Wells discusses two of her instruments in the Peghead Nation video studio.

Read More

 

Huss and Dalton Custom FS

An elegant fingerstyle machine built with an Italian spruce top and sapele back and sides.

Read More

 

Bruce Sexauer FT-00-WRX SBAIC

A walnut and spruce flattop built to be given away at the 2017 Santa Barbara Acoustic Instrument Celebration.

Read More

 

1982 Lloyd Baggs Classical

Read More

 

Iseman Weissenborn

Mike Witcher demonstrates a custom Weissenborn-style guitar.

Read More

 

Froggy Bottom Model K

The custom Froggy Bottom Model K acoustic guitar is a beautiful cutaway small-jumbo built with Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce.

Read More

 

Harvey Leach Custom

Built for fingerstyle blues guitarist Dale Miller, this redwood and walnut guitar features a Voyage-Air folding neck and San Francisco Giants–themed inlay.

Read More

 
Sponsored By
 
 
 
Peghead Partners
 
Shubb Violet Sky C1vs 50th Anniversary Edition
A beautifully etched capo with a lush finish and iridescent hardware, celebrating 50 years of creating the worlds” finest capos.
 
 
 
 
 
  Follow Us:  
 
  About Us       Shop         Support         Contact Us         Email Sign up         Advertise         Sitemap         FAQ         Privacy         Terms         Subscribe   Sign In  
 
    ● Courses
    ● Live Workshops
    ● Instructors
    ● Sample Lessons
    ● Notation Guide
    ● For Beginners
 
    ● Workshops
    ● Advice
    ● Repertoire
 
    ● Vintage Vault
    ● New Gear
    ● Fine Lutherie
 
    ● Recordings
    ● Events
    ● Breaking News
 
    ● In The Studio
    ● Live Onstage
    ● Backroom
 
    ● New Products
    ● Inside Look
    ● Performances
    ● Partner Pages
 
 
© Copyright 2020 PegheadNation.com
 
 
    ● Courses
    ● Live Workshops
    ● Instructors
    ● Sample Lessons
    ● Notation Guide
    ● For Beginners
 
 
    ● Vintage Vault
    ● New Gear
    ● Fine Lutherie
 
 
    ● Workshops
    ● Advice
    ● Repertoire
 
 
    ● Recordings
    ● Events
    ● Breaking News
 
 
    ● In The Studio
    ● Live Onstage
    ● Backroom
 
 
    ● New Products
    ● Inside Look
    ● Performances
    ● Partner Pages
 
 
© Copyright 2020 PegheadNation.com